DaytonDailyNews.com

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE — Air Force Capt. Scott Smith, a finance officer responsible for $16 billion in war funds, was awarded the Iraq Campaign Medal, Purple Heart and Bronze Star for meritorious service.

Smith suffered head injuries in a mortar attack that killed two of his comrades.

Col. Bradley Spacy, base commander at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, pinned the medals on the 37-year-old officer from Beavercreek during a ceremony Monday, Oct. 6, at the Wright-Patterson Club. It was the first Purple Heart award at the base this year.

While it might seem that his job kept him from danger, Spacy said otherwise.

"Day to day, that's a lot of moving paperwork, checking out requirements," he said. "But from the very onset when you're there, you realize you're under the gun. It doesn't matter where you're working."

In Iraq, Smith led a six-member accounting operations team that covered $16 billion in urgent warfighter needs. Smith, an assistant budget officer in the 88th Air Base Wing Comptroller Squadron, primarily handled Iraqi Security Forces funds appropriated by Congress.

Smith was wounded on April 6 during a mortar attack on his base in Baghdad. He was in a gymnasium when the 107mm rocket exploded through the roof. He suffered a severe concussion and shrapnel wounds to his back, said his wife, Denise Smith, a retired Air Force technical sergeant, who did not learn her husband had been wounded until he returned home on May 23.

"He asked them not to notify me. He didn't want to worry us," she said, joined by their daughter, Sarina Rivera, 23, and son Jaxon, 5, at the ceremony.

Two of Smith's comrades — Maj. Stuart A. Wolfer of the 11th Battalion, 104th Division and Col. Stephen K. Scott of 356th Quartermaster Battalion – died in the attack.

"I will forever carry their names with me," Smith said.