By John Johnston
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Retired Col. Dean Smittle is surrounded by the maps he uses to keep track of world events for the WLW-AM morning show. (Glenn Hartong photo) | ZOOM |

Once bombs started falling on Iraq, retired Air Force Col. Dean Smittle's profile began rising on local radio and television stations.

"The pace has picked up quite a bit," says the 68-year-old unpaid military analyst, who lives in Delhi Township with his wife, Claire, a library assistant who helps him with research.

When Tempo wrote about Smittle in January, he was being heard about 7:55 each weekday morning on Jim Scott's WLW-AM (700) show. (His WLW spot has since moved to 6:55.)

About a week before the war started, he began appearing on WCPO-TV's (Channel 9) Good Morning Tri-State program, usually in the 5 o'clock hour.

And since the fighting began, his on-air presence has increased significantly on both WLW and Channel 9. The radio station has plugged him into its Clear Channel network, which broadcasts nationwide. He has sometimes appeared on Channel 9's late afternoon news. In both cases, Smittle describes weaponry and troop movements and offers other insights gleaned from more than three decades of service in the Air Force and Army.

In the meantime, the 1952 Batavia High graduate continues to give his "Thumbs Up America" lectures at libraries and civic clubs. He recently spoke to a group of local parents of West Point cadets.

Monitoring the war's progress in the last week, he says he's concerned about attacks on the long supply line stretching from Kuwait almost to Baghdad. Iraqi Fedayeen fighters are "taking potshots at us around that supply line. This guerilla stuff is going to be very difficult to combat. Not impossible, but it's going to slow us down," he says.

He's also keeping an eye on the northern front established a few days ago by paratroopers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade. "Those guys are a tough bunch. I served with those fellas briefly in Vietnam."

Seeing the faces of the men and women serving this country causes him to recall World War II, when so many young people went to war.

"It's a completely different generation," he says, but in some ways, quite similar. "Very dedicated, very determined, and wanting to do their part. But they're so young."

E-mail jjohnston@enquirer.com