Smoky's LIFE; (and Smoky is mentioned in "AIRMAN" the life of Richard F.B. Gimmi); (Placed 18 Jan.2017) Read below;

SMOKY said "Even an expert on the subject of life and aging would have a hard time pinning down Ernie Lacroix’s secret recipe on longevity.

At 98 years old, Lacroix will be the oldest participant in any of The Cowtown’s races on Saturday and Sunday. Lacroix, his two daughters — Karen Coby and Lee Rottler — his son Steve, and a niece from Rhode Island will take part in the 5K on Saturday. They will walk.

Of the few 98-year-olds one might come across, Lacroix would almost certainly be the youngest among them.

His genetics would appear to be good. Even though is parents lived only into their 70s, his sister lived to be 100, plus four months or so.

He’s active, walking anywhere from three to five miles a day, five days a week. His son, Steve, elaborated, saying his dad was “never still. Always going and doing something.” In fact, Lacroix still likes to dance, now at his retirement home where he lives self-sufficiently.

Lacroix was never a smoker or drinker, a self-described “complete teetotaler. I never could imagine drinking anything that smells like that,” he joked.

He is healthy in spirit and faith. Not including Sunday, he attends Mass three times a week at Holy Family in Fort Worth, driving himself to and fro. He keeps his mind sharp through creative endeavors, such as a photography hobby.

All are significant factors, to be sure, but his most important asset might be the smile that is always present, if not outwardly, then in his eyes. His eyes are always smiling. Not far from the surface is the ever-present spirit of a 25-year-old WWII pilot, nicknamed “Smoky,” who had the time of his life behind the controls of his B-25 Mitchell Model J, doing his part to ensure Allied victory in Europe.

Loving life

Lacroix still lives with the same sense of adventure. He is still having a blast. He still loves living.

“That was another world. That’s it for me. I loved flying,” said Lacroix, who retells stories with no hint of boastfulness, but rather a bit of regret that you weren’t with him.

“I didn’t care if they were shooting at me or not. As long as I had that airplane in my hands. I used to do a little extra stuff, for which I garnered a reputation.”

A reputation as a mischievous thrill seeker, which got him in trouble on more than one occasion.

That’s not to say he didn’t get his job done.

First Lt. Ernest G. Lacroix of the U.S. Army Air Corps 310th Bombardment Group earned the Distinguished Flying Cross for a mission carried out on May 13, 1944, despite damage to his aircraft from anti-aircraft fire, and he then left formation to guide seriously damaged bombers to safety. His flight log shows that from Feb. 12, 1944, until Aug. 31, 1944, Lacroix, from a base in Corsica, logged 76 missions over Italy and southern France, the most ever at that time.

In all, he has six flying medals from service in WWII. More than 70 years later, he is line to receive another, the French Legion of Merit.

Lacroix’s exploits in the war were part of the book Airman: The Life of Richard F.B. Gimmi. Gimmi was Lacroix’s sometime co-pilot.

The author, Gimmi’s son, recalls Lacroix as the most “colorful” pilot his father encountered during the war. According to the book, Lacroix declined to put on a parachute, using it instead as a seat cushion, and declaring that all he needed to return safely was his St. Christopher medal.

That was literary license, Lacroix said.

“He gets carried away in there a little bit,” said Lacroix, born musically inclined and who was a member of a barbershop quartet while in the service and a choir director at churches here in Fort Worth afterward. “You bet your life I wore a parachute. And I don’t ever remember having a St. Christopher medal.”

Lacroix, who met his wife, Helen, when he was a test pilot for the B-32 at the Lockheed Martin plant in Fort Worth, said he did carry with him a scapular given to him by a relative in the Spanish-American War.

“All I can say is it worked fine because I didn’t pick up a scratch. We picked up a few holes in the airplane. Fortunately, they were not near the crew.”

A stuntman, too

Colorful, however, did and does describe Lacroix, who enjoyed giving his passengers and unsuspecting pedestrians on the ground “thrills.”

In a 57-page memoir he wrote for his family and donated to the 310th squadron, Lacroix describes a number of stunts.

I spied an Arab riding his burro down a country road and thought that it would be a real treat for the guy up front (and also the Arab) if I tried to skim over his head real close. Well, I was very close, close enough that I was afraid I might hit him with one of the props, so I was concentrating on him instead of the surroundings. … Right at the last second I looked up and there were trees! I pulled hard on the controls and started to climb but not fast enough. … Absolute miracle that we did not have a fatal crash.

The plane looked as if it had been hit by a shell. In the memoir, Lacroix remembered how a commander “tore into me” and grounded him.

“They had no sense of humor,” he joked this week.

Compared to the mileage he has logged, the 3.1 miles on Saturday seems almost insignificant.

But then again it’s not.

At 98, he no longer partakes in his favorite pastimes of hunting, fishing, skiing, shooting rifles and guns, or golf, which he quit playing when his wife of 69 years, Helen, became sick. Helen died in 2015 at 91.

Lacroix’s daughter, Karen, said her mother and father were always big walkers, something they passed down to their children. Ernie and Helen did a number of charitable and competitive walks, she said.

Saturday’s event will be Lacroix’s eighth at the Cowtown.

“I knew I wasn’t going to win anything but just the idea of getting in and doing something,” Lacroix said of eight years ago. “I’d been walking on my own. And I thought, ‘Hey, this would be a good deal. I’ll see how I match up with the rest of the world.’ Usually I end up winning because there is no one else in the 90-year-old age group.

“I like being out there with all the people, and I love being outdoors anyway.”

His children said don’t let him fool you about not caring how he finishes. He’s very aware about making sure he’s not the last to finish.

In fact, one year, son Steve said, Lacroix was irritated by all the kids passing him by.

The “kids,” Steve recalled, were in their 80s."

Presented by the Star Telegram; FEBRUARY 23, 2017 4:15 PM

http://www.star-telegram.com/sports/other-sports/article134584699.html

Information about Richard Gimmi's Book and the 'shennangans' of Smoky Lacroix was researched and presented to Smoky by Barbi Ennis Connolly, 57th Bomb Wing Historical Researcher Princessbarbi_B25@msn.com

Ernest G Lacroix