[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 127 (Tuesday, September 22, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10731-S10732]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              TRIBUTE TO JAMES MAITLAND ``JIMMY'' STEWART

 Mr. SHELBY. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to an 
award-winning Alabama journalist and author

[[Page S10732]]

who has written the definitive history of the World War II military 
career of Hollywood-great Jimmy Stewart. Mr. Smith, who served with 
Stewart in WWII, wrote ``A Retrospective of the World War II Military 
Career of Hollywood's James M. (Jimmy) Stewart'' for the James M. 
Stewart Museum Foundation, located in Stewart's hometown--Indiana, PA. 
I believe excerpts from this article are a fitting tribute to both the 
life and legacy of a true American hero: Jimmy Stewart, as well as to 
one of Alabama's fine authors: Starr Smith. In compliance with the 
Congressional Record text-length rules, only excerpts of Mr. Smith's 
article could be placed in the Record; however, I encourage my 
colleagues and the American people to obtain a complete copy of this 
important article from either the James M. Stewart Museum or the 
September 1998 edition of The Retired Officers Magazine.
  In addition to his many accomplishments, Smith is a travel columnist 
for the Montgomery Advertiser and is a retired Air Force Reserve 
colonel. He lives in Montgomery, AL.
  Mr. President, the following are excerpts from ``A Retrospective of 
the World War II Military Career of Hollywood's James M. (Jimmy) 
Stewart'' by Starr Smith:

       When the melancholy news came of Jimmy Stewart's death I 
     was in Montreal, Canada. I thought it singular that I was out 
     of my own country at the time because my relationship with 
     this remarkable American had taken place on foreign soil--
     wartime England. Much has been said and written since 
     Stewart's death about his extraordinary life and career as a 
     film actor of the first rank, but little has been said about 
     Stewart's brilliant and brave record as an Army Air Force 
     combat pilot and commander in World War II.
       I served with Stewart on a windswept and cold bomber 
     station, called Old Buckingham, near the North Sea between 
     Cambridge and Norwich in England's East Anglia in 1943-1944. 
     Our outfit was the 453rd Bomb Group. The commander, Colonel 
     Ramsay Potts, was a battle-tested B-24 specialist who had 
     been on the historic and pivotal Ploesti mission and earned 
     the Distinguished Service Cross. Stewart, then a major, was 
     the group's operations officer and I was an intelligence 
     officer who handled much of the briefings for the air crews 
     prior to their mission over Nazi Germany. It was in this 
     capacity that I worked with Stewart, night after night, 
     preparing the details of the mission. I have never known a 
     more intelligent, knowledgeable, hardworking, conscientious 
     and dedicated officer.
       In my book, ``Only the Days Are Long: Reports of a 
     Journalist and World Traveler,'' I wrote of Stewart: ``At 
     night, working with me preparing the mission, Stewart was 
     crisp and business-like; reserved, but he knew his job and 
     was a keen student of daylight precision bombing. (The 
     Americans bombed in daylight, the RAF at night). It was 
     interesting to see Stewart at the bar of the Officer's Club 
     after a tough day and hear his discussion of the mission with 
     the returning pilots. But even then he was always slightly 
     aloof. He was never one of the boys. This is not to say 
     Stewart was unfriendly. Rather, he went about his work with a 
     cool professional detachment--a single purpose approach that 
     did not allow for personal involvement. This, I think, was 
     the reason for this success in the war. He was determined to 
     prove that he was more than an actor, more than a Hollywood 
     star. He was determined to prove that now he could measure up 
     as a man doing a really important job in the military 
     crucible and not just a celluloid hero.
       Almost a year before Pearl Harbor, Jimmy Stewart had a deep 
     feeling that his country would soon be at war. Stewart also 
     knew that if war came he wanted to be in uniform and overseas 
     on combat duty.
       At the beginning of the new year of 1941, Stewart was at 
     the top of his career as a movie actor and international 
     star. His 1939 picture, ``Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,'' has 
     made him a folk hero throughout America and he was destined 
     for an Academy Award for his role as the reporter in 
     ``Philadelphia Story'' later in the year. His life was 
     blissful, romantic, flawless, and ahead was the golden 
     promise of infinite stardom as one of the premier movie 
     players of all time.
       . . . but with England fighting Hitler since 1939, Edward 
     R. Murrow's bleak broadcasts from London, the Pacific war 
     against the Japanese going badly for the British . . . Jimmy 
     Stewart decided to join the fight. But, he faced two major 
     roadblocks: his boss and his country. Louis B. Mayer, the 
     forceful and dictatorial head of MGM used every persuasive 
     tactic at his command--choice roles, contract revisions, free 
     time to help with the war effort as a civilian. The other 
     matter was different.
       In September of 1940, the Selective Service Act became law, 
     and men between the ages of 21 and 36 were required to 
     register. Being 32, Stewart registered . . . when he was 
     called up for a physical in late 1940, he was turned down: 
     underweight. That could have ended the whole affair. . . . 
     perhaps thinking of his father's fierce patriotism and his 
     service in two wars, plus his own fervent love of country, 
     Stewart favored the volunteer route. He appealed the Army's 
     underweight decision, embarked on an eating binge, made the 
     weight requirements and reported for induction on March 22, 
     1941 at Fort McArthur, California.
       Stewart was among the very few officers in American 
     military history to rise from private to full colonel in 
     slightly over four years. Moreover, Stewart was actually on 
     combat duty all the time he was overseas, performing vital, 
     demanding and dangerous jobs: squadron operations officer, 
     squadron commander, group operations officer, wing operations 
     officer, and later at the end--Second Bomb Wing Commander. 
     And, all the while, he was flying combat missions as a B-24 
     pilot and command pilot.
       . . . Stewart spent all of his service in England assigned 
     to the 2nd Combat Wing. . . . in late August of 1945, he 
     returned to New York on the Queen Elizabeth. And on September 
     29th of that year, Stewart was discharged at Andrews Air 
     Force Base in Washington. He was immediately appointed a full 
     colonel in the Air Force Reserve. In his war years, Stewart 
     had flown 20 combat missions, among them the tough ones: 
     Brunswick, Bremen, Frankfort, Schweinfut, and I recall that 
     he was on Berlin twice--once leading the entire 1,000 plane 
     8th Air Force. His wartime decorations include: Distinguished 
     Flying Cross, with Oak Leaf Cluster; four Air Medals, and the 
     French Croix de Guerre with Palm. He was promoted to 
     Brigadier General in the Air Force Reserve in 1959 and 
     retired in 1968. After Stewart died in July of 1997, Air 
     Power History published a memoriam . . . (which) contained 
     this little-known fact: ``In 1966, during his annual two 
     weeks of active duty, Stewart requested a combat assignment 
     and participated in a bombing strike over Vietnam.''
       . . . With all the myriad honors of a celebrated and 
     eclectic career, including the highest in his profession--the 
     Academy Award--it is not too much to believe that Jimmy 
     Stewart reached the blue lawn of his life in those eventful 
     and dangerous years of World War II. A small town boy who 
     grew up with strong family values and a bed-rock foundation 
     in honesty and integrity, intertwined with a fervent 
     patriotism--Stewart served his country with dedication and 
     distinction, and, like F. Scott Fitzgerald, his fellow 
     Princetonian--he lived his life with an unbending 
     determination, subtle style and a certain mystique.

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