850th/857th/858th BSs
Willard H. Smith Crew

As the 850th BS formed up at Mountain Home, Idaho in the spring of 1944 it had no officers with enough seniority to be designated Operations Officer. Much to the chagrin of the C.O., Willard Smith was brought in as a qualified Operations Officer for the Squadron. As such Smith had no regular crew until Dickerson took him off the job in August of 1944, replacing him with his favorite, Darby. Smith then had few missions in as Operations Officer and at that time had to fly a full tour, just as Ops were in decline at Harrington. He flew with Darby's crew until they finished their tours, then after most of the 850th had finished their tours was in hiatus until new replacements came in. He picked up Stanton as Copilot, who had come in on orders alone in August of 1944, then Rodriguez, who came in on orders in the middle of October 1944, also alone. The remainder of the crew was made up of Hasty, from Carscaddon's first crew, and Callahan, Leichty, Chandler and Sadler from the ill-fated Huenekens crew. Before long, Smith and his new crew were transferred into the 858th BS, in November of 1944. Smith piloted two of the 35 C-47 missions in August and September of 1944, and dropped Andrès Gerard and others on the night of 8/9 September 1944.

Below transcribed from Special Orders #205,dtd 10Nov44.

Os:
Willard H.   Smith        - Pilot        ASN 0417731
Jack H.      Stanton      - Copilot      ASN 0822840
Robert       Callahan     - Navigator    ASN 0703088
Rafael       Rodriguez    - Bombardier   ASN T-125582

EMs:
Franklin J.  Hasty        - Engineer     ASN 17070628
Lorain D.    Leichty      - R.O.         ASN 35546183
Douglas R.   Chandler     - Engineer     ASN 18168211
Randall G.   Sadler       - Gunner       ASN 18116863

Agents Inserted:
MR 1799  DZ Bob 57    (4) Sussex Teams OR & MONTRE
MR 2018  DZ Bob 285A  (4) French Aspirants, including Andrés Gérard