Michael Smith has served as an advisor on many top level shows and films. These include NCIS, NCIS: New Orleans, NCIS: Hawaii, Reese Witherspoon’s Where the Crawdads Sing, Seth MacFarlane’s The Orville, Netflix’s The Pink Marine and Battleship. He retired from the Navy at the rank of Master-At-Arms Chief Petty Officer with over 20 years of service.
He served at many duty stations across the Navy such as Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Belle New Orleans, Naval Support Activity New Orleans, Naval Support Activity La Maddalena, Italy, Naval Construction Battalion Center Gulfport, Mississippi, aboard the USS Kearsarge and the USS Harry S. Truman. He has attended both Aviation Electrical and Law Enforcement training in the service. He has served in key billets such as Command Investigator, Chief of Police, Ship’s Assistant Chief Master-At-Arms, Security Forces Leading Petty Officer, Navy Security Forces Training Coordinator and Weapons Officer, Small Arms Range Instructor, Surface Warfare Specialist and Aviation Warfare Specialist. His personal awards include the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal (three awards), Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal (three awards), the Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal and many more unit and campaign awards.
WATM sat down with Smith to talk about his military service and life in Hollywood following “retirement.”
Naval career
When asked why he chose his particular MOS, Smith shared, “I came into the Navy in the 1980s and you could not come in as Law Enforcement, so I chose Aviation.” He either wanted to be a cop or work on jets and came in as an Aviation Electrician, went to school and got stationed in New Orleans as his first assignment. “I was assigned to work A7E jets with at Fighter-Attack Squadron 204 (VA-204). My best experience there was learning how to elevate myself to the highest level to add value to the squadron.” A senior chief told him to go to every C school that he could be sent to by the squadron. “I was told to submit to 12 specific schools after October 1 of the new year.” The schools were needed and not too many went to them because they just came in and worked. “I was new and hadn’t been there more than 12 months.” Since it was the beginning of the fiscal year and he wasn’t in a shop yet, the unit would have money and opportunity. “I dropped the request after October 1 and got a lot of issues from my Lead Petty Officer (LPO).” He didn’t want to send Smith, even though the training would help the unit, so Smith walked the requests up the chain of command to the training officer. “The training officer signed and it went to the XO and CO, who had to justify why they couldn’t send me so they sent me.” Over two years, he finished all his schooling. The unit called him the “$600,000 man” for all it cost to train Smith and they put him in the shop to work on the aircraft. “I became an expert on the A7E and then got sent to one more school for six months, which was the Integrated Weapons Training School because we need an electrician on the team who knows how to load the special weapons on the plane.”
“The unit made me go because I was their school guy.” So he went, graduated and came back to be part of the Integrated Weapons Team. “It was a different world and we were guarded by Marines.” He got put into a special program, the Personal Reliability Program (PRP). “I saw a buddy of mine working a Security Detail and he had a good life. He smelled good when he came to work and left. I worked on jet fighters with fuel and hydraulic fluid all over me at the end of the day. I had always wanted to be a cop, which is what he did, so I decided I wanted to try that out.” He put in the request to go to Base Security when his time with the squadron came up and the training officer and command went crazy. After they had sent Smith to all of the schools, they expected him to re-enlist and stay there for another tour. “The XO said to me, ‘You spent three years in school and now you want to go to Base Security?'” They didn’t want to let him leave as they spent too much money on him. Smith told him, “My passion is helping people. If I could have been a cop when I came in the Navy I would have.” Smith apologized and the XO said, “Since you put it that way and want to save lives, you want to protect our military, you’ve pissed me off, but I’m going to approve it.” The CO signed off and Smith went off to Lackland Air Force Base to Security Forces School and came back to New Orleans to work security.
Smith got the call sign Robocop.
“I followed the letter of the law. It doesn’t matter, I followed the letter of the law with everything and gave out many tickets. If you were speeding in [base] housing: ticket. Ticket. Ticket. Ticket. I became Robocop in breaking up [NCO] club fights. Then they put me in charge of training to get me off the road. Since I loved school they sent me to more schools for Security Forces. Then I was the training officer. I was upset and wanted to be on the road dealing with people. I was the Training Petty Officer. I told the Chief that I would do training, but when I got off work, I would go on patrol with my own callsign, 37 Charlie. I would get the big stuff because I was on my off time, DUIs, big fights and cases. I would respond and help out….I see this truck flying down the road in base housing doing 30 or 40 mph over the limit. It was a Saturday and it was a red truck. I pull him over and don’t recognize him as he’s in civilian clothes. I called it in and I always started writing my tickets before I got to the car. Forty miles [per hour] over is a ticket. I saw he had a blue sticker (signifying an officer’s car) and saluted him. I got his driver’s license, registration and proof of insurance. “
Smith began to question him about his reason for speeding in housing and where he was going. Smith left the man in the vehicle and went back to finish writing the ticket. He did not notice anything unusual about the ID and he gave the officer back his paperwork with the ticket. The man drove away and Smith was off the following Monday and Tuesday. On Monday, he got a call to report to the office. Smith came in and found out why he was to report in. He was asked, “Did you give the highest-ranking admiral in this area a ticket?” Smith was surprised and was not aware of any admirals he wrote tickets to. His Chief said the admiral’s name and Smith found the ticket. Smith gave the ticket to his Chief and he explained why he wrote the ticket to the officer in the truck. Smith’s Lieutenant shared, “XO is pissed.” Smith feels he did the right thing but his command pulled the admiral’s ticket.
