This year’s honoree and recipient of the green Jacket is a lifelong resident of Swainsboro. He is a 1960 graduate of Swainsboro High School and holds degrees from Georgia Military College and Brenau University. Dess Smith III has dedicated countless hours toward the betterment of the community through various organizations including the Swainsboro-Emanuel County Festival Foundation for the past several years. As a leader in the Scouts since 1984, Dess served as Committee Chair of Troop 75 for 18 years. He has led four groups to Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico and planned the 2009 trip. He was the Ogeechee District Eagle Scout Coordinator and is the recipient of the Silver Beaver Award, the highest honor awarded to adult Scout volunteers. As a member of the Georgia National Guard for 32 years, Dess graduated with Honors from the Command and General Staff College and received the Bronze Order of the De Fleury Medal from the Army Engineers Association. He commanded Company D, 878th Combat Engineer Battalion, Hvy from 1976-81 and was the Commander of the 878th Combat Engineer Battalion, Hvy from 1992-95. During the 1996 Olympics, Dess was the Battalion Commander for the Duration Security Battalion that provided security for all the Olympic venues in Atlanta and Athens. He served in deployments to Grenada in 1985 and Egypt in 1987 for Operation Bright Star, and he served as Task Force Commander on his deployment to Oman in 1992 for Operation Eastern Castle. During the second deployment of Swainsboro’s Army National Guard Unit to Iraq in 2006, Dess was recognized with the “Army National Guard-Citizen Soldier Hero Award” for assisting the Family Readiness Group of the State of Georgia. A past-president of the Swainsboro Jaycees (1970-1971), Dess keeps busy through his work with the Swainsboro Kiwanis Club where he has served as president twice, a member of the Sons of the American Revolution, a member of Swainsboro First United Methodist Church and member of the church choir. He is also on the Board of Directors of the Emanuel County Historic Preservation Society. Dess and his late wife Ginny have four children, Dessie, Mary Ellen, Richard, and Anna Kate, six grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
