Smith named IRONMAN

Military analyst-writer earns high praise and award from adventure group

By Alex Junes-Ward

Military expert W. Thomas Smith Jr. was honored for his life’s work and leadership by Global Eco Adventures (GEA), a non-profit adventure-education organization which outfits and leads exploratory expeditions to some of the most isolated regions around the world.

The honor, proclaiming Smith a GEA IRONMAN, was presented by Michelle McCollum, president of the South Carolina National Heritage Corridor, on behalf of GEA during ceremonies in Camden, Thurs., May 27.

Bruce Brutschy, a well-known Columbia-area fitness instructor and director of the S.C. Black Belt Hall of Fame, says Smith’s award is well-deserved. “This award is not at all surprising considering Tom’s experience both in and out of uniform, his heart, his humility, and his strength of character,” said Brutschy.

The IRONMAN award is one of several within the GEA awards program which includes the GEA Lifetime Achievement award (GEA’s highest award), Environmental Educator of the Year, Legislator of the Year, Environmental Champion and others. Previous recipients of GEA awards have included Gov. Henry McMaster (Lifetime Achievement), Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette (Lifetime Achievement), the late Jim Fowler of the Emmy winning WILD KINGDOM (Lifetime Achievement), Sen. Thomas Alexander (Legislator of the Year), Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Kathleen Parker (Environmental Educator of the Year), and others.

According to GEA founding pres. Tom Mullikin, the IRONMAN award has so far been “reserved for those who have not only served their country with distinction in peace and in war, but who also reflect the high-intensity military culture from which they have emerged and which has enabled them to continue their service to the nation and the world with the same intellectual acumen, physical prowess, and spiritual commitment we might aptly say describes an IRONMAN. That’s quite literally the point of this.”

Mullikin adds, “Col. Smith, a longtime friend, has proven to be all of these things and more. He exemplifies the finest attributes of a Marine Infantry leader. Tom is skilled in his craft, determined, doggedly persistent, compassionate almost to a fault, and a subject matter expert in his various fields. I have simply never met a more accomplished professional, nor one who I would trust more with being on my right or my left in a very tough situation.”

A formerly deployed U.S. Marine Infantry leader and a retired colonel in the S.C. Military Department where he served as founding director of the department’s Counterterrorism Task Force, Smith is today a military technical consultant and special deputy with the Richland County Sheriff’s Dept. He is also a New York Times bestselling editor and a writer whose work has appeared in countless newspapers and magazines around the world. Smith served for several years as an adjunct professor at the University of South Carolina (his alma mater) and he serves today on the executive leadership team of the National Security Task Force, S.C. Floodwater Commission.

– Visit Global Eco Adventures at https://globalecoadventures.org/.