GENERAL W.Y.SMITH,USAF (RET)

The General is a former Chief of Staff at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe and Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. European Command. General Smith is a graduate of the United States Air Force. Trained as a fighter pilot, Smith would fly many of the Air Force’s first generation jet fighter aircraft.

When fight broke out on the Korean peninsula, General Smith’s fighter squadron was dispatched to the Korean Theater of Operations. Flying the Republic F-84C Thunder jet fighter-bomber, the General became a highly decorated and respected veteran of the Korean air war.

Following Korea, the General served on the faculty of the U.S. Military Academy and held a number of important field assignments in the United States and Europe. He served on the National Security Council staff at the White House under President Kennedy and served as Military Assistant to two Secretaries of the Air Force. He also served as the Assistant to three Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Following his retirement from active Air Force duty, with the rank of full General, Smith was selected as a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars at the Smithsonian Institution and subsequently served as the President of the Institute for Defense Analyses. Currently, General Smith is the president of the United States Air Force Historical Foundation, President Emeritus of the Institute for Defense Analyses and a member of the Board of the National Security Archive.  

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