Tuskegee Airman Quentin Smith gazed at his newly issued Congressional Gold Medal with pride Friday, both for himself and his community, when the high honor was presented to him for a second time.
The Gary resident received the medal during a ceremony at Gary City Hall that was held especially to honor him with a replacement medal because the original was stolen from his home last August.
“I feel resolved and completed,” said Smith, 93. “And I feel great because it is a community thing and not just for me and the medal.”
Smith, a fixture in the area after a 50-year-career as an educator in the Gary Community School Corp., belonged to the Tuskegee Airmen, a unit of African-American fighter pilots who flew during World War II. He served from 1942 to 1946.
He told attendees at Friday’s ceremony what it was like to be part of the legendary unit and how members were discriminated against while trying to serve their country.
“Black man can’t lead, black men can’t fight, black man most certainly cannot fly a complicated plane. This was the motto, this was the tone, this was in writing when WWII broke out,” Smith said.
The prestigious medal was presented to Smith and other surviving Tuskegee Airmen in 2007. U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Ind., presented Smith with his first medal then, and his office helped secure a replacement after learning it had been stolen.
Attention has swirled around Smith for the past two weeks since he first told police it was missing. Even though the medal was stolen in August, Smith said he was hesitant to tell anyone at the time.
“I was half ashamed that it was lost in the first place,” he said.
Smith normally kept the medal in a safe deposit box, but last summer he had it at his home after removing it so it could be photographed. It was about one week after the burglary when his home was ransacked before he realized it was missing.
“We are here today to make that right, and we are excited and honored and humbled to have that opportunity,” said Gary Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson.
Smith was also presented with a key to the city of Gary from the mayor and with a perpetually rotating globe by Superintendent Myrtle Campbell of the Gary Community School Corp.
“He is a living history for all of us,” she said.
Gary Police Sgt. Fred Cook said the burglary is still under investigation but that he does have a suspect. Cook was one of many of Smith’s former students who used Friday’s event as an opportunity to express their love and respect for the local legend. Smith was born in Texas but moved to Gary in 1940.
Indiana state Sen. Earline Rogers said Smith’s work as her high school English teacher inspired her to go into teaching herself.
“I’m forever grateful to him for what he’s done for the city,” she said. “And I’m just glad we were able to get his medal returned to him.”
