H.E. Joseph Henry Smith
Lieutenant General Joseph Smith, CV, LM (USA) was born in Takoradi, Western Region of the Republic of Ghana on 9 January 1945.
He attended Achimota School from 1959 to 1963 and was commissioned into the Ghana Army Engineer Corps in 1965 after graduating from the Ghana Military Academy. Smith is also a graduate of the Pakistan Military Engineering College, the US Army Engineer College, the US Marine Corps Command and Staff College, and the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College.
Smith has had a most illustrious and distinguished military career and held several important appointments. He was an instructor at the Ghana Military Academy from 1973 to 1974 and company commander, United Nations Emergency Force in Egypt in 1976. From 1977 to 1978 he served as assistant deputy secretary (Military) with the Supreme Military Council at the Castle, Osu. He then became a directing staff at the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College (Senior Division), Teshie, from 1980 to 1983, before becoming the director, military training at the Force Headquarters from 1984 to 1985. Between 1985 and 1987, he served as the director, military operations, at the Force Headquarters and moved on to become the chief staff officer at the Army Headquarters the same year. He served in that position until 1988. Between 1988 and 1992, he served as the defence, military, naval and air attaché (DMNAA) to the Pentagon and United States Armed Forces, with accreditation to the Canadian Defence Forces and Ghana’s Mission to the United Nations in New York (on peacekeeping matters). Lieutenant General JH Smith’s political career began on his retirement from the Ghana Armed Forces in 2002.
Smith has a strong interest in strategic leadership in the 21st century (with emphasis on Africa) and having done research in that area, has written a paper on “the ‘New Vision’ of the Ghana Army for the 21st Century” and done a project work in 1978 on the “Achievements of the OAU (now AU) since its inception in 1963.”
For his meritorious career and service to the State and mankind, Lieutenant General JH Smith CV, LM (USA) has won many honours, awards and decorations. In 2001 he was decorated with the prestigious National Award; Companion of the Order of the Volta (CV). Much earlier in 1980, he had been awarded the Long Service and Efficiency Medal by the Ghana Armed Forces. He was also decorated with the fifth highest award in the US Army; “Legion of Merit” (LM) in 1992. In 2002, he was specially honoured by the Old Achimotans Association (his mentor institution) by including him on the “ROLL OF HONOUR OF AKORAS OF DISTINCTION.” Other awards earned by Smith include the prestigious Dr. Kwame Nkrumah Africa Leadership Award (2009), the Golden Star Award for Distinguished Leadership in West Africa in 2012 (by Security Watch, Africa), and the Governance and Leadership Award, in recognition of his Excellent Qualities in Security, Governance and Leadership in West Africa (2012). In 1989 he was made “Ambassador-at-Large” by the Great San Antonio Chamber of Commerce and also, in 1991 he was appointed “Admiral in the Texas Navy” by the State of Texas, USA.
Lieutenant General JH Smith CV, LM (USA) is married with five children.