Perry McCoy Smith Jr. is a retired United States Air Force major general. He is a teacher, author and TV and radio commentator. Smith was born at West Point into a military family and travelled extensively throughout his youth. His family was stationed in Hawaii when he was six years old. On the morning of December 7, 1941 he was riding in the back of an Army truck on his way to Sunday school. He watched as the attack on Pearl Harbor took place.

The National War College (NWC) of the United States is a school in the National Defense University. It is housed in Roosevelt Hall on Fort Lesley J. McNair, Washington, D.C., the third-oldest Army post still active.