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Smoot, Richard, MSG.
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Contact Info
Home Town Crownhill
Last Address Tornado, West Virginia
Date of Passing Jul 02, 2015
Location of Interment Donel C. Kinnard Memorial State Veterans Cemetery - Dunbar, West Virginia
Master Sergeant(Retired) Richard A. Smoot, 67, of Tornado, passed away Thursday, July 2, 2015.He was born June 28, 1948 in Crownhill, West Virginia, the son of Trilba Gay Smoot and the late Richard Smoot.Dick was a devoted husband, father, and friend always willing to lend a hand. He was the rock of our immediate and extended family. Richard was a Retired US Army Veteran having served in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Dick had numerous military accomplishments all after the age of 40. At age 43, he completed the Special Forces Qualification Course as a Weapon Sgt., at age 50, he was Combat Diver Qualified (He was the eldest at the time). He was a Special Forces Operational Detachment Alpha Team SGT conducting Combat Operations in Afghanistan in early 2002, and the Company Weapons SGT in Iraq in 2005 - 2006. Dick was a Whiskey 9, meaning he was both Halo and Scuba Qualified. Dick was a LEGEND in the Special Forces Community and respected by all. Dick was Commander for American Legion Post 73 for 3 and a half years. He was a member of the American Legion Riders, and Rolling Thunder Inc. But his greatest accomplishment of all was being the husband to a loving wife and father to his three children. In addition to his mother, he is survived by his loving wife of 47 years, Anna Smoot; son, Richard Allen Smoot and his wife, Kellie, of Watertown, N.Y.; daughters, Tonya Smoot and Tangie Smoot, both of Tornado; 8 grandchildren; brothers, George Smoot and his wife, Terri, of Charleston, Kenneth Smoot, of East Bank; sister, Penny Ratliff and her husband, Jim, of Spencer; all his nieces and nephews whom he treated as his own. He will be forever missed but will remain among us.Celebration of Dick's life will be 11 a.m. Tuesday, July 7, at Casdorph & Curry Funeral Home with LTC (Chaplain) Rob Hudson officiating. Burial will follow in Donnel C. Kinnard Memorial State Veterans Cemetery, Institute with Full Military Honors being conducted by Special Forces Association Chapter 68, 2nd Battalion, 19th Special Forces Group (Airborne), and assisted by American Legion Post 73 and VFW Post 6418.Gathering of family and friends will be from 4 p.m. until 8 p.m. Monday at the funeral home.Online condolences can be sent to the family at: www.casdorphandcurry.com
Completed the Special Forces Qualification Course (SFQC) becoming an 18B Special Forces Weapons Sergeant. He later became the oldest person to complete and graduate the Special Forces Combat Diver Qualification Course (CDQC).
A legend in 2nd BN, 19th SFG (A) and the Special Forces Community.
Description The 2003 invasion of Iraq lasted from 19 March to 1 May 2003 and signaled the start of the conflict that later came to be known as the Iraq War, which was dubbed Operation Iraqi Freedom by the United States (prior to 19 March, the mission in Iraq was called Operation Enduring Freedom, a carryover from the conflict in Afghanistan). The invasion consisted of 21 days of major combat operations, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and deposed the Ba'athist government of Saddam Hussein. The invasion phase consisted primarily of a conventionally fought war which concluded with the capture of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad by American forces.
Four countries participated with troops during the initial invasion phase, which lasted from 19 March to 9 April 2003. These were the United States (148,000), United Kingdom (45,000), Australia (2,000), and Poland (194). 36 other countries were involved in its aftermath. In preparation for the invasion, 100,000 U.S. troops were assembled in Kuwait by 18 February. The coalition forces also received support from Kurdish irregulars in Iraqi Kurdistan.
According to U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the coalition mission was "to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, to end Saddam Hussein's support for terrorism, and to free the Iraqi people." General Wesley Clark, the former Supreme NATO Allied Commander and Joint Chiefs of Staff Director of Strategy and Policy, describes in his 2003 book, Winning Modern Wars, his conversation with a military officer in the Pentagon shortly after 9/11 regarding a plan to attack seven Middle Eastern countries in five years: "As I went back through the Pentagon in November 2001, one of the senior military staff officers had time for a chat. Yes, we were still on track for going against Iraq, he said. But there was more. This was being discussed as part of a five-year campaign plan, he said, and there were a total of seven countries, beginning with Iraq, then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Iran, Somalia and Sudan." Others place a much greater emphasis on the impact of the 11 September 2001 attacks, and the role this played in changing U.S. strategic calculations, and the rise of the freedom agenda. According to Blair, the trigger was Iraq's failure to take a "final opportunity" to disarm itself of alleged nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons that U.S. and British officials called an immediate and intolerable threat to world peace.
In a January 2003 CBS poll, 64% of Americans had approved of military action against Iraq; however, 63% wanted Bush to find a diplomatic solution rather than go to war, and 62% believed the threat of terrorism directed against the U.S. would increase due to war. The invasion of Iraq was strongly opposed by some long-standing U.S. allies, including the governments of France, Germany, and New Zealand. Their leaders argued that there was no evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and that invading the country was not justified in the context of UNMOVIC's 12 February 2003 report. On 15 February 2003, a month before the invasion, there were worldwide protests against the Iraq War, including a rally of three million people in Rome, which is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest ever anti-war rally. According to the French academic Dominique Reynié, between 3 January and 12 April 2003, 36 million people across the globe took part in almost 3,000 protests against the Iraq war.
The invasion was preceded by an air strike on the Presidential Palace in Baghdad on 19 March 2003. The following day, coalition forces launched an incursion into Basra Province from their massing point close to the Iraqi-Kuwaiti border. While the special forces launched an amphibious assault from the Persian Gulf to secure Basra and the surrounding petroleum fields, the main invasion army moved into southern Iraq, occupying the region and engaging in the Battle of Nasiriyah on 23 March. Massive air strikes across the country and against Iraqi command and control threw the defending army into chaos and prevented an effective resistance. On 26 March, the 173rd Airborne Brigade was airdropped near the northern city of Kirkuk, where they joined forces with Kurdish rebels and fought several actions against the Iraqi army to secure the northern part of the country.
The main body of coalition forces continued their drive into the heart of Iraq and met with little resistance. Most of the Iraqi military was quickly defeated and Baghdad was occupied on 9 April. Other operations occurred against pockets of the Iraqi army including the capture and occupation of Kirkuk on 10 April, and the attack and capture of Tikrit on 15 April. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and the central leadership went into hiding as the coalition forces completed the occupation of the country. On 1 May, an end of major combat operations was declared, ending the invasion period and beginning the military occupation period.
