W. Thomas Smith, Jr.

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W. Thomas Smith Jr. on the FOX NEWS Channel
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W. Thomas Smith Jr. on the FOX NEWS Channel

W. Thomas Smith, Jr. (born April 30, 1959) is an American author, editor, and journalist. He has written several books and his articles appear in many of the world's leading newspapers and magazines. Smith is executive editor of World Defense Review, a columnist with Townhall.com, and a frequent contributor to National Review Online.

Contents

[edit] Education and Military Service

Smith graduated from the University of South Carolina (USC) in 1982 with a BA degree in history. He then served in the U.S. Marine Corps as an infantry leader, parachutist, and shipboard special weapons security and counterterrorism instructor. Following his hitch in the Corps in 1987, he served on a para-military SWAT team in the nuclear industry. Soon thereafter, he began his career as a journalist.

W. Thomas Smith Jr., U.S. Marines, 1983 (photograph courtesy of Alpha Books, N.Y.)
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W. Thomas Smith Jr., U.S. Marines, 1983 (photograph courtesy of Alpha Books, N.Y.)

[edit] Career

Smith has written for numerous publications, including USA Today, U.S. News & World Report, BusinessWeek, The New York Post, and the UK's The Guardian. In 1998, he co-authored a George magazine feature with John F. Kennedy Jr. (Smith interviewed Gen. William C. Westmoreland in Charleston, S.C. - Kennedy interviewed Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap in Vietnam). The interviews were published together as a single piece on the Vietnam War in the November 1998 issue of George.

As a war correspondent, Smith reported from battlefields in both the Balkans in 1995 and in the Middle East in 1997, and he covered the immediate aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks from ground zero in New York. Also during the 1990's, he worked as a business magazine editor, a contract media relations director, a publicist for NBA basketball player Vince Carter and other professional athletes, and was the sole columnist for head football coach Lou Holtz's official website during Holtz's inaugural season at USC.

Smith's first book, Encyclopedia of the Central Intelligence Agency, was published in 2003. He has since written three other books, all military titles (see bibliography).

Smith has been a guest commentator on the FOX NEWS Channel and E! Entertainment's True Hollywood Story. He has also been interviewed by numerous national publications (including Woman's Day, Writer's Digest, The Writer, and others); NBC, CBS, and ABC television affiliates; and he is a frequent guest on nationally syndicated radio programs, National Public Radio (NPR), and international radio, including the BBC. USA TODAY calls him a "military expert," and his articles have been included numerous times in radio-host Rush Limbaugh's daily "stack of stuff."

Smith is a contributing writer for A Nation Changed, a book commemorating the first anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks (published by U.S. News & World Report). He is the technical editor and foreword writer for the second edition of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Iraq by Joseph Tragert, and he is the technical editor and "special afterword" writer for Contract Warriors by Fred Rosen.

Smith teaches "breaking into national print" at the Buckley School of Written Expression. He has served as adjunct professor at USC's College of Journalism and Mass Communications (where he has taught "magazine writing," "national print writing," and "public opinion and propaganda."), and he has lectured groups and conferences from Fortune 500 companies to the U.S. Armed Forces.

A former correspondent for 'Agencia EFE' (the world's largest Spanish-language news wire), Smith currently writes a column, 'Beyond the DropZone', for - and is executive editor of - 'World Defense Review'. He is a columnist for 'townhall.com', a contributing editor for NavySEALs.com, and a frequent contributor to 'National Review Online' (NRO). Some of his stories have been picked up by the 'Scripps Howard News' wire. At least one of his pieces was re-published by the U.S. House Armed Services Committee. Others have been re-published by the U.S. Department of Defense.

Smith's work has directly impacted U.S. defense policy, and he has been described as a military or defense "expert" by numerous publications including USA Today. In one instance, a series of articles he had written about a new Marine Corps special operations team over a period of several months led to the official establishment of the unit after one of his articles in NRO concluded, "The only thing keeping the Marine SOCOM Detachment from being formally stood up is the signature of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld." Rumsfeld then called a meeting of the involved commanders, and less than 48 hours after publication of the article, the unit was signed into existence.

Smith writes for Family Security Matters and is the director of their Counterterrorism Research Center.

A member of the American Society of Journalists & Authors and the National Press Club, Smith serves on the advisory board of the Southern Literature Council of Charleston.

[edit] Books

BY W. THOMAS SMITH, JR.

  • Encyclopedia of the Central Intelligence Agency - NY, Facts On File, 2003 - ISBN 0-8160-4667-0
  • Alpha Bravo Delta Guide to Decisive 20th-Century American Battles (foreword by Brigadier General David L. Grange) - NY, Alpha-Penguin, 2003 - ISBN 1-59257-147-6
  • Alpha Bravo Delta Guide to American Airborne Forces (foreword by Colonel Jeffery Bearor) - NY, Alpha-Penguin, 2004 - ISBN 1-59257-166-2
  • Alpha Bravo Delta Guide to the Korean Conflict (foreword by Dr. C. Kenneth Quinones) - NY, Alpha-Penguin, 2004 - ISBN 1-59257-213-8
  • The Complete Idiot's Guide to Pirates (co-authored with Gail Selinger) - NY, Alpha-Penguin, 2006

[edit] Magazines and Newspapers

Smith has contributed to the following magazines, newspapers, and wire services:

