Guys war

This website is dedicated to my Grandfather, Guy D. Smith, who not only has made a great contribution to the study of soil science in his life, but also documented/filmed much of the construction of the Ledo Road in WWII.

May - July 2002

(Srinigar, Kashmir; India) I sit on the cold tile floor of a small yellow room pondering the war outside my door. If it weren’t for the annoying buzz coming from the light on the ceiling above me, my thoughts would be totally uninterrupted. I come to this room when the gunfire from the soldiers and rebels gets too violent. I was told to sit on the floor inside the innermost room where the stray bullets are the least likely to find me. The humidity penetrates my clothing. The wall to my side is covered in mold, it is spanning out in a web from the scrap of cloth that has been tied around a leaky pipe. This place I have called home now. The meaning of home I still ponder. AES

(Srinigar, Kashmir; India) Currently I sit outside the houseboat, it is evening now. Upbeat Hindi music is coming from a Shikara boat passing by, and my feet dangle in the warm water. Slowly now, it is beginning to rain.

Yesterday the entire family and I made a long journey by car to a mosque called Baba Shakur Din, where a holy man is buried. The mosque sits on a hilltop overlooking the largest lake in Asia. Inside is a stone casket where the holy man lays. People journey here from all over India to say a prayer and make a wish that will hopefully come true. When you make your wish, you tie a small piece of fabric from one of your outfits or a bangle to the casket. I saw many very sick people there who would just lay down on the floor in tears begging. I guess it is true, all that is left for them to do is to pray.

I too made a wish and tied a small piece of brown fabric from my outfit to the casket, when it is granted I am supposed to journey back and remove another one. I can tell though that there are many ungranted wishes for the temple over flows with them. AES

 

 

I began journaling in 2001, after a trip across Europe which took some very memorable turns. In May of 2002, my journaling took a new twist when I found myself in Kashmir, India at the height of the Pakistan India Nuclear Crisis. I wrote letters home that were published in several journals, and also had interviews as a foreigner living in the midst of the violence.

I continued writing for newspapers and magazines in the Netherlands (de Hanze), France (Neuropeans), and Lithuania (Lithuania Today). I also worked as a proof reader and writer for several businesses during my time abroad.

Today I am working on documenting and typing the hundreds of letters my grandfather sent home to my grandmother during WWII from 1942 to 1947. My final goal is to combine the videos and letters he has into a book. Stay tuned.

Please feel free to contact me at - amy@guyswar.com

 

Guy Smith's Family

 

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About Amy Smith

I was born in Baltimore, Maryland. Upon graduation of high school, I joined the U.S. Army as a Preventive Medicine Specialist. Fron here I traveled to Fort Leonard Wood (MO) for Basic Training, San Antonio (TX) to train in the medical sciences field at the Fort Sam Houston Academy of Health Sciences, and was then stationed in Aberdeen Proving Grounds - Edgewood Arsenal for my first duty station.

During my Active Duty time in service, I worked for the U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine (USACHPPM). I spent my first two years working for CHPPM's Entomological Sciences Department, in a DNA Laboratory. I was then chosen to work in the Office of the Commanding General (CG) for our unit.

After four years of working for the Active Duty U.S. Army I moved to Arizona, where I completed my BSc Degree at Northern Arizona University in Public Relations, with a minor in Business. At the same time I was also serving with the U.S. Army National Guard at Camp Navajo.

In my third year of my undergraduate, I traveled to Groningen, Netherlands to study European Perspectives on International Communication with the School of Communication and Media at the Hanze University Groningen.

Upon graduation, I traveled to Lithuania to begin my MSc degree in International Business Management at a private Norwegian-based university. I was the first American to graduate from this Masters Program in the history of the University and the second foreigner who ever attended the program. I then moved to Colorado, which is where I still reside.

In 2011, I completed my Professional Human Resources (PHR) Certification. I currently work for a company that specializes in dam and water resource projects, as a Human Resources Generalist, and in Public Relations/Marketing.