A Special Veterans Day 2025 Tribute to Wawona Frozen Foods Founder Earl Smittcamp, USMC Officer, WWII Veteran
Excerpted from the book on the life of “From Peaches to Politics to Philanthropy: The Smittcamp Legacy” by John D. Hix
Although he is reluctant to talk much about this period of his life, Earl enlisted in the United States Marine Corps and was inducted on April 10, 1942, in Los Angeles. Because he was both a married man and a father, his wife Muriel had to sign a release before he was accepted into the Corps.
The bare minimum facts of his service record are these: After induction, Earl was sent to Quantico, Virginia for basic training (bootcamp) and then for Officer’s Training School. Upon completion, he was commissioned as an officer with the rank of Second Lieutenant. He and Muriel then went to New River, North Carolina, where he attended artillery school for 13 weeks. Earl received ten days leave and then reported for duty, fully expecting to spend the next eight to ten months playing around in San Diego.
Instead, he spent 48 hours in San Diego and then was put in a replacement battalion and sent overseas as part of the First Marine Division, shipping out to the Far East on the S/S Lurline. Earl first saw action in the Pacific Theatre with invasions on New Britain at Cape Gloucester and Talasea. He was severely wounded by shrapnel in a subsequent invasion at Peleliu in the Palau Islands.
After convalescing in the hospital at Benika in the Russell Islands for eight weeks, as Earl tells it, “in true Marine fashion, instead of sending me home after being there for 19 months, they sent me back to my outfit, where I served until I had put in my 30 months of duty.” During this extended period, he participated in the invasion of Okinawa, which he describes as “easy at the start and tough at the end.” Earl was then finally released for a home visit. And although he was scheduled to report for further duty overseas, the war ended when victory was declared on August 14, 1945.
During his active military service, Earl was promoted to the rank of Captain. In addition to earning four stars for his participation in four separate invasion landings, he also received a Citation from the Secretary of the Navy and the Purple Heart. Earl was placed in the inactive reserve in San Diego on October 15, 1945, effectively ending his active service. However, during the Korean War in the1950s, he did receive notification from the Marine Corps to be prepared for active duty, if necessary.
All in all, Earl’s military service amounted to a total of three and one-half years. After completion of Earl’s seven-year obligation to serve in the inactive reserve, on September 10, 1951, the Navy issued an order awarding him the rank of Major in the U.S. Marine Corps. An interesting sidelight to this honor is that the Marine Captain showed up with the scroll to present to Earl while he was out on the ditch bank irrigating the crops. This had to be one of the more unusual military award ceremonies ever conducted.
Earl has said that “nothing I have done in my lifetime makes me more proud than my three and one-half years in the U.S. Marines.” He is especially proud of the fact that he served in the First Marine Division, one of the most decorated units in the war. However, despite the foregoing, Earl does not consider himself a hero. He finds nothing exceptional in doing one’s duty. He reserves the word “hero” for those who lost their limbs or otherwise suffered severe physical mutilation, and for those who gave the full measure of devotion with their lives.
In Earl’s simple, down-to-earth logic, defending one’s country and its people and the American way of life is a privilege, as well as a duty. In short, when the need is there, it’s just something you do.