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 Lt Gen Joseph Henry Smith (rtd) was born on 9 January 1945 in Takoradi in Western Region. He is a product of Achimota School, in Accra, which he completed in 1963.
Lt Gen Smith commissioned into the Ghana Army Engineer Corps in 1965 and rose through the ranks to become Commander of the Ghana Army from 1996 to 2001.
He is a graduate of some national and international institutions, among them the Ghana Armed Forces and Command Staff College (GAFCSC), US Marine Corps Command and Staff College, US Army Engineer College and the Pakistan Military Engineering College.
The Defence Minister has also held several military positions in the Ghana Armed Forces, prominent among them are Commander of the 1st and 2nd Infantry Brigade Groups (now Southern and Northern Commands respectively), Chief Staff Officer at Army Headquarters (1987-88) as well as Director Military Training (1984-85) and Director Military Operations (1985-87), both at Force Headquarters. He was also Commandant of the Military Academy and Training Schools (MATS) from 1992-93.
At the start of Operation GONGONG in the Northern Region conflict in 1994, he led a special task force to restore law and order in the conflict area. He was at one time instructor at the Ghana Military Academy (GMA) at Teshie and much earlier Assistant Deputy Secretary (Military) to the Supreme Military Council from 1977-78. From 1988 to 1992, he served as the Defence Military, Naval and Air Attaché to the Pentagon and United States Armed Services with accreditation to the Canadian Defence Forces and Ghana’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York
Lt Gen Smith has also undertaken several trips abroad as part of official delegations. He led military delegations to the UN Headquarters in New York on peacekeeping matters, to the Pentagon in the USA to discuss establishment of a rapid response force in the West African sub-region and also to China on Ghana-China joint military cooperation. He also led delegations to Europe (Belgium, France and United Kingdom) and Lebanon, to Liberia to evaluate the ECOMOG operations, to Algeria to discuss joint military training with the Algerian Armed Forces and to Burkina Faso to discuss joint military cooperation.
For his meritorious service, Lt Gen Smith has earned several honours and awards, including the “Legion of Merit” (USA), the fifth highest award in the US Army, in 1992, and the Companion of the Order of Volta (CV), a national award, in 2001.
The Defence Minister is a member of the Veterans Association of Ghana (VAG), the Ghana Military Academy Intake Seven Retired Officers Association and Old Achimotans Association. He has done research on the “New Vision of the Ghana Army for the 21st Century” and a project on the “Achievements of the OAU since its inception.” As Army Commander, he was member of the National Security Council and the Armed Forces Council as well as the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College Control Board, which is the managing board of the College.
Lt Gen Smith retired from active service in February 2002 after 39 years service with the Ghana Armed Forces. He is married and blessed with children. His hobbies include table tennis, football, lawn tennis, listening to jazz music, swimming and reading.
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