Colonel Neil A. Smart

Colonel Neil Austin Smart, U.S. Army (Retired) departed this earthly life on October 31, 2024, in Irvington, Virginia.
Neil was born on May 21, 1941 to Donald Vincent and Ocie Seever Smart, both school teachers in Carthage, Texas. Two weeks after Pearl Harbor, Neil's father, an Army Reserve officer, was called to active duty. Neil spent the next 18 years as an Army Brat. He traveled with his family to assignments in Vienna, Austria and Taipei, Taiwan, as well as numerous bases in the continental United States-particularly Fort Benning, Georgia where Neil's father oversaw the training of new infantrymen.
Neil's military career was simultaneously awe inspiring and incredibly human-and, like the man himself, full of rare experiences and wonderful, unexpected turns. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1963 and was commissioned as an officer into the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Neil was a proud Army officer, but for the first Saturday every December he was the Navy football team's biggest fan.
Neil underwent basic military Engineer and parachute training. He spent his early career as a Combat Engineer, serving as a bridge commander in Korea and a company commander with the 9th Infantry Division in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam. Neil also served as an aviator, commanding the 221st Reconnaissance Aviation Company (Shotguns), flying reconnaissance and fire control missions over the Delta in the Cessna O-1 Bird Dog, the Army's first and only all-metal fixed wing aircraft.
Two weeks after his return from Korea in December 1964, Neil attended the holiday party of a mutual friend. He saw his future wife through the window of the host's house and was smitten. Neil and Diane started dating that night. Neil proposed under the cherry blossoms at the Tidal Basin in April 1965, and they were married on Labor Day weekend 1965.
Following his multiple deployments, Neil earned his Professional Engineer License in Virginia. He was then assigned to the faculty of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York. In 1976, Neil was brought to the Army Staff at the Pentagon during the early days of recruitment for the All-Volunteer Army, where he again left his indelible mark. His algorithms involving education and mental category of prospective recruits formed Army policy regarding the best application of Army advertising and recruiting dollars. Neil was awarded the Legion of Merit for this vital work.
Next, Neil was selected to be the Deputy District Engineer for the New Orleans Engineer District, where he oversaw the social, environmental, political, and engineering aspects accompanying the construction of five locks and dams along the 250-mile Red River Waterway from Shreveport, Louisiana to the Mississippi River at Old River. The Chief of Army Engineers sent him to Louisiana with the missive to, "Go over to trouble beset Tennessee Tombigbee Waterway project and don't let that happen on the Red River!" Thanks in large part to Neil's efforts, the Red River project was completed and is now known as the J. Bennett Johnston Waterway.
Neil subsequently commanded a battalion at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri for three years. He was then assigned to the NATO Supreme Headquarters of Allied Powers in Europe (SHAPE), in Belgium. Here, he led a staff of international NATO officers to fund, plan, and construct facilities to house special munitions throughout NATO countries and base the Pershing II missile system – a weapon system that hastened the end of the Cold War.
Neil's capstone assignment was as Commander of the Engineer District in Rock Island, Illinois on the Mississippi River. His responsibilities covered flood control, navigation, and environmental issues on the 10 locks and dams on 450 miles of the main stem of the Mississippi from Dubuque, Iowa to Quincy, Missouri, as well as similar concerns on the Illinois and Iowa Rivers.
Neil was a graduate of the Armed Forces Staff College and the National War College. In 2003, West Point's U.S. Military Academy Class of 1963 inducted him as an Honorary Member of that class, which remained one of his proudest moments.
Following retirement, Neil moved to Lancaster County on the Northern Neck of Virginia. He and his wife, Diane, built their home, Pineapple Cove, on Senior Creek along the Corrotoman River. They lived there happily for more than three decades.
Neil and Diane loved to open up their home to friends and family, especially during their infamous New Year's bonfires. For more than 30 years, during wartime separations and births of babies, the New Years weekends were joyous, meaningful celebrations of Army family and love. Neil serves as honorary Pop and Grandpa to the many friends and children of friends he and his lovely bride hosted over the years.
Music was Neil's lifelong passion. In retirement, he began building and repairing replicas of baroque keyboard instruments and playing them in local chamber music concerts, which he organized. He assisted as the organist for Bethel United Methodist Church in Lively. He later served as organist, choir director, and elder for Campbell Memorial Presbyterian Church in Weems for eight years. For Neil, there was always time for a spin in the boat, or a trip around the U.S. or the world to see his grandchildren.
Neil was married to Georgia Diane Barry Smart for 59 years. She survives him, along with their son, Colonel Noel Clark Smart (U.S. Army, Retired), his wife, Catherine Burke Smart, and their sons Ryan Seever and Campbell Burke of Lake Ridge, Virginia; and their daughter, Heather Smart Evans, her husband, William Henry Evans IV, and their children Madeleine Barry and William Henry V of Blacksburg, VA.
Visitation for friends will be held on Friday, November 8, 2024 from 4:00 - 6:00 pm at Currie Funeral Home in Kilmarnock, Virginia. Funeral services and burial will be held at 1:00 on Saturday, November 9, 2024 at Bethel United Methodist Church in Lively, Virginia.
In lieu of flowers, please make donations to the Upper Lancaster Community Food Pantry, Mary Ball Place, Lancaster, Virginia, 22503.