Air Force and Tinker legend passes

Published Feb. 12, 2016
By 72nd Air Base Wing Public Affairs

TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. -- An Air Force legend recognized for his accomplishments in the air and on the ground died Jan. 19.

According to multiple news reports, retired Gen. William Y. Smith passed at his home in Falls Church, Va. The former commander of the Oklahoma City Air Materiel Area (now the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Complex) was 90 years old.

General Smith served as vice commander and then commander of the materiel area from 1971 to 1973. During his tenure at Tinker, his command accepted the first A-7D for modification; implemented Project Bullet Shot, increasing logistics support for B-52s and KC-135s for Southeast Asia; assumed the program management responsibility for Peace Fortune II, upgrading the Republic of Korea Air Force's wide band telecommunication system; and received the assignment for the B-1 inter-continental strategic bomber, including work on the B-1's F101 engine.

A recipient of the Silver Star and Distinguished Flying Cross, the West Point graduate flew combat missions in Korea while assigned to the 27th Fighter Escort Group and 49th Fighter-Bomber Group at Itazuke Air Base, Japan. Flying from Taegu Air Base, South Korea, he was shot down and severely wounded by flak on his 97th mission.

General Smith ended his active duty career in 1983 as the deputy commander in chief Headquarters U.S. European Command, Stuttgart-Vaihingen, Germany. While there, he led efforts to deploy U.S. intermediate-range Pershing II missiles and ground-launched cruise missiles to counter the Soviet threat. He also saw U.S. forces in Europe grow to more than 350,000. The unified command plan was changed in 1983 to transfer responsibility for the Middle East from EUCOM to a new combatant command, U.S. Central Command, but EUCOM retained responsibility for the "confrontation states" of Israel, Lebanon and Syria. At the same time EUCOM was formally assigned responsibility of Africa, south of the Sahara.

In retirement from the Air Force, he became a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and later served for five years as president of the Institute for Defense Analyses, a federally funded research center.

The general also served as president of the Air Force Historical Foundation and a board member of the National Security Archive.

He authored a book about the Cuban Missile Crisis and also participated in a number of oral history projects on nuclear deterrence and arms control.

The general's complete military biography is available at www.af.mil in the military biography section.