Serving with distinction

Silver Valley native, Master Chief Petty Officer Bill Smith, recently was selected as one of the U.S. Navy’s newest Command Master Chiefs.

Receiving the distinction on February 14, Smith is already the highest enlisted rank in the armed services, but as a Command Master Chief, he will become the most senior ranking enlisted Sailor in a United States Navy unit (this ranking makes up less than .46 percent of all Master Chiefs in the Navy).

He has held several positions in the Navy since he joined, immediately following graduation from Wallace High School in 1991.

In his 23 year career, Smith has mostly been a military police officer, working at installations such as the San Diego Naval station (one of the largest naval bases in the world), Okinawa, Diego Garcia, and many other overseas bases.

After 9/11, he was assigned duties as a “landside force protection specialist with Mobile Security Squadron based out of Coronado, Calif.”

It was during this assignment that he was deployed with 50 other Sailors in his command to the Arabian Gulf, Western Europe, and Africa to ensure the safe passage of U.S. flagged merchant vessels through critical areas such as the Suez Canal, Straits of Hormuz, and Bab Al Mandeb Strait.

Smith explained that “these missions are essential as 70 percent of the world’s crude oil traverses the Arabian Gulf.”

Before he joined the military, Smith grew up Prichard, Wallace, and Osburn areas after moving to the Silver Valley from Montana when he was a child.

Both sides of his family have deep roots in Shoshone County and the surrounding area.

His maternal grandfather and several other family members spent many years in the mining industry; mostly at the Bunker Hill Mine in Kellogg, going all the way back to the early 1900s.

His paternal grandfather worked as a timekeeper at the Star Mine in Burke and later retired from the Coeur d’Alene Mine in Osburn.

As for his parents, Smith’s father, the late Mark Drews, was born in Wallace and worked 35 years as a miner at the Star, Lucky Friday, Coeur d’Alene, Galena, and Sunshine mines.

Smith’s mother, Teddy Drews, and grandmother, Elaine Drews, both live in Osburn today.

His three siblings also still live in the area, including his brothers, Matt Drews, 33, an environmental scientist at the Galena Mine, Clancy Drews, 25, a miner at the Galena Mine, and his sister, Casey Eberlin, 31, who works for the Kootenai County Public Defender’s Office.

While going to Wallace High School, Smith had many individuals who taught him valuable life lessons.

“I had great teachers and coaches who influenced me and gave me valuable lessons that I have carried throughout my life,” Smith said.

“People like Nick and Janet Hoffman who cared a great deal about their students and Bob Jones, the best civics and history teacher anyone could have asked for, and then there were Bob Schreiber and Norm Walker who provided strong leadership, positively shaping the minds of thousands of young people throughout their many years as educators in the Wallace district.”

As he progressed through WHS, lettering in track and becoming the Vice President of the Junior Statesman Association (foreshadowing his future government service), Smith still did not know what he wanted to do once he got out of school; much less join the military.

“I never considered the military until the middle of my senior year,” Smith explained, “all my friends were doing something and I had no direction and no clue what to do, except I knew I wanted something different and out of Idaho!”

Once he had made the decision that he wanted to see the world with the Navy, he had to get permission first.

“My mom had a hard time signing the permission for me to enlist at 17, but she came around.”

26 years and one permission slip later, he is currently the Senior Enlisted Leader for the Naval Air Station Pensacola Police Department and has 180 military/ civilian police officers under his command and runs day to day operations.

With this selection of becoming a Command Master Chief after a lengthy application process, he will be attending the Navy’s Command Master Chief/ Chief of the Boat course in Newport, Rhode Island for further training and follow up assignment to a Navy unit.

Smith explains that “this promotion means I will now be supervising Sailors’ career management, equal opportunity, sit as a member on community boards, act as the program manager for naval warfare programs in my unit, and I will supervise all Chief Petty Officers on my base, unit or ship where assigned. Chief Petty Officers are the backbone of the Navy and provide guidance, mentorship and management for every Sailor in the service.”

Although this promotion will increase his workload, Smith joked that it does come with one perk in particular.

“Command Master Chief is enhanced and expanded responsibilities, but it comes with a better parking spot.”

As for where he will be assigned, Smith said he has some preferences (including San Diego or somewhere on the west coast), but will go where he is sent happily.

“My passion for Sailors and their careers is stronger than what geographical place I prefer to be assigned.”