U.S. honors family of vets at Fort Smith reunion with medals
Posted on Sunday, July 6, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/230538/
FORT SMITH — Howard Goines sat on a parachute in a cramped B-17 Flying Fortress as he made his way back home from World War II.
That plane ride was on July 4, 1945. Sixty-three years later, Goines was presented his medals for his service at a Daugherty family reunion Saturday in Fort Smith.
Goines was one of three World Ward II veterans to receive his service medals from U. S. Rep. John Boozman, R-Ark., Col. Steven Gray, Boozman’s military adviser, and George Westmoreland of Rogers, a civilian aide to the secretary of the Army.
All 11 men who received their medals belong to the Daugherty family.
Goines was in charge of 28 men loading bombers in the 8 th Air Force, 388 th Bomb Group, stationed in Knettishall, England. He was one of 22 soldiers crammed into a B-17 usually manned by half that many, but it meant getting home quicker, he said.
Everyone leaned back to sit on the parachute each wore, he said.
Goines was returning to his wife, Elise, and a daughter born three months before he left for the campaign in Europe.
Instead of sticking around a military base for a few weeks to get the medals owed him, Goines went home. He married into the Daugherty family, which has ties to Crawford County since patriarch George Washington Daugherty moved there from Kentucky.
Every three years the extended family reunites, and this year it took the opportunity to honor its veterans.
On Saturday, Goines explained his duties during the war, which included loading planes with weapons and fuel.
It was apparent where the bombers were going by how many 500-pound bombs and how much fuel they carried. A bomber loaded with 10 bombs and a heavy fuel load was going to Berlin, he said. Twelve bombs and not as much fuel meant the B-17 was going over the English Channel, he said.
Among the medals Goines received at the reunion was a Presidential Unit Citation, the equivalent of a Distinguished Service Cross, Air Force Cross or Navy Cross. The medal is second only to the Medal of Honor.
Carl Daugherty, 84, who served in World War II in the Navy in the Pacific and Atlantic on board the USS Charles Ausburne, also received a Presidential Unit Citation.
Daugherty’s first mission took him to a Mediterranean Sea full of German U-boats, Gray said.
Daugherty was grateful to receive his unit citation and other medals after so many years.
“I think I earned ’em,” he said.
Daugherty stood by his son, Carl Gayle Daugherty, a Vietnam War-era veteran, and his uncle, Lawrence Ewing Daugherty, who also served in World War II.
Lawrence Daugherty, who at 83 is a year younger than his nephew, served on the USS Pennsylvania for more than 33 months.
Gray said that at ceremonies like Saturday’s he’s observed that military service is often a family tradition. In the Daughertys’ case, the tradition is traced to the Revolutionary War.
Seeing the soldiers receive their medals was inspiring for those who didn’t serve, said Lee Altman, who married the granddaughter of the only Daugherty brother not to serve in the military.
“They fought so hard, and because of that, I was free to not serve in the military,” Altman said. “It should make us even more proud of our freedom.”