Bo
Smith's
Personal Webpage
Last Updated:
January 4th, 2020
My name is Bo
Smith.
After a 28 year career as a carrier naval aviator and naval
officer, I
retired July 31st, 1991. If you are interested
in the
details of my Navy career, check out the link below. After
retiring
from the Navy, I took my State of
Florida
Professional
Education and Earth Science Certification exams and began
teaching in
late
September, 1991. I retired as an educator May, 2007 after
teaching
Earth/Space
Science, Oceanography, and Environmental Science at the high
school
level
for sixteen years and as an Earth Science Lab Instructor at
the
University
of North Florida for about 5 years. During that period, I
was fortunate
to work in several space related extension activities; first
with
Florida
State University's "Florida Explores'" satellite meteorology
program,
second
as Program Manager and Instructor in the Florida Protein
Crystals in
Space
Program where we were involved in three space shuttle
launches and one
Soyuz launch to the International Space Station and lastly
as an
Aerospace
Education Mentor (AEM) for the Florida Space Research
Institute
(FSRI). Since 1993, or so, I have served as
Chairperson for
a group of Cornell alumni volunteers with the Cornell Alumni
Admissions
Ambassador Ntwork
(CAAAN), conducting contact meetings with students from
northeast
Florida and southwest Georgia who have applied to Cornell.
In 2014,
I began a reading research project into the formation of the
American
Republic and the increase in democratic republicanism from
1750
through 1830 by reading the biogrphies our founding fathers
who were
responsible for the events that have shaped our country.
I was
married
in August, 2008 to Diana Hatten Groover. Diana and I
purchased
a cabin in Micaville, North Carolina in December,
2008. Micaville
is located between Burnsville in Yancey County and Spruce
Pine in
Mitchell
County right in the middle of t Spruce Pine Mining
District. Since then, we
have divided
our time
between
the balmy climate Jacksonville, Florida from mid September
through mid
June and the
cooler climate
of the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina in the
summer. During our
time in the Blue Rigge Mountains , I have been conducting
research into the
minerals and mining history
(including aboriginal Native American mica mining) of the
Spruce Pine
Pegmatite in the Blue Ridge Mountains northeast of
Asheville. I began a
small business, Bo's Mine Tours, in 2011 with the goal of
conducting
educational tours of real mines for family groups. I
will not be
able
to continue the mine tours this summer (2016) so am in the
process of
transitionng the business in to a Mine Tour Consulting and
Educational
Services business.
The
Cabin: Micaville, North Carolina
The
cabin has
two
bedrooms, a loft in the great room, a guest
porch(far left), and a
large
main porch (far riight).
|
View of Celo Knob from
our porch in the
early spring. Celo Knob is the northernmost
peak of the Black Mountains.
|
Spruce
Pine Mining District Book Project
I have been
conducting
research on the geology and mining history of
the Sruce
Pine
Mining District since 2005. My initial intent was
to
write a book primarily on the geology and mining in the
area.
But,
as my research progressed and I interviewed numerous local
mining
families,
I learned that the culture of the area has been determined
by many
generations
of families which have devoted themselves to working the
land be it for
mining, farming, or forrestry. Driving the roads and
meeting the
people proved more interesting than writing the
book. The book
project morphed into creating a mine tour business
designed for the
tourist
who comes to the area and wants assistance in learning
about the
geology
of the area and how to visit local mine sites in addition
or instead of
just going to one of the "tourist mining" experiences.
Overview
of My Naval Career
I attended
Cornell
University on a NROTC Scholarship and graduated in 1963 with
a BA in
Geology.
Following graduation, I attended Navy Jet Flight Training
earning my
"Wings
of Gold" in February 1965. I retired from the Navy in
July, 1991
as a Captain after a 28 year career in the Navy. I
flew over 4200
hours in Navy carrier jet aircraft including over 950
carrier landings
and completed over 300 combat missions over North and
South
Vietnam
in 1966, 1967, and 1972. Highlights of my Navy career
included:
flying
Vietnam combat missions in the A4 Skyhawk with my shipmates
in the
Navy's
finest squadron ever, the Valions of Attack Squadron Fifteen
(1966-1967); my assignment as an USAF flight instructor
flying the F
105 Thunderchief, my second tour
in VA-15 as Commanding Officer of an A7 carrier squadron
which received
the Battle "E" as the Navy's best light attack squadron
(1978); as
Commanding
Officer of VA-174, an A7 Fleet Replacement Squadron which
provided
training
for pilots and maintenance personnel prior to assignemnt to
their fleet
squadron (1981-1982) as Executive Officer of an aircraft
carrier, USS
Saratoga
CV-60 (1983-1984);
as Commanding Officer of the USS Austin LPD-4 (1986-1987),
an
amphibious ship which
included several "special operations" in the eastern
Mediterreanean
Sea;
and as Operations Officer of Commander Fleet Air Western
Pacific
(COMFAIRWESTPAC)
in Atsugi, Japan (1990-1991) where I was in charge of
coordinating
opposition air
forces
for Seventh Fleet exerc)ises and had a special assignment
involving the
initial planning for the Desert Storm air strike in the
First Gulf War.
I was selected as amember of the Golden
Eagles in 2016.
This
is a younger
me, a 25 year old A4 pilot onboard the USS
Intrepid CV-11 off the coast
of Vietnam
|
Click
HERE
for more detail of my navy career
|
Website Created and Updated by Robert S. "Bo"
Smith
