Tuskegee Airman, University of Iowa graduate, dies at 89

Luther H. Smith, a Tuskegee Airman who later worked as an aerospace engineer, has died in suburban Philadelphia. He was 89.

Smith's family says he died Wednesday morning at Bryn Mawr Hospital. He had been hospitalized frequently over the last two years but attended the inauguration of President Barack Obama in January.

Smith flew 133 combat missions with the Alabama-based 332nd Fighter Group of the Army Air Corps. He retired as an Air Force captain after flying 133 missions, during which he

destroyed two German enemy aircraft in aerial combat and 10 German aircraft on the ground.

Smith retired in 1947 and earned his engineering degree from the University of Iowa in 1950. He was an engineer for 37 years at General Electric.

Smith, of Villanova, Pa., was one of about 300 original Tuskegee Airmen awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in 2007.

-- Associated Press and Gazette files