Jeffrey G. Smith

Lt. General (Retired) Jeffrey G. Smith died 21 March, 2021, at the Fairfax Retirement Home at Fort Belvoir, Virginia at the age of 99. He was preceded in death by the love of his life, Jane Holland Smith, and his grandson, John Mix Gardner Meyer. Lt. General Smith passed with dignity, in full possession of an active, incisive, disciplined, and inquisitive mind until his final hours, surrounded by his children. Mass and Funeral Services at the Arlington National Cemetery to be scheduled. He is survived by his six children: Meredith S. Exnicios (James), Jennifer H. Smith, retired Army Brig. Gen. Jeffrey G. Smith Jr. (Deborah), Tracy S. McDonald (Robert), Melissa S. Deutsch (Geoffrey), and Ashley A. Smith; 15 grandchildren: Andrew Exnicios (Lauren) , Nicholas Meyer, Brooke Meyer, Madeline Smith, Elisabeth Boettke (Stephen), Kate McDonald, Robert McDonald, Taylor Deutsch, Ariel Deutsch, Burke Deutsch, Greer Pollock, Griffin Pollock, Conrad Pollock, Tate Pollock, Kane Pollock; 2 great-grandchildren: Lila and Lucy Exnicios. Jeffrey Greenwood Smith was born on October 14, 1921, in Fort Sam Houston, TX, to Colonel Henry Joseph Moody Smith, USA, and Gladys Haile Smith. Smith was part of a long line of ancestors and descendants who collectively served in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, both World Wars, the Vietnam Conflict, and the Iraq and Afghanistan Campaigns. Smith graduated from Virginia Military Institute (VMI) in 1943. As a cadet, Smith received the Institute’s top academic honor, the Jackson-Hope Medal, in civil engineering. He commanded the Corps’ cavalry company, and received the Sons of the American Revolution Medal as the outstanding ROTC cadet, and the Colonel Harry N. Coyotes Trophy as the outstanding cavalry cadet. Like his father, Smith was a keen equestrian, and a member of the Institute’s Horse Show Team. In perhaps his most pleasurable duty, he served as the president of the Hop Committee in his first-class (senior) year. After graduation, Smith joined the 124th Cavalry Regiment in January 1944. At the time Smith joined, it was the only cavalry regiment to retain horses. The regiment soon moved to Fort Riley, Kansas, switched to the mechanized mounts, and deployed to the Far East, arriving in India in August 1944. As the unit fought against the Japanese in northern Burma, near the famous Burma Road, Smith served as a troop commander and a squadron operations officer. At the end of the war, the regiment was deactivated, and Smith joined an American team that observed the surrender of a Japanese army to Chinese forces in northern China. He then helped expedite the embarkation of Chinese forces from Hanoi and Haiphong in what was then French Indochina. Following the war, Smith earned a Master of Science degree in mechanical engineering from The Johns Hopkins University. He would later receive another Master of Science from George Washington University. Over the next eight years, Smith held numerous staff positions, including duty at Fort Benning, G., Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and the Army’s Arctic Test Center in Big Delta, Alaska. In 1957, took command of an armored infantry battalion at Fort Knox, Kentucky, before being assigned in 1959 as the Senior Member of the Joint Observer Teams of the United Nations Command Military Armistice Commission along the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea. In a photo shoot captured by Life Magazine in 1959, and widely reported in the news of the day, Smith is seen pointing a firm finger at the chest of his North Korean counterpart, Lt. Col Chol Sun Kim, who had tried — unsuccessfully — to wrest the binoculars through which Smith was confirming the illegal construction of communist fortifications inside the DMZ. In the summer of 1960, Smith was assigned to his alma mater, VMI, as the Commandant of Cadets and Professor of Military Science, where he began what would become a lifelong professional relationship. After his tour at VMI ended in 1963, he attended the National War College and then served on the staff of the Seventh Army in Germany. At the height of the Cold War, Smith assumed command of 2nd Brigade, 3rd Armored Division at Gelnhausen, Germany — an assignment he considered his most professionally satisfying. In 1968, Smith became the deputy commander, then commander of the 199th Light Infantry Brigade in Vietnam. In January 1969, Smith was wounded when he was hit by ground fire as his command-and-control helicopter flew at low altitude to cover the rescue of a downed helicopter pilot. He received the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Silver Star, and the Purple Heart for this action. After further service in Vietnam, Smith returned to Korea in November 1969 for duty with the Eighth Army. During a period of military-wide racial tensions, Smith commanded the 2nd Infantry Division with headquarters at Camp Casey, Korea from 1971-1973. He earned praise for his fair handling of those tensions, instilling esprit and professional discipline to the unit whose motto was, rightfully, “Second to None.” After promotion to Lieutenant General on August 28, 1975, Smith concluded his lengthy military career with four years as commander of First United States Army, headquartered at Fort George G. Meade, MD.. In that position, Smith oversaw the readiness of Army National Guard and Reserve units within boundaries that extended eastward from the Mississippi River, and included the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. One of his final actions on active duty was to serve as the Army commissioning officer for VMI’s Class of 1979, a group that included his son. After his retirement from the Army, Lt. General Smith joined Ethyl (now Newmarket) Corporation, whose CEO was his VMI classmate, Floyd “Bill” Gottwald Jr. ‘43. For the next seventeen years, he was the firm’s director of government affairs and, later, a corporate Vice President. Smith continued a close relationship with VMI, serving as informal adviser to numerous VMI Superintendents. In his capacity as class agent, he launched the last major project of his life: the Class of 1943’s 75th Reunion. The project’s highlight was when, after leading his nine Brother Rats (all over 90 yrs of age) into VMI’s historical courtyard, Smith climbed a rickety latter to the top of the Sentinel Box and led an “Old Yell” for his class. Smith’s American awards include the Army Distinguished Service Medal, the Silver Star, four awards of the Legion of Merit, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Bronze Star with “V” device and two oak leaf clusters, thirteen awards of the Air Medal, and two awards of the Purple Heart. He also received service and gallantry awards from the Republic of China, the Republic of Korea, and the Republic of Vietnam. Lt. General (Retired) Jeffrey G. Smith will be greatly missed by his family.