![\"Roy](\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Roy-Tisdale-288x300.jpg\")
<\/a><\/center><\/p>\nOn June 28th, 2012, Lieutenant Colonel Roy Tisdale<\/a> was murdered while he was giving a safety briefing to his troops in preparation for the 4th of July weekend at Fort Bragg, NC.<\/p>\n Smitty served under him and wanted to remember him on the anniversary of his early departure, so these are Smitty’s words;<\/p>\n In early 04, rumors started to spread that the 1\/509th inf (Airborne) was going to deploy for the first time since ww2. We had a BC that wanted to get famous, and pushing for the JRTC Opfor to get deployed seemed an easy way to do it. I was in B co at the time, a pretty young private not even 19 yet when we were told that our 2 infantry companies would deploy, but D troop and HHC would stay in Ft Polk. About this same time, the company commander of B co broke his leg on a training jump, and a man named Captain Roy Tisdale, at the time the commander of D troop, stepped up and volunteered to lead B co into Iraq. Captain Tisdale was a very unique comander, he was approachable and valued every one of his soldiers. There wasn’t a lower enlisted guy in our company that he wouldn’t walk up to and shoot the breeze with, just to see how everyone was doing and get their feed back. People might have gotten the idea he actually cared about his soldiers, then he proved it.<\/p>\n About a month before our deployment, Captain Tisdale was promoted to Major and given the option to take a battalion level job and have our executive officer take over B co. Now Maj Tisdale said that these were his men, he trained up with them, he wasn’t going to leave them right on the verge of going to war. If Major Tisdale was respected before hand, he was loved at that point. The entire time we were deployed, Major Tisdale continued to lead the same way we had come to expect of him. Every chance he had, he would be on of our patrols, doing 18 hours right next to the “joes”. We were attached to 4\/31 inf 10th mountain, and it didn’t take long for the 10th mountain guys to notice Major Tisdale either. Numerous times some of their guys would ask who screwed up that a Major was tagging along with us or why we were being baby sat. Eventually they came to expect to see Major Tisdale helping load up the trucks at the staging area. I had an E-6 from 4\/31 tell me once that I didn’t know how lucky I was to have a Co like Major Tisdale. His Co had left the wire maybe a dozen times the entire deployment, and that was usually to go to camp victory for the dining facility. He was right, I was too young and new to the unit, I didn’t know anything about the previous Co, (can’t even remember his name now) and was in for a shock when we got home and Major Tisdale left B co. Major Tisdale hung around the battalion for a while, then moved over to ops group. Until the day I discharged, Major Tisdale would still come out to the box and come find us just to shoot the breeze and see how every one was doing.<\/p>\n We come up on the anniversary of his murder, and I’m flooded by memories a decade old. Of a man who was so much more than a company commander to all of B co 1\/509. I hear of this kid that shot him, and knowing nothing else, I am certain the only reason that kid wasn’t still locked up at that time, was because LTC Tisdale stuck up for him. Right after we came home, a good friend of mine and a young E-5 got addicted to pain killers and did everything he could to trash his military career. One night, after Kevin took a few too many pills and a few too many beers, he spotted a pizza delivery car still running, and decided to liberate it. He didn’t get too far before post was locked down and the MPs were all over him. Maj Tisdale went and got that young buck sergeant first thing the next morning, insisting rather strongly that Kevin be released to him. Maj Tisdale got my friend into rehab and helped him get his act straight. What should have been a fast dishonorable discharge if not prison time, turned around and finished his enlistment. Kevin ended up with an honorable discharge and keeping his E-5 because Maj Tisdale was always willing to go to bat for his soldiers, and willing to give anyone a chance. I can tell many stories of Maj Tisdale doing similar things for his “joes” that didn’t work out as well in the end, but it never stopped him from doing everything he could for any of them.<\/p>\n Knowing nothing about what happened at Ft Bragg, only that the kid had been popped and arrested for stealing from the motor pool, I’d say it is a safe bet that LTC Tisdale had tried to help him the same way he had helped Kevin, and so many others, so many years ago. My prayers are still with his family, but it makes me smile that such a man, willing to give anything of himself to help his men, was a part of my life. <\/p>\n The army lost a great man and officer 3 years ago. I can’t believe it has already been that much time. More than anything, ill always remember the half smirk he gave people when they did something stupid. I don’t think I ever heard him yell, but he had no problems telling someone they were an idiot when they did something stupid. <\/p>\n R.I.P LTC Roy Tisdale, the world is a better place for the brief time you were on it.<\/p>\n![\"Roy](\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Roy-Tisdale-son-300x173.jpg\")
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