Burial with military honors for Col. Brent Allan Smith, U.S. Army, Retired, age 60, will be held at 11 a.m. on Thursday, June 7, 2018, at Beaver Creek Cemetery, Twisp.
Brent will always be remembered as a faithful and loving husband, a wonderful father, a man who dutifully served his country with honor and an emergency physician who saved and touched many lives. He spent his early years in Tonasket, and Lori, his wife-to-be, was from Twisp. They met at a summer dancehall 30 miles away from each other and were married in July of 1984. While attending the University of Montana, he worked for the U.S. Forest Service as a smokejumper. After his rookie season at Redmond Air Center, Redmond, Oregon, he went on to spend the next five seasons at the Aerial Fire Depot in Missoula, Montana, with his last jump from the North Cascades Smokejumper Base in Winthrop. In total, he made over 100 fire jumps and always said it was the best job he ever had.
Brent was commissioned a second lieutenant in 1983 and attended medical school at the University of New Mexico on an Army scholarship. He performed his residency in Emergency Medicine at Darnall Medical Center at Fort Hood, Killeen, Texas, and subsequently was assigned to Wilford Hall Medical Center at Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas. While at Wilford in 1993, Brent participated in the Branch Davidian siege in Waco, Texas, as the head of medical services for the FBI Hostage Rescue Team.
During Brent’s 10 years on active duty, he was deployed to Desert Storm (399th Combat Support Hospital, ’90-’91), the Sinai Peninsula (Multi-National Peace Keeping Force, ’94-’95), Afghanistan (325th Combat Support Hospital, ’04-’05), and Iraq (399th Combat Support Hospital, ’07). Eventually, he was transferred to Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Lewis, Tacoma. After leaving active duty, Brent and Lori moved to Benton, Louisiana, where he worked in the Willis-Knighton System, first in Bossier and then in Shreveport.
Brent is preceded in death by his parents, Ken and Joan Smith, and by an infant daughter, Shannon Lorraine. He is survived by his loving wife, Lori, and their two daughters, Karli and Katie, whom he adored; his brothers Jeff (Judy) and Kelly (Staci); his sister Molly Grove (Joe); and many nieces and nephews, all of Washington state.
Active pallbearers are: Jeff Smith, Kelly Smith, Joe Grove, Greg Eylar, Jim Kelley and Blair Losvar. Honorary pallbearers are: Col. Joseph Farquhar, Mike Williams, Brian Dillon, Peyton LaBorde, Craig Vitrano, Larry Stack and Lewis Norton.
Special thanks is given to Ruth and Lewis Norton, Chris Hutchison, Chelsi Everhart, Jacquelyn Bowers, M.D., and so many kind friends. You are loved and missed Brent.
