Home Programs Goizueta’s Veterans: Meet Wyatt Smeltzer

Goizueta’s Veterans: Meet Wyatt Smeltzer

November 8, 2024

Celebrating Veterans at Goizueta

This Veterans Day and throughout November, join us in celebrating veterans as we profile three remarkable members of the Goizueta community, each on a unique path but united by their shared commitment to excellence, both in service and beyond.

At Goizueta Business School, supporting veterans and active-duty military members has long been a core value, woven into the school’s identity. Goizueta welcomed its inaugural class of the new Master in Business for Veterans program earlier this year. The fully accredited 11-month program is designed for active-duty military, veterans, National Guard, and Reserve personnel. It provides tailored resources and experiences to help veterans transition into business leadership roles.

The new program is only the most recent testament to Goizueta’s enduring dedication to those who have served our country. This year, Goizueta also celebrates its largest cohort of veteran students across all programs.

Meet Wyatt Smeltzer 25MBA

When Wyatt Smeltzer 25MBA reflects on his eight-year stint in the Army, his story is punctuated with a lot of crazy tales—of adventures he signed up for as additional training—from jumping out of helicopters and swimming to the shore with all his gear to roughing it in the jungles of the Philippines for three months.

Smeltzer jokes that, looking back, he cringes to think about rappelling 100 feet out of a helicopter and the other adrenaline-fueled activities that once filled his days. At the same time, he admits that those experiences were some of the reasons he stayed in the Army.

War is a terrible thing, but seeing the bigger picture—traveling to different countries—gives you a very humbling perspective. It made me a more well-rounded person.
Wyatt Smeltzer 25MBA

Now, Smeltzer, who left the Army as a captain, is taking on a new challenge—getting his MBA at Goizueta. He is now filling his time contributing to student organizations and finding ways to help other veterans, all before he graduates in May and begins a new career in the civilian world.

How It Started

Smeltzer grew up in Pennsylvania and joined the Pennsylvania Army National Guard after high school to pay for college. During his first month in college, he saw a poster for Army ROTC and, as the saying goes, the rest is history. After college, Smeltzer reported to Fort Lee, Virginia, the first of many stops on his journey.

While Smeltzer had planned on becoming a police officer or state trooper, the Army decided he’d excel in supply chain and logistics.

Leading Logistics in the Army

Though he had not taken any supply chain classes in college, the Army sent Smeltzer to leadership courses for training. Over the course of his Army career, Smeltzer’s charge grew from 55 to 75 soldiers. He held titles including regional transportation planner and logistics company commander.

The last title he held was supply management officer. In this role, he created and executed a $21 million project plan, which provided logistics to more than 5,000 U.S. and foreign military service members for 50 days across three Hawaiian Islands.

Whether it was moving people or equipment, Smeltzer tackled all aspects of supply chain management during his time in the Army—a transferrable and valuable skill set that would serve him well in the future.

Smeltzer served one deployment during his service, and it was in the middle of COVID-19. His job was to transport soldiers who operated and maintained the communications of air-to-surface missile launchers in the Middle East. Navigating the required quarantine for these individuals during this time added an extra challenge to the task at hand.

His largest strategic contribution overseas was removing equipment from Afghanistan. During this time, the leader of an Iranian group was killed, which resulted in retaliation on U.S. bases in Iraq.

“At the time, I wasn’t privy to all of this information. My mission was just to move this equipment to other places,” says Smeltzer. “After that happened, it felt good to play a part in moving the equipment that shot down those missiles so no U.S. soldiers were hurt or killed—I actually made an impact.”

Time to Go

One of Smeltzer’s final acts in the Army was a six-month long internship, a transition period, where he worked for the Department of Defense’s POW/MIA Accounting Agency. The group works to find the roughly 70,000 missing in action and prisoners of war, going all the way back to World War II. During his internship, Smeltzer assisted with nearly 200 cases, some of which are now being resolved.

“It was my proudest personal military achievement,” recalls Smeltzer.

It was a really awesome closure to my military experience, meeting the families who didn’t know what happened to their loved one for 60 or 70 years and getting to say, “Hey, we found them.”
Wyatt Smeltzer 25MBA

Smeltzer’s last station was in Hawaii, where he got to work alongside a diverse group of people. A large portion of his unit were U.S. ethnic minorities and a third were women.

“You get to learn about different cultures,” says Smeltzer, who also met several U.S. immigrants who joined the military as a path to citizenship. “It’s very interesting the things you learn and the stories of these people.”

Smeltzer admits he never pictured himself as a leader, but that is a skill he learned, honed, and refined during his service. Through the Army, Smeltzer says he was able to test his leadership skills and become a better version of himself.

The most rewarding part of being a leader in the Army was the tons of opportunities to help other people, like young soldiers who wanted to go to college.
Wyatt Smeltzer 25MBA

Smeltzer helped dozens of aspiring soldiers apply for and enroll in college. He also taught basic financial literacy courses.

Back to Business School

When he decided it was time to leave the Army, business school seemed like the next logical step. Several of his friends went to business school to help with the transition from military to civilian life, gaining the confidence to transfer the skills they’d learned and experiences they’d had to a corporate career.

“It’s really surprising how similar the work I was doing in the military is to the real world,” shares Smeltzer.

Smeltzer praises Professors Lynne Segall and Renée Dye as well as the IMPACT program, which provides students with a safe space to work with real clients on real problems.

IMPACT was the perfect transitional class for someone who is pivoting careers. It was a perfect practice run for my internship.
Wyatt Smeltzer 25MBA

He says the class taught him how to create frameworks for projects, communicate with executives, and produce high-quality work.

“A lot of people think that people in the military are rigid thinkers, but we have a lot of flexibility to think strategically.”

Smeltzer spent the summer working for Deloitte’s Enterprise Performing Practice, where he put his military supply chain and logistics skills to work—and where he’ll return after graduation. He hopes to find projects in the trucking or airline industries.

When Smeltzer isn’t in class, he’s found every possible way to give back. He helps fellow veterans apply to Goizueta, assisting them through the enrollment process as a member of the MBA Veterans Club. He’s been a Delta Leadership Coaching fellow, president of the Goizueta Management & Operations Club, vice president of the Goizueta Technology Association, and vice president of communications for the Goizueta Business Association. He’s also served as a member of the Consulting Association and Nonprofit Consulting Club.

Through his role in the Nonprofit Consulting Club, Smeltzer has been able to give back to the greater Atlanta community, too. This experience included a project that helped a women’s shelter relocate and reorganize their transportation system.

“I love helping people out, and I love being around my peers. They’re so smart. You hear some horror stories of other business schools being super cut-throat, but it’s the exact opposite at Goizueta,” says Smeltzer. “I’ve built great friendships and that surprised me. I thought it would be more business and work relationships, but I genuinely know a lot of these people really well.”

“These friendships will last for a long time.”