DAVID A. (DAVE) TOSH
PATRIOT, Chapter 1919
ARMY, IRAQ
David A. Tosh
was born in Cherokee County, Texas in 1972. His father had served in
the Air Force during Vietnam, following which he enrolled in the University
of Texas at Austin, studying under
ROTC scholarship. When his father was commissioned in 1978, six year-old
David proudly helped pin on his dad’s gold Second Lieutenant bars during the
ceremony that was held in the LBJ Library. David attended public schools in
Texas and New Mexico and graduated from Manzano
High School in Albuquerque. He then attended
Sam Houston State University in Huntsville.
Following his graduation in 1994, Dave went to work in SW Houston as a police officer. But, that life changed suddenly after 9/11. David
says, “I enlisted in the Army to fight terrorists!” He also took
time to get married in Lakeway on October 14, 2001 to Anne-Marie, a
Westwood High School graduate that was attending the
University of Texas.
David Tosh
went through Basic Training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma and then was sent to
Officer Candidate School at Fort Benning,
Georgia. He says, “I was commissioned on
September 5, 2002 by Colonel Robert Nett, a
Medal Of Honor recipient in the Philippines in 1944. He is
my greatest hero. My father and my wife pinned my 2nd Lt bars on,
using the exact same bars I had pinned on my dad back in 1978. That was a
very, very special ceremony.”
Assigned to the Armor branch, he went through the Armor Officer Basic Course
at Fort Knox, Kentucky and was sent from
there to Fort Polk, Louisiana where he was further
assigned to the 1st Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Regiment (Light).
Two months after his arrival at Fort
Polk the regiment deployed to
Kuwait. David says, “I was a Platoon Leader in B Troop when we arrived
in April 2003. After two weeks of training at
Camp Udairi and Camp Victory, we pushed
north. We were attached to the 1st Armored Division and my platoon was
specifically attached to Company A, 2nd Bn., 37th Armor for a while.
The squadron set up camp
in a deplorable burned out technical college in Sadr City that we named
Forward Operating Base War Eagle. My platoon conducted daily combat patrols
in east Baghdad and Al Fadhiliya, and performed numerous cordon and search
operations, capturing militants and illegal weapons. We also performed a lot
of humanitarian missions. Because we were a squadron of scouts, we
performed many missions for 1st Armored Division as far west as the
outskirts of Fallujah and as far north as Diyala / Narhawan. Because of my
law enforcement background, I was given the job of recruiting and training
Iraqi Facility Protection Officers (IFPS) within the local area of
responsibility. On the night of Oct 14, 2003 (that just happened to be my
2nd wedding anniversary), we were enroute to the Iraqi Police Station to
pick up officers for a joint patrol when my platoon was struck with two
Improvised Explosive Devices. One 155mm artillery round was buried in the
median and another one near a tree on the opposite side of the road. The
blasts were simultaneous, hitting both sides of my Humvee and another
vehicle. In my vehicle, the interpreter received fragmentation wounds to the
face and arm, the rifleman had a dislocated shoulder, and I had shell
fragments in my right hand. We dismounted and called for support from an
Apache attack helicopter that was on our radio net. Although this happened
10 kilometers from our camp, they heard the explosion and called to ask if
we needed 120mm mortar illumination rounds, which I called for. The
attackers had been well concealed and escaped before we could destroy them.
After being treated at the Squadron Aid Station and the Regimental Aid
Station, I was returned to duty with the platoon a few days later.”
The 2nd Cavalry Regiment
was set to return home after one year (April 2004), but was extended until
July 2004 because of the “Sadr uprising.” The final three months were spent
in Al Kut. After returning to the United States, 1st Lieutenant David Tosh
was assigned to Fort Knox, Kentucky where he currently serves as Executive
Officer, Company A, 1st Bn., 46th Infantry.
David and Anne-Marie are expecting the birth
of their first child, a son, this month, maybe by the time you receive this
newsletter. Then, after completing his term of service in November, David
will be discharged and they will move to Austin. He says, “I want to
work as a deputy with the Travis County Sheriff’s Department (if they’ll
hire me!), I will go into the Army Reserves, and I look forward to being an
active member of MOPH Chapter 1919. Anne-Marie graduated in 2004 with a
degree in psychology and she will also be looking for work in the
Austin area.”
Patriots, stay alert, next month’s issue will report the baby’s name and,
after that David should be around to talk to us in person about his
experiences.
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