Ben Smith: The fight for life

Rickey Stokes

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Posted by: RStokes
Date: Jul 16 2016 4:16 PM

MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala— -- Rusty barbwire fencing surrounds the pastures throughout Ben Smith’s small Alabama hometown. Ben longed for an opportunity to place the dirt roads in his rear view mirror, destination success ahead. “Airman Smith,” had a nice ring to it, he thought.

Smith saw the military as his only path to getting an education. He was too small for an athletic scholarship, and his grades were less than academic scholarship standard. What Ben didn’t anticipate was the roller coaster path he was about to encounter.

“Options were limited coming from a middle-class family living in a small southeast Alabama town,” said the former high school football player. “I didn’t want to burden my parents financially. Academically, I was book smart and had pretty good common sense, but I didn’t put forth much effort into grades. I was in honor classes but slept in just about every class and took physical training every semester as a tactic to keep my GPA up.”

Ben went to a Military Entrance Processing Station the summer before his senior year in high school. Two months after graduation, he traded his Bear Bryant hound’s-tooth hat for an airman battle uniform in San Antonio, Texas for basic military training, graduating in September 2010.

“I was going to be in operations intel,” he said. “Life was great, and I felt like I was getting into a boat to sail unknown waters. Getting that job and the opportunity to travel the world were big selling points to me.”

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