Under fire from a low-flying fighter plane
Jaroslav Smetana was born on November 13, 1939 to Václav and Maria, the elder of two siblings. At the very end of the Second World War, he and his mother and brother Vladimir experienced firsthand the raid of an American fighter plane on the Horažďovice railway station. After a few days, Horažďovice was liberated by the American army. After completing his basic education, he entered an apprenticeship as a car mechanic in Klatovy in 1954. In June 1955 he participated in the first national spartakiad in Prague in Strahov. After his schooling, he worked as a mechanic in ČSAD Horažďovice. In January 1959 he was called to duty with the border guard in Železná near Bělá nad Radbuzou. On March 8, 1960, he was injured in a nighttime emergency. He returned from the army on 30 December 1960 and subsequently continued his work as a mechanic at ČSAD. In 1963 Jaroslav married Maria, with whom he raised two daughters and a son. He experienced the occupation of Czechoslovakia on August 21, 1968 in Horažďovice. He participated in the planting of a commemorative lime tree on the 50th anniversary of the founding of Czechoslovakia. From 1971 he worked at Sport in Horažďovice. He viewed the changes after 1989 and the new arrangement rather negatively. In 2020 he lived in his house in Horažďovice.
