Smith was born March 13, 1936, in Omaha, Nebraska, and graduated from Dowling High School, Des Moines, Iowa, in 1954.

While there he served as a deputy missile combat crew commander at squadron level and in the wing Standardization Division.

Upon his return to the United States in September 1967, he was assigned to Strategic Air Command headquarters, initially as an operations planner on board the airborne command post, then as an air operations staff officer in the Future Concepts Aircraft Branch, and finally as chief of the Future Concepts Missile Branch.

After graduating from the Naval Command and Staff College in July 1973, he became military assistant to the deputy director for defense research and engineering, strategic and space systems, Office of the Secretary of Defense, Washington, D.C. Smith entered the Senior Seminar in Foreign Policy conducted by the State Department's Foreign Service Institute in September 1976 and, upon completion in June 1977, was assigned as chief of the Strategic Offensive Forces Division, Directorate of Plans, Headquarters U.S. Air Force, Washington, D.C. After an Air Staff reorganization, he became assistant deputy director for strategy, doctrine and long-range planning in June 1978.

As part of the Goldwater-Nichols DOD Reorganization Act, Smith became deputy comptroller, budget, Office of the Secretary of the Air Force, in March 1987.