Nearly everyone remembered Shawn A. Smiley the same way: he loved to fly.
He had the same passion and commitment for flying as he did for his family — mother, wife and three children — who were his cheerleaders. He was known as “big dog,” “fly boy,” and even “Michael Jackson,” and walked with the same confidence as the King of Pop.
Maybe that’s why Smiley wanted to join the Atlanta Police Department at the relatively advanced age 36. As friends, family and fellow officers told it, Smiley was an aviator who wanted to serve. He was a man who worked hard for his wife and children, who he called “T-Bug,” “Love Bug” and “WD-40.”
“Your dad was a real and actual hero, not a microwave hero, not a made-up hero,” Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said Saturday to Smiley’s children, ages 5, 7 and 9. “He gets a call and he goes with his colleague, Officer Halford, and they don’t even blink. And they get in a machine that’s not even supposed to leave the ground, they defy gravity, and they go to find a 9-year-old child, and in the process they sacrifice their own life.”
Smiley, 40, died Nov. 3 when the helicopter he and Richard J. Halford, 48, were using to search for a missing boy crashed near the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. and Hamilton E. Holmes drives near I-20.
Smiley’s funeral was Saturday at First Baptist Church Atlanta on North Peachtree Road. As with Halford’s funeral on Friday, hundreds of police officers from throughout Georgia and around the country attended the three-hour service.
“I’m going to tell you what he was thinking about when he was in that helicopter: he was thinking about [his children], he was thinking about them lost,” said Joshua Sanders, Smiley’s best friend. The two met in college where Smiley was Sanders’ drill team instructor.
“When he walked, he heard theme music in his head,” Sanders said. “He had a swagger.”
Smiley also met another important figure while at Savannah State University. It was a woman, Terra, who later became his wife.
“I watched your love grow, and I watched you burn with a desire to go somewhere,” said Pastor Ricky Temple of Overcoming Faith Ministries in Savannah. “Every dream didn’t come true, but he kept fighting for a new dream.
Like the best pilots in the movie “Top Gun,” all Smiley talked about was flying, Sanders said. But his career as a pilot was almost cut short after a motorcycle crash badly injured his arms and nearly took his life. Not stopping, Smiley bulked up in the gym, telling everyone he wanted to get his body strong.
Smiley, of Lithonia, worked several jobs and briefly flew commercially with American Eagle, a subsidiary of American Airlines, before going through the academy to be an Atlanta Police officer in October 2010. APD Air Unit Sgt. David Tolleson said Smiley “literally stalked me” for about six months.
“Every time I turned around, there was Shawn in his blue, little recruit uniform,” he said.
The so-called stalking didn’t stop once Smiley finished with the academy and was assigned to the Department’s Zone 2 precinct. Then a spot opened in the Air Unit, which meant “hundreds and hundreds of officers came through my office to interview,” Tolleson said.
Smiley was chosen, something that was unheard of for an officer so early in their career, Tolleson said. He served as a tactical flight officer, commonly known as a spotter. Smiley’s flight last Saturday was his third with the air unit.
Memorial funds have been set up to help their families. Donations will be accepted at any Wells Fargo bank location for the Officer Richard Halford Memorial Fund and/or the Officer Shawn Smiley Memorial Fund.
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