Honoring A Fallen Comrade: 1SG Tobias Meister
On December 28th, 2005 the 321st experienced our first combat lost here in Afghanistan with the death of First Sergeant Tobias "Toby" Meister.
Services were held last Friday in his hometown of Jenks, Oklahoma.
1SG Meister, 30, was a loving husband and father of an 18 month old son. His death was an incredible loss to our organization and we will all miss him terribly. Our thoughts, prayers and love go to his family at this difficult time.
I had been on leave back in Austin and found out the night before I left to come back to Afghanistan. My wife and I met his wife and son at our going away picnic just before we deployed. Such a beautiful family. A very sobering reminder of the dramatic costs being paid here and in Iraq every day. Every nine hours to be exact.
1SG Meister was truly a soldier's soldier being named the "U.S. Army Reserve Drill Sergeant of the Year" in 2002, he was at one time head of the Drill Sergeant school at Ft. Jackson, SC. To have made the rank of First Sergeant before the age of thirty is truly a remarkable accomplishment that indicates just what a tremendous asset he was to our team and equally what a devastating loss his death has been to his family, his friends and to us.
He was traveling between our PRT here at Jalalabad and his PRT just a few hours north of us in Asadabad when his vehicle was hit with an IED. Indications were that his death was instantaneous and there was no suffering. An Afghan national, an interpreter was also killed. One Marine was seriously injured but is recovering back home.
Here is another post that has a photo and more detailed biography. What an amazing man. A true role model for us all to follow.
1SG Meister, you will be missed. Your life will be honored every day that Afghans are free to speak and go to school and improve their lives free of tyrany. And we will be here to continue to ensure that they have that chance. As long as is necessary.
Update
Someone from the Asadabad PRT put together a very nice memorial video for him.
Services were held last Friday in his hometown of Jenks, Oklahoma.
1SG Meister, 30, was a loving husband and father of an 18 month old son. His death was an incredible loss to our organization and we will all miss him terribly