  • George
  • USA TODAY
  • USA TODAY International
  • BusinessWeek
  • The New York Post
  • National Review Online
  • U.S. News & World Report
  • The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
  • The Richmond Times-Dispatch
  • The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
  • The Knoxville News-Sentinel
  • The Florida Times-Union
  • The Charlotte Observer
  • The Washington Times
  • The Orlando Sentinel
  • Marine Corps Times
  • The Guardian (UK)
  • Townhall.com
  • The State
  • NBA.com
  • MilitaryWeek
  • NavySEALs.com
  • Agencia EFE (Spanish-language)
  • Scripps-Howard News Service
  • others

[edit] Facts

  • Smith testified against the Ku Klux Klan in a national civil rights trial in 1997, after infilitrating and writing an expose about the KKK in 1996. Smith was approached about testifying by civil rights attorney Morris Dees.
  • Smith lived with the homeless in order to write about their lives.
  • Smith spent time in a Bosnian refugee camp in 1995.
  • Smith, in 1997, lived in a PLO camp in Judea on the West Bank. He also patrolled the streets of Hebron with Israeli paratroopers.
  • Smith has taught media and writing at both the University of South Carolina's School of Journalism (Charles Bierbauer, former CNN senior Washington correspondent, is the dean) and the Buckley School (founded by founder Fergus Reid Buckley, brother of William F. Buckley, Jr.)
  • Smith's agent is James C. Vines.
  • Smith is a direct descendant of Robert I (also known as Robert the Bruce), king of Scotland.
  • Smith's cousin, Rear Admiral Norman M. Smith, was a key figure in the founding of the U.S. Navy's SeaBees (for CB's - construction battalions) during the 1930's. Admiral Smith later served as president of the University of South Carolina.
  • Smith's Italian-American (maternal) grandmother, Alba Germino, was the first pianist in history to play piano live on coast-to-coast radio (1940's).
  • Smith, on a hunting trip in 1988, reportedly killed a wild boar with a knife.

[edit] Quotations

  • "Despite its detractors, the Marines have become a wholly American institution — like baseball players, cowboys, and astronauts — in the eyes of most Americans." ---- National Review, 2004
  • "...every U.S. soldier, sailor, airman, Marine, and coast guardsman stationed throughout the world in the 21st century is a spiritual descendant of that motley band of irregulars who formed ranks in the darkness on Lexington Green,..." ---- MilitaryWeek, 2005
  • "Pat Conroy once said that no Southern man is complete without a tenure under military rule. I'm quite certain I wouldn't be." ---- in a 2004 interview for Free Times (Columbia, S.C.)
  • "...in most cases, if we're being honest with ourselves, writer's block is simply unconscious procrastination or worse, sheer laziness. The fix? Stop whining, start working, and forget about the muse and her little word fairies. They're usually throwing inspiration parties over at Rick Bragg’s or Peggy Noonan’s." ---- University of South Carolina School of Journalism i-site, 2004
  • "In the tradition of the 'Iron Duke,' I would add that the 21st-century battles for Kandahar and Fallujah were won on wrestling mats and football fields in small towns all over America." ---- Townhall.com, 2006

[edit] External links and references

External links

References

  • Allen, Moira, Are you ready to take the plunge (Waukesha, WI, The Writer, May 2002)
  • Anderson, Dickie, Non-Fiction (Jacksonville, Florida, The Florida Times-Union, September 7, 2003)
  • Crumbo, Chuck, New Commander Steps into Spotlight (Columbia, S.C., The State, September 26, 2005)
  • Dark, Sandra, Ditch the Dilettante Approach (Palm Coast, Florida, Writer's Digest, March 2006)
  • Gale Group Biography Resource Center (Who's Who in America ®, 57th edition, Who's Who in America ®, 56th edition)
  • Guetersloh, Herman, Local Writer Wins Book Deal, (Columbia, S.C., Free Times, November 8-14, 2000)
  • Harper, Timothy, ASJA Guide to Freelance Writing (NY, St Martins, 2003) ISBN 0-312-31852-9
  • Huiett, John, USC Graduate becoming national name in freelance journalism, (Columbia, S.C. The Gamecock, August 18, 2000)
  • Hyde, Kevin, Local Freelance Writer Gets First Book Deal (Columbia, S.C., Greater Columbia Business Monthly, February 2001)
  • Kelly, Jack, A Great Day in Iraq, (Pittsburgh, PA, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, December 18, 2005)
  • Kiss, Jemima, Military Expert On Call (Brighton, East Sussex, England, UK, dotJournalism, September 9, 2004)
  • Mandell, Judy, Saying no can be a positive (Washington, D.C., USA Today, April 23, 2006)
  • McDonald, Bill, Recognizing Good Works (Columbia, S.C., The State, Nov. 22, 1998)
  • MacLeod, Robert, Carter's value continues to soar, (Toronto, Canada, The Globe and Mail, May 7, 1999)
  • Moniz, Dave, Talk About Town (Columbia, S.C., The State, November 13, 1996)
  • Nash, Jessica, Assignment: Bosnia, (Columbia, S.C. The Gamecock, February 6, 1996)
  • Pasquet-James, Barbara, On the Rue, (Paris, FR, BonjourPARIS, November 18, 2003)
  • Peterson, Larry, Sky Soldiers (Savannah, GA, The Savannah Morning News, April 18, 2004)
  • Sabalos, Sarah, 5 Questions with W. Thomas Smith Jr. (Columbia, S.C. The State, July 25, 2003)
  • Sena, Kathy, 6 Everyday Ways to Say "I Love You" (New York, Woman's Day, February 14, 2006)
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