[2] He enlisted at the outbreak of war in the Public Schools Battalion, before being commissioned as a temporary second lieutenant of the Army Service Corps in December 1914.
[7] He wrote home to his father in October 1916; He was appointed a flight commander with the acting rank of captain on 22 December 1916.
[8] Despite piloting a grossly obsolescent two-seater reconnaissance aircraft, Smith, and his observer Air Mechanic 2nd Class Backhouse, scored his first victory on 17 March 1917, destroying a German Albatros D.II fighter over Becelaere.
They attacked troops and transports near La Motte, dropping sixteen 25-pound (11 kg) Cooper bombs and firing some 450 rounds of ammunition.
[11] The Red Baron's combat report read, "...The English plane which I attacked started to burn after only a few shots from my guns.
Although they were successful in locating and mapping the crash position and found several pieces of the Camel's wreckage, he was unable to discover any trace of his son.