Rank: Staff Sergeant
Unit: D Company, 1st Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment
MOS: 11E – Armor Crewman
Awards: Silver Star, Bronze Star Medal, Purple Heart Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal
Badges: Combat Infantryman Badge, Drill Sergeant Badge
Unit awards: Vietnamese Gallantry Cross with Palm device
Enlisted by: Regular
Date of birth: 31-Jan-1942
Hometown: Columbus, Georgia
Marital status: Never Married
Campaign: Vietnam Conflict
Entered service: 17-Apr-1959
Start of tour: 17-Apr-1969
Incident date: 28-May-1969
Date of casualty: 28-May-1969
Age at death: 27
Cause of death: Hostile, died. Grenade. Multiple fragmentation wounds.
Forrest Lloyd Smith was killed while commander of a military vehicle on a combat operation when a hostile force was encountered. / Tank commander on tank on reconnaissance in force mission. Engaged hostile force in firefight.
Location of fatality: Long Khanh, South Vietnam, XT 560 033
Place of interment: Fort Benning Post Cemetery, Fort Benning, Georgia, USA
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SILVER STAR
POSTHUMOUS
STAFF SERGEANT FORREST LLOYD SMITH
28 MAY 1969
D COMPANY, 1st SQUADRON
11TH ARMORED CAVALRY REGIMENT
Staff Sergeant Smith distinguished himself by gallantry in action while engaged in military operations involving conflict with an armed hostile force on 28 May 1969 while serving as a platoon sergeant with Company D, 1st Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, in the Republic of Vietnam. On this date while conducting a reconnaissance in force operation in dense jungle, the company came under intense small arms, automatic weapons, heavy machine gun, and rocket propelled grenade fire from a heavily fortified enemy force. Upon learning that the platoon leader had been wounded by a direct hit on his vehicle, Sergeant Smith unhesitatingly ran to the disabled vehicle to survey the damage and ensure that all of the wounded were treated and evacuated. When he realized that the vehicle’s communications equipment had failed, Sergeant Smith, disregarding the hostile fusillade, ran from one vehicle to another to organize his platoon for an assault on the enemy fortifications. As darkness began to fall, he directed his men in organizing a night defensive position. When an officer arrived to take charge of the platoon Sergeant Smith, though he had been wounded in the fire fight, returned to his vehicle to lead an attack on the remaining hostile positions. While firing a machine gun from atop his vehicle, he was mortally wounded by a burst of enemy fire. Staff Sergeant Smith’s courage and devotion to duty were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit and the United States Army.
Headquarters, II Field Force Vietnam General Orders No. 1767 (18 July 18 1969)