Stolen Tuskegee Airman Bust by Don Winton, Recovered

RANCHO CUCAMONGA >> Col. Ralph Smith, 82, was surprised when San Bernardino County sheriff’s Deputy Daniel Lopez called him Saturday at his Moreno Valley home.

“‘We’re not calling you about a ticket,’” the retired U.S. Air Force colonel recalled the deputy saying.

Rather, he was calling about an April 7 bust in Fontana during which Smith’s name came up, on a literal bronze bust.

Cast in 2003, the bust was the creation of famed sculptor Don Winton, commemorating Smith’s membership in the nonprofit Tuskegee Airmen Inc.

“I just flipped out,” Smith said. “I couldn’t believe it.” He paused the conversation with Lopez to drink a glass of orange juice and absorb the news.

The bust, along with one made of Smith’s late wife Melva Nichelson Brown-Smith, went missing about a dozen years ago. Smith said he thinks they were sold in an estate sale resulting from a living trust created by his wife.

It was an unlikely chain of events that led to the bust’s discovery, starting shortly after 8:30 a.m. April 7.

Lopez had pulled over Brian Sawyer, 24, of Fontana for a minor traffic violation in Rancho Cucamonga. Sawyer, who is on felony probation and is subject to search, was reportedly driving without a valid driver’s license, so Lopez opted to search the car, according to a sheriff’s news release. That’s when officials say the deputy found drugs as well as a loaded handgun and ammunition.

That prompted a probation search on Sawyer’s Fontana home, during which another firearm and more ammunition were found — and the highly unexpected bronze bust.

Deputy Gerad Laing found Smith’s elegant likeness in Sawyer’s bedroom amid tagging on the walls, stale food strewn about and drug paraphernalia.

“That doesn’t belong here,” he recalled saying to himself.

Noting that the bust was engraved with Smith’s name and “Tuskegee Airman,” Laing Googled the information on his smartphone from the scene and Lopez looked into it more at the office. That’s how they tracked down Smith, retired U.S. Air Force, at his home in Moreno Valley.

On Sunday, Lopez and his colleagues from the Victoria Gardens Retail Theft Team met with Smith and returned the priceless bust.

“The emotional reunification with Col. Smith and his piece of American history was worth every second I spent on this investigation,” Lopez said in a prepared statement.

Tuskegee Airmen Inc. is a foundation created for “honoring the accomplishments and perpetuating the history of African-Americans who participated in aircrew, ground crew and operations support training in the Army Air Corps during WWII,” according to its website. Smith said he has served in various capacities for local chapters, including as vice president and president.

Smith also is responsible for a Tuskegee Airmen special collection at UC Riverside.

Smith’s local chapter met at the March Air Force Base museum. That’s where one day he met sculptor Winton, who sold Smith on the idea of creating the bust as “an image to be left after you’re gone, just like the generals over in that corner,” Smith recalled him saying and pointing.

Smith went to Winton’s studio, where the sculptor slathered his face in Vaseline, covered it with a cloth and then poured plaster over it. From that, he formed Smith’s likeness in bronze.

Winton made his late wife’s bust based on photographs; Smith said she was a noted nurse and hospital administrator.

The museum displayed both busts for a time after they were completed in early 2004, but Smith said about a year later, during a change in management, he brought them home.

When police reunited Smith with his likeness, “I could not believe it when I saw it” in the Rancho Cucamonga police station, he said. He brought it home and put it right in the middle of a cocktail table. He said he might offer it to the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site in Tuskegee, Alabama, or the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

“It depends what my daughter wants to do with it,” he said.

As for Sawyer, he was arrested and booked into the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga on suspicion of possession of a controlled substance while armed, felon in possession of a firearm and possession of stolen property. His bail was set at $50,000, which he posted Sunday.

Police ask anyone with information about this incident, or any other alleged crime Sawyer may be involved in, to call the department at 909-477-2800 or the anonymous WeTip Hotline at 1-800-782-7463. Tipsters also can leave information anonymously at www.wetip.com.

Meanwhile, police are still investigating how the bust ended up where it did.

“Who knows,” said Deputy Jacob Bailey. “So many hands could have been on that.”

As for Smith’s wife’s bust, that’s one mystery still waiting to be solved.