Private First Class Smith was a medic with the Medical Company, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division. He was Killed in Action while tending his wounded comrades in South Korea on July 30, 1950.

Through the work of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, the remains of Private First Class Jimmy D. Smith were accounted for in 2023. His name is permanently inscribed on the “Courts of the Missing” at the Honolulu Memorial.