Smith, who had worked at the State Department for 10 years, was in Libya on a temporary assignment when he was killed; Before his temporary assignment to Benghazi, Smith served for the State Department in Brussels, Baghdad, Pretoria, Montreal and The Hague. He participated in two tours of the 2003 Gulf War, “Iraqi Freedom.” In the first, his team began by securing the Kuwait oil fields before the invasion officially began to prevent the environmentally disastrous recurrence of them being burned, as had happened under Saddam Hussein’s orders during Desert Storm in 1991. Additionally, he led 16 SEALs and 8 Iraqi Scouts on a 50-hour, 800-mile mounted patrol that threaded through enemy territory and culminated in the assault on four targets and the capture of a high value Al-Qaeda facilitator.
Author: Mary Chastain
Published at: 2025-05-26 20:50:31
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