August 19, 2020
- Captain T.D. Smith, while a member of the United States International Pistol Team competing in the 1963 Pan-American Games broke the Russian’s Center-fire Pistol Record (590) with a score of 597×600. Which turned out to be an unbreakable score. It was officially declared unbreakable twenty-five years later and remains untied or unbroken 57 years later.
- “Captain Thomas D. Smith III has shown in a terrible three-day ordeal that there are no fixed limits to human endurance and tenacity and courage.” General Earle Wheeler, Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff.
- US Junior Chamber of Commerce voted Captain T.D. Smith United States Air Force 1963 “Outstanding Young Man.”
- Major T.D. Smith as Flight Lead of a night three ship F-4E ground attack team, was directed to help rescue a downed USAF pilot at Ban Laboy river crossing in North Vietnam. The hostile ground fire included Anti-Aircraft artillery (AAA) which was so intense friendly aircraft were directed off target. His wingmen were forced to seek aerial refueling. Major Smith ignored the defenses, which included 77 strings of accurate 37 mm artillery directed at his F-4 alone. Despite the defenses, he destroyed all four surface-to-air sites. The survivor was rescued.
- As a civilian T.D invented and holds the complete set of ten patents which describe the TDS reticle system presently used by other companies.