The admiral did not go to traffic court. Smith still went to traffic court for all of his tickets. Surprise, surprise the admiral walked in and saw him. The traffic court judge, a chief, saw the admiral and said, “Admiral, you don’t have to be here. They pulled your ticket.” The admiral says, “Petty Officer, was I speeding?” Smith said, “Yes, sir.” The admiral said to the judge, “Why shouldn’t I be here? I was speeding. I got a ticket. I am supposed to go through the process. I don’t get any special treatment.” The admiral insisted he get the appropriate punishment and points on his license, which was four points. The admiral owned his failure, complimented Smith for his professionalism and left. The admiral then went to speak to Smith’s CO and XO and “chewed them out” for insinuating he didn’t have to be there.
Smith’s command then tried to pull him from patrol and put him on a permanent desk position. Smith threatened to go talk to the admiral. His command relented and the unit shaped up to be fair. Smith said, “That let me know in my heart that I can enforce the black and white rules and I still learned the spirit of the law….Nobody is above the law.” From then on, Smith wanted to stay in law enforcement and to go as high as he could in the Navy. That was a highlight of his career and then his next challenge was investigator school with the Army. He became a Command Investigator, which has many privileges such as carrying a weapon both on and off base, a civilian clothes allowance, working on cases out in town with NCIS or your own cases. He could self-activate as an investigator at his discretion. He conducted cases with many agencies, including the ATF, when asked to support a local investigation into foreign-based individuals attempting to buy weapons at a nightclub out in town from non-interested service members.
Smith attended Command Investigator School in 2002. He got a yellow ID card stating he could do cases both on and off base. He worked with NCIS many times and worked on many joint cases. Smith did a lot of special operations law enforcement cases he developed and then coordinated with different agencies. The special operations orders would get signed off on by the CO and Smith could bring outside law enforcement members with him.
Transitioning to civilian life and Hollywood
Smith was brought in to support technical advising on NCIS: New Orleans for the first season by retired NCIS Special Agent D’Wayne Swear. He and Smith had worked together for about 15 years on joint cases. Swear needed help with military advising for the show. He started work on a Friday at 2 pm and the filming ran until sunrise on Saturday morning. This shocked Smith and he did not initially want to come back, but Swear had to take a vacation and Smith was called in. “My first time working as a sub in place of Swear was in Jackson Square in NOLA in front of the Saint Louis Cathedral.” The show was filming an arrest of a murder suspect. Smith did not like what was being filmed and he stepped in to speak with the director and the star of the show, Scott Bakula. Bakula and the director said, “Show us what you would do.” They wanted to film agents coming in with guns out and handcuffing a suspect. He suggested that the agents grab the suspect, search them, sit them down and if they try anything then make the arrest. Having the guns out and a big group making an arrest was too much. Smith showed them how to do it and Bakula wanted to know the handcuff techniques. The director wanted more from Smith and made sure he was given the script ahead of time.
NCIS
Unfortunately, Special Agent Swear passed away and Smith was asked to take his place on the show for the next season. He took a proactive stance on the show and would make suggestions if he saw something that was incorrect or did not look right. “I quickly learned the rules of the road and how I was supposed to advise the director and actors in the scenes.” The cast and crew enjoyed his enthusiasm, engagement and suggestions for the show. Smith made adjustments to the creative and nuanced elements of the show and wanted to ensure everything “looked right.” He focused on being a “team player” and planning for each shoot to ensure professionalism and team spirit. The show filmed a big shootout sequence and wanted Smith’s opinion on it. He shared nine points that should be fixed and they had to come in over a weekend to re-film it correctly. Bakula sought Smith’s insights and what he had suggested.
Of the nine suggestions Smith initially made, the show integrated one of them. Even with all of the gunfire in the scene, none of the characters die. It seemed “unrealistic,” which Smith bumped on. Bakula showed further interest and publicly backed Smith in his desire to make the show the best. This situation led to Smith’s “further integration” into the show and becoming an even more impactful member of the team. Smith’s success via his team player focus, work ethic and professionalism led him to be called in to be the technical adviser for NCIS: Hawaii. He was given further respect and impact opportunities on the new show. Higher-ups, including one of the producers, looked out for Smith and ensured his voice was heard.
Life ahead
Smith plans to write more and loves telling stories. He has visited the writer’s room for The Orville with Seth MacFarlane and was given a mentor for writing. He learned many things from his mentor and how to write for television. Smith also learned to “keep asking for his writing opportunity” and he has been pressing forward with his writing. Smith also enjoys mentoring the youth at his church about life and career choices.” He explains to them how he “made it out of Mississippi” and is “doing great things from his service experience.” He has further plans to produce and do creative projects in the industry. Smith wrote, produced and acted in his short film as a proof of concept for a Coast Guard Justice series titled Go Ask The Chief. “It is about the Coast Guards AWOL Recovery Team tracking and capturing young Coast Guardsmen who have deserted their units and returned them to face the Chiefs that will mentor or punish them as a part of the military non-judicial process. My ultimate goal is to help military people and I want to do military shows….If I do a military show, I want military people in acting roles in it.” Smith is the CEO of the startup Military Television Network and is a Managing Partner at Joint Forces Production LLC with his daughter Michelle Smith.
