John Quentin Smith joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1943, when he was 17 years old, and soon found himself engaged in World War II combat.
On June 6, 1944, D-Day, he was with the 1st Marine Division fighting in the Philippines.
Word of the attack at Normandy hadn’t reach him or his unit, other than some vague whispering of the U.S. about to enter the war in Europe.
“We didn’t know about it,” he said Wednesday during a phone interview from his residence in Kapaa. “We had no idea. No radios, nothing.”
Smith, who goes by JQ, is now 92 years old. He said the significance of D-Day, for him, was “the war was starting to come down on us.
“We tried our best to live up to what we had to do. We were just 17-, 18-year-old kids fighting the Japanese,” said Smith, who was wounded in the Philippines and received the Purple Heart. He would receive another Purple Heart when he was wounded in the Vietnam War.
He also served in the Korean War. His military career lasted 24 years. When he left the military, he was a 1st Sergeant with the 3rd Marine Division.
“I served in three wars,” he said proudly. “I tried to be the best Marine I could. I stayed all those years — there’s only two or three of us left.”
His older brother, Harris, convinced him to join the Marines. He said he learned a lot from his brother, also a Marine, who fought at Guadalcanal.
“He would come home and teach me things,” he said.
Smith, who is recovering from recent hip surgery, grew up in Florida. He’s called Kauai home for decades.
He looks back on his military career with pride.
“I wouldn’t have given it up for anything the world,” he said. “I’m still a Marine. I’ve been a Marine all my life.”
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Bill Buley, editor-in-chief, can be reached at 245-0457 or bbuley@thegardenisland.com.
