Advertisement

DEATHS

 
Published May 23, 1993|Updated Oct. 9, 2005

LT. GEN. JOSEPH SMITH, 91, a major figure in the Berlin Airlift, died Wednesday at the Andrews Air Force Base hospital in Maryland. He lived at a military retirement community in Fort Belvoir, Va. The cause of death was respiratory heart failure, his family said. As an air-transport commander and planner, Mr. Smith also had important roles in the Korean War, the 1956 Suez crisis and the airlift of 14,000 Hungarian refugees from the uprising in Budapest that year.

ALFRED J. WHITTLE JR., 69, a retired four-star admiral who was a longtime commander of Navy submarines and went on to develop submarine technology as a civilian, died Tuesday at his home in Arlington, Va. His son Alfred J. Whittle III, a retired Navy commander, said the cause was cancer. Adm. Whittle began his 36-year career aboard the destroyer Harry E. Hubbard. In 1970, Whittle assumed command of Submarine Squadron Six and from 1972 to 1974 he commanded Submarine Flotilla Six. He was chief of staff to the Supreme Allied Commander of the Atlantic from 1976 to 1978. Elevated to four-star rank, he served as chief of Naval Materiel until he retired in 1981.

Local obituaries and the Suncoast Deaths list appear in regional sections.