Lieutenant Commander Malcolm Smith, USCG (ret.) “joined the Coast Guard in 1957 on a dare under the "buddy-system" with his lifelong friend Larry Wiliams. It was the best mistake he ever made, he said. After boot camp in Alameda, he reported to his first duty station the CGC Dione, Freeport, Texas. Then came radio school in Groton, CT. and then to the CGC Nike. After too many Campeche patrols it was off to Aviation at CGAS Corpus Christi, TX. The first of three tours at CGAS Kodiak was next, followed by a tour at San Diego. He graduated from OCS in 1965 and then on to flight training in Pensacola, FL. graduating in 1966 as aviator #1189.”  Lieutenant Commander Malcolm Smith is the author of I Never Liked Those C-130’s Anyway…:Memories of Twenty Years in the U.S. Coast Guard.

According to the book description of I Never Liked Those C-130’s Anyway…:Memories of Twenty Years in the U.S. Coast Guard, “Up through the ranks from enlisted to Lieutenant Commander as the Coast Guard transformed from the old guard to the modern Coast Guard- one of the few enlisted to become a pilot.”

The MOAA said of I Never Liked Those C-130’s Anyway…:Memories of Twenty Years in the U.S. Coast Guard, “The Coast Guard’s most colorful aviator, Malcolm Smith, recounts his career and rise from ordinary swabby to legendary search and rescue helicopter pilot. Humor abounds through 20 years of escapades.”