MANSFIELD, Ohio — It was his actions that made Jared Smith, a 2001 Crestview High School graduate, the most recent Richland County native to be inducted into the Ohio Military Hall of Fame for Valor.
He also is one the organization’s youngest inductees.
Smith was part of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 391st Military Police Battalion of Columbus, assigned to 16th Military Police (Airborne) Brigade.
“Our primary duty while we were activated was to clean up the prison abuse scandal, which is what we did,” he said. “We did extremely well in that mission.”
During that first tour in Iraq, while serving as a compound guard in Ganci Complex at the Baghdad Central Correctional Facility’s on April 6, 2004, Smith and his battalion came under enemy rocket and mortar attack, which caused many casualties and injuries.
While his fellow service men and women provided security for the compound, Smith administered first aid to the wounded – actions that saved the lives of the detainees and fellow soldiers and prevented the situation from escalating into a riot.
“I was at the control point just outside the back door,” Smith said. “Our control point was a tent, and outside the back of the tent a mortar landed not too far away from me and out of nowhere.
“It took us all by surprise and was the start of a barrage that landed more than 50 mortars, rockets, RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades), small-arms fire, machine-gun fire, and whatever they could find to throw at us.
“They were taking it to us pretty well.”
As mortars fell directly in the compound, death and injury ensued.
“My NCO (noncommissioned officer) looked out and saw that they were taking major casualties, so he was trying to figure out what his next steps were going to be and asked me to call in our position and (find out) what was going on, Smith said.
“So I communicated to higher headquarters what was going on, and from there, we just had to assess the situation as quick as possible and start managing casualties and save as many of the detainees as we could.”
One of the many people Smith provided care for died in his arms. He said he had to move on and do the best he could. He has no idea how many people he provided triage to that day.
“One of the NCOs said it was beyond 10, but he has no idea how many people that I had worked on,” Smith said. “I tried to gather as much information as I could a couple of years later when I decided I wanted to know more about what actions I took that I could not recall – how many people did I affect? How many people did I lose? Did I lose anybody because of my actions?”
He said he was “reamed out” for having thoughts of his actions leading to someone else’s demise. According to military authorities, Smith’s actions helped regain control of Ganci Complex and provided the grounds for his induction into the hall of fame for valor.
At the beginning of the attack, Smith said he was thinking to himself whether or not the situation was real.
“Is this really happening right now? Am I just dreaming this or is it really going on?”
He then remembered what his high school criminal justice instructor, Ronald Hoeft, instilled in him.
“You train, and you train, and you train, and you ingrain into yourself muscle memory, and that’s what the military teaches you as well,” Smith said. “At night, before you go to bed, you place scenarios in your head about how things happen. How could it go differently? If it all does go bad, what actions are you going to take? What do you need to do to make sure that at the end of the day that you and your battle buddies go home?
“That’s something that’s always stuck with me, and it’s something that I used. And shortly after I had landed – boots on ground in Iraq at Baghdad International Airport – we had a couple rounds in the distance go off, so we knew that it was very real and that we were in a combat zone.
“We knew that this wasn’t the moves or make-believe. This (expletive) is real, and anything can happen.”
While he is mainly recognized for his actions on April 6, 2004, Smith said the same situation played out again 14 days later on April 20.
“On the next rotation 14 days later, the four compounds that did get hit got nailed pretty hard, and then one more got hit again lightly,” he said. “So it’s kind of weird how it played out.”
As part of the 2010 class of inductees to the Ohio Military Hall of Fame for Valor, Smith was honored for exceptional achievement with valor in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and received the United States Army Commendation Medal with “V” (Valor) Device for his actions in April 2004.
APPRECIATION
Smith and fellow service members felt their country’s appreciation long before he earned an award.
He recalled an airport filled with gratitude after arriving at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in 2004. He was coming home on leave from his first tour in Iraq while serving active duty in the United States Army.
“There was a man kind of staring us down,” Smith said. “We were all in our desert combat uniforms, and we just had got off a plane from Kuwait.”
Smith said he could see the man’s hands shaking as he looked at the group who had just cleared customs.
After thinking to himself that perhaps the man had once worn the same uniform, Smith said the man’s hands slowly stopped trembling.
“He just starts clapping, slow and loud and strong,” Smith said. “And the slow clap and staring becomes admiration.”
Others in the large airport began to observe what was transpiring, Smith said, and the crowd began to stand and applaud as the soldiers moved forward.
“It just seemed like everyone is doing the same thing,” he said. “And as we get to where we start to disperse to our own gates, it seems like that whole area of the airport was standing still, watching us, clapping, and basically saying ‘thanks’ for everything that we had done to serve our country.”
“Though bald now, back then it made my hair stand on end,” he added jokingly.
The moment stuck with him not just because of its power but also because he said he knew it was something Vietnam veterans never received.
That is why he said he now makes sure every Veterans Day is about not only those who served with him but also those who served before him – peacetime and wartime veterans alike.
While in high school, Smith attended Pioneer Career and Technology Center, where he studied criminal justice and competed in SkillsUSA, placing first in the state and second in the nation for criminal justice.
That experience, he said, kickstarted his adult life.
Just before turning 18 years old, Smith became an Eagle Scout with Troop 214 out of Richland Rural Life Center, located off of Crall Road in Mansfield.
A year later, he joined the Army National Guard as a Military Police Officer, where he still serves as a Staff Sergeant.
During his military career, he’s had two tours to Iraq and one to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He said his contract is up in May and he is not re-enlisting.
“I’m kind of ready to move on at this point,” Smith said.
CONTINUING SERVICE
Smith is working at his dream job at the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services in Marietta, where he now lives, as a Disabled Veteran Outreach Specialist.
He moved from Mansfield to take the position in 2012.
“Our goal is to affect a life change to help those veterans overcome barriers and to continue to be successful or to become successful,” Smith said.
He said it is “amazing” to hold the position that he does.
“Before, I was working in juvenile corrections for the State of Ohio, once displaced from the Mohican closure. It was a struggle to wake up for work every day to a facility that wasn’t your own,” Smith said. “It was tough to find a reason to jump in the car and drive an hour to go to work.
“Now there are days when I am so excited to go to work I can’t sleep at night because I’m too excited – because I know what things we have in store for the veterans I am working with.”
He was also informed he will be taking over one of the five seats of the board that governs the Veterans Service Commission in Washington County, representing the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW).
“There’s a Veterans Service Commission in every single county, and over that commission there is a board of five commissioners who are appointed by a county judge,” Smith said. “It’s just one more way we get to give back and take care of veterans.”
Despite his decorations, Smith said he was only capable of doing the things he has done because of the many mentors in his life, including Hoeft; his NCOs above him, such as Sergeant First Class Jeffrey Morbitzer; and his honored Vietnam Veterans, such as his United States Marine Corp retired Grandfather First Lt. David H. Shepherd, and Chester “LT” Larson, who nominated Smith for his award.
“My life’s always been about the mentors and everybody else who have put everything they had into me and raised me to be who I am today,” Smith said.
Staff Sergeant Jared F. Smith is the son of Frank and Pam Reed, of Shelby. His parents are 3-Blue Star parents with two other sons who serve in the United States Armed Forces and also served abroad.
One is a Marine and the other an Airman.
“We do rib at each other from time to time being we are in different service branches,” Smith said. “But when your own family has its very own ‘Band of Brothers,’ that’s pretty cool.”
