95-Year-Old WWII Veteran Gets Surprise Visit From An 'Old Friend': A Sherman Tank
The last time Clarence Smoyer rode in a Sherman tank, he was a 21-year-old corporal in the U.S. Army.
That was in 1945. But in Boston this week, the now-95-year-old Pennsylvania native got a huge surprise: The author of a new book about Smoyer’s exploits as a tank gunner in World War II arranged to have a real Sherman tank carry him to a local book signing.
“An old friend,” Smoyer said before he climbed onto the tank with the help of a cane. “That tank saved my life. We went through many battles with a tank like that. It saved me.”
Adam Makos, an author of books about military history — including one about , a Navy pilot from Fall River, Massachusetts — tells Smoyer’s story in his new book “.” He had gotten a tip that Smoyer was
