May 31, 2024

Lt. Col. William “David” Smith, M.D., M.P.H., is the 2024–2026 President of the International Association of Military Flight Surgeon Pilots (IAMFSP).

As a special operations pilot-physician he flew the MC-130J Commando II and remains actively engaged in human systems integration issues for the USAF. He is currently an Aerospace Medicine Resident (class of 2024) at Wright-Patterson AFB, OH, where he serves as the Chief Resident. Prior to this assignment, he served at Headquarters Air Force Special Operations Command A5/8, Hurlburt Field, FL, as the command’s senior pilot-physician and Chief of the Integration and Interoperability Branch.
   Lt. Col. Smith was commissioned through the Health Professions Scholarship Program in 2006 and earned his Doctor of Medicine in 2009 from East Tennessee State University Quillen College of Medicine. He then served an Internal Medicine internship at San Antonio Uniformed Services Health Education Consortium, San Antonio, TX, and graduated from the Aerospace Medicine Primary Course at Brooks City-Base, TX, in 2010. He served as a flight surgeon at Tyndall AFB, FL, until 2013 and graduated from undergraduate pilot training at Columbus AFB, MS, in 2014. He was a distinguished graduate of the MC-130J Mission Pilot Transition course at Kirtland AFB, NM. From 2016–2019 he served as MC-130J pilot-physician, assistant operations officer, and Inspector General Director of Complaints Resolution at the 9 SOS and 27 SOW, Cannon AFB, NM. He is a pilot-physician with over 1200 flight hours in the MC-130J and numerous other aircraft. He has deployed as a flight surgeon in support of U.S. Southern Command’s counterdrug mission and as a combat pilot in support of operations Freedom’s Sentinel, Resolute Support, and Inherent Resolve.