Navy veteran and alum takes the helm of military-connected and ROTC programs
Blaze Smith paints part of a missile's vertical launching system as part of his duties aboard the USS Porter during a tour of the Mediterranean. Sailors must regularly clean off any new rust buildup and paint the ship's surfaces to protect them from the elements while at sea. Smith now brings his experience as an active-duty enlisted man and as a former client of the university's Veterans Education and Transition Services program to his role as director of VETS and ROTC and as an advocate for all military-connected students on campus.
Photo courtesy of Blaze Smith
U.S. Navy veteran Blaze Smith will wrap up his first semester at the helm of the Veterans Education and Transition Services and Reserve Officer Training Corps programs at the University of Arizona on course and under full sail.
While the job is new, the VETS Center on the fourth floor of the Student Union Memorial Center is a familiar port for Smith, who spent many hours there during his time as both an undergraduate and graduate student at the U of A. He hopes to bring to bear his experience as a veteran and as a former VETS client to help increase the number and types of programs offered to all military-connected U of A students – veterans, active-duty personnel and members of the National Guard and reserves, as well as their spouses and dependents.
Smith grew up in Tucson and chose to move back and enroll at the university in 2018 following a six-year stint in the Navy's surface warfare fleet, where he serviced tactical Tomahawk missiles aboard the USS Porter, joining the crew in 2012 just after the destroyer collided with an oil tanker near the Strait of Hormuz, which separates the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.
When he first arrived on campus, Smith expected to excel. However, he found himself struggling with the self-paced nature of academia.
"The 'operational tempo,' which is what we would call it, was really different at the university. Things just moved a lot slower here and that could be very frustrating," Smith recalled. "Because, in the military, there was always a goalpost that you could hit every single day, set from above. Then all of a sudden, I find myself in this space where I was in charge of the goalpost and where I wanted it to be, and I found myself feeling alone, feeling unaccomplished, and just not adapting well as a whole."
Uncertain of his bearings, he enrolled at Pima Community College the next semester and briefly considered taking up a trade before he met a pair of VETS Center staffers, who encouraged him to reenroll at the university and use the center to connect with the hundreds of other veterans on campus who could relate to his initial lackluster experience with higher education and provide the support and camaraderie he missed the first time.
The connections and resources he found helped him excel in his business administration classes in the Eller College of Management. He eventually joined the staff, working as a peer counselor until graduation, and dropped by frequently while he pursued a master's in environmental science at the U of A. His plan was to have a career with the National Park Service or similar agency.
That plan was well underway after he received his master's this past May. Not long after, though, former VETS Director Bruce Grissom asked Smith to apply to replace him and to oversee operations of the university's three ROTC detachments.
"It seemed odd to go to school to manage wildlife and conservation efforts and to then turn around and go back to working with (the VETS program,)" Smith said. "But my wife told me, 'All the time since you started your master's program, you have been saying that if you got a chance to work with VETS full time you would do it.' So, I said yes to Bruce."
Blaze Smith took over as director of the VETS Centers and ROTC programs in August.
Photo courtesy of Blaze Smith
VETS currently serves 6,000 military-connected students, both in person and online, providing information on a wide range of topics including the GI Bill, tuition assistance and other benefits, as well as universitywide student programming and services. It also operates two student centers – one in the Student Union Memorial Center and another on the University of Arizona Health Sciences campus – where students can access a suite of resources, from free printing and coffee to peer advocacy, academic support, and career counseling for graduating seniors.
Smith's primary goal is to reach as many military-connected students as possible to ensure they have the support and resources they need to achieve their goals at the U of A, and beyond. Smith said he thinks the most important service VETS and ROTC provide is community, giving students someplace they can go to be understood and heard.
"My greatest strength here is that I was one of these students," Smith said. "I know what they're going through. We all have unique situations and experiences, but I recognize that this is a difficult part of their lives, there are a lot of challenges. We're all nontraditional students in a lot of ways. So, a lot of it for me is about making sure that they have what they need the most. I recognize that as a leader of this community, my job is to make sure that they have a voice which can communicate their issues to the university's administration."
He also hopes to build connections with active-duty members of the military and to continue to build on the reputation that earned the university the No. 4 overall spot on the Military Times rankings of the best universities in the U.S. for military service members and No. 3 among public universities. To that end, Smith led sailors assigned to the not-yet-commissioned USS Arizona, a new fast attack submarine, on a tour of campus this month highlighting the memorials to their vessel's namesake, the battleship USS Arizona, and giving the group a glimpse of artifacts such as the ship's bell.
While he possesses firsthand knowledge of the programs and services offered by VETS, he's in far less familiar waters with the other half of his programmatic portfolio, ROTC, and so he has made a concerted effort to cultivate a good rapport with the active-duty commanders and cadet leaders of all three detachments.
"I've never been an officer. I was never in ROTC. I don't understand the life, but I know that they do, so I let them lead the way and I act as a support for them," he said. "I try to amplify their voices and project their energy to the campus community and Tucson."
Smith's first semester will close with a flurry of activity on National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, which is Saturday, Dec. 7. The annual commemoration of the attack on Hawaii, led by the Navy ROTC unit, at the USS Arizona Memorial on the U of A Mall will serve as the lead-in to the fourth annual Remember the Arizona 5K. Also, that morning, the Navy ROTC unit will face off against its Army counterpart for a flag football game that mirrors the annual Army-Navy Game, which will be played Dec. 14.