By Lacey Sudderth

For more than two decades, Alton Smith has dedicated himself to educating and mentoring others in Southeast Oklahoma. Since 2003, he has taught at Kiamichi Technology Center, where he shares decades of real-world experience with students eager to learn. Long before stepping into the classroom, Smith spent 25 years working in probation and parole, helping guide individuals through the justice system while emphasizing accountability, discipline, and personal responsibility.

Those careers, however, are only part of the story.

Smith’s commitment to service began in 1973, immediately after graduating high school, when he joined the United States Army. At the time, he says many young men faced only a handful of options.

“One could go to college, or obtain a job with a shovel in your hands,” Smith recalls. “Another option was to join the military.”

Not interested in college and determined to build a better future, Smith enlisted and entered the Army Security Agency, an intelligence branch that worked alongside the National Security Agency monitoring enemy communications during the Cold War.

Smith spent three years as a paratrooper stationed at Fort Bragg with Headquarters Company, 313th Army Security Agency (Airborne). There, he found himself surrounded by highly experienced soldiers, including some of the earliest Green Berets.

“These guys were in conflicts before the public even knew there was a problem,” Smith says. “They trained resistance forces and allied militaries. They were mentors in every sense of the word.”

Though he was the youngest member of the unit, Smith quickly adapted to the demanding lifestyle of airborne service. He attended Airborne School, learning not only how to parachute from aircraft but also how to push himself physically and mentally far beyond what he thought possible.

“I never knew I could run long distances,” he says. “But they taught me I could. Their motto was to learn everything well enough to teach it, and to never stop learning. Plus, one never quits.”

Those lessons stayed with him long after his military service ended.

The excitement of airborne operations came with real sacrifice. Smith remembers jumping from planes and helicopters into complete darkness during night operations, unable to see the ground below.

“We generally hit heels, ass, and head,” he jokes with the humor common among paratroopers.

Behind the humor lies the physical reality of airborne service. Smith, now a disabled veteran, says many older paratroopers continue to live with lasting injuries from years of hard landings and punishing jumps.

Still, he describes those years as some of the best of his life.

“It was the greatest experience any young man could have experienced,” he says.

After leaving the military, Smith spent nearly ten years working in the oilfield before beginning his lengthy career in probation and parole. The position allowed him to continue serving others while helping maintain safety and accountability within Oklahoma communities.

At the same time, another lifelong passion continued to grow: firearms instruction.

Smith says his fascination with firearms began almost as soon as he could talk. Raised on black-and-white western television shows and hunting trips with his father, he bought his first rifle from OTASCO in McAlester at just 13 years old. During high school, he participated in Explorer Scouts for law enforcement and spent time around local deputies learning firearms safety and responsibility.

Those experiences eventually led him into professional instruction.

Since the early 1990s, Smith has served as a law enforcement firearms instructor, training police officers, military personnel, and civilians alike. He is certified to teach revolvers, semi-automatic pistols, defensive shotguns, rifles, submachine guns, and less-lethal weapons. He has also taught Oklahoma concealed carry courses since 1994.

For Smith, teaching is not about profit or recognition, it is about helping others learn responsibly.

“When you see the student’s eyes perk up after understanding the formation and learning to hit their target,” he says, “that’s payment enough.”

Many of his classes are offered free unless connected to a fundraiser. He strongly believes education and proper training are essential for anyone choosing to own or carry a firearm.

“By the very nature of the damage they can do,” Smith explains, “there is no reason to be ignorant of the facts.”

Throughout every stage of his life, from military intelligence and airborne operations to probation and parole, teaching, and firearms instruction, Smith has remained grounded in the same principles taught to him decades ago: discipline, learning, and service to others.

The lessons instilled by his father and reinforced by the elite soldiers he served beside at Fort Bragg still guide him today. He believes knowledge should be shared, skills should be passed down, and communities become stronger when experienced people are willing to mentor others.

Whether he is teaching students at Kiamichi Technology Center, instructing a firearms course, or sharing stories with fellow veterans in Southeast Oklahoma, Alton Smith continues to live by the same philosophy that shaped him as a young soldier more than fifty years ago:

Learn constantly. Teach others. Never quit.