Worst Airman Turns Medal-Winning Legend!

Maynard “Snuffy” Smith, a notorious slacker and troublemaker among B-17 gunners, stunned everyone on May 1, 1943, when his bomber was torn apart over Nazi-occupied France, and he single-handedly fought off German fighters, extinguished onboard fires, and saved six wounded crewmates in a blazing 90-minute ordeal. Initially scorned by his peers at Thurleigh airbase, Snuffy’s jaw-dropping bravery during his first combat mission transformed him into the first enlisted airman to earn the Medal of Honor in World War II, awarded by Secretary of War Henry Stimson. From a misfit scraping leftovers on KP duty to a celebrated hero, his wild story proves courage can emerge from the unlikeliest places.

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