Sergeant First Class Smith was a member of Company A, 1st Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. He was listed as Missing in Action while fighting the enemy in South Korea on February 12, 1951. SGT1 Smith was presumed dead on February 18, 1954. His remains have been recovered and accounted for. His name is permanently inscribed on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.