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Ghana�s Defence Minister, Lieutenant-General Joseph Henry Smith has been declared the West African Defense Minister of the Year 2012 by the African Leadership magazine at the 2nd West African Security and Safety Awards Dinner held in Accra on October 30, 2012. In an address read by the Editor in Chief of the magazine, Ken Giami, he intimated that the selection was based on the efforts of people to help their communities to ensure peace and security to enable them go about their activities in a world of turbulence. It was on this basis that Lieutenant-General Smith was chosen. The General is a proud recipient of many foreign and local awards and honours including United Nations Peacekeeping Award in 1976, Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce �Ambassador at Large� and �Admiral of the Texas Navy� award by the State of Texas in 1991, among others. Lt.-General JH Smith completed Achimota School in 1963 and was enlisted into the Ghana Military Academy (GMA). He was commissioned into the Ghana Army Corps of Engineer as a 2nd lieutenant in October 1965. Lt.-General JH Smith is a graduate of the Pakistan Military Engineering College, the United States Army Engineer College and the United States Marine Corps Command and Staff College (USMCCSC). He retired from the Ghana Armed Forces with the rank of Lieutenant-General and Chief of the Army Staff (C.O.A.S.).