Profiles

• Director of the Counterterrorism Research Center (Family Security Foundation)
• Senior military analyst and editor-at-large of World Defense Review
• Columnist for Townhall.com and Human Events

• International terrorism
  (focus on Hezbollah
  and Al Qaeda)
• Counterterrorism
• Counterpiracy
• Amphibious warfare
• Special operations
• Ground combat

W. Thomas Smith Jr. holds a BA in History from the University of South Carolina (where he also has taught journalism as an adjunct professor) and a field-grade officer's commission in the S.C. State Guard.

Smith served in the United States Marine Corps as a rifle-squad leader and a shipboard "special weapons" security and counterterrorism instructor. He graduated from Marine infantry, mountain warfare, sea service, amphibious raid, and Army Airborne schools. He received Air Force survival training, as well as small-arms and close combat training by the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service.

Smith served on a paramilitary SWAT team in the nuclear industry: He was the Honorman graduate — first in his class — of both his nuclear-security force class and his armed response force class.

As a journalist, he has covered conflict in the Balkans, on the West Bank, in Iraq (twice), and Lebanon.

In Iraq he was embedded with a British contract security company, a U.S. Marine Regimental Combat Team, a Marine Expeditionary Unit, and a U.S. Army Cavalry squadron.

W. Thomas Smith Jr. is the author of six books, and his articles have appeared in USA TODAY, George, U.S. News & World Report, Human Events, Townhall.com, Business Week, CBS News, and The Washington Times. A former U.S. Marine rifle-squad leader, parachutist, and counterterrorism instructor, Smith writes about military/defense issues and has covered conflict in the Balkans, on the West Bank, in Iraq and Lebanon. He has served on the adjunct faculty at the University of South Carolina’s School of Journalism, and he is a military technical consultant for The New Technology of War, a documentary film series produced by Popular Mechanics magazine. Smith is director of the Counterterrorism Research Center of the Family Security Foundation and a senior military analyst at World Defense Review. Visit W. Thomas Smith Jr. online at uswriter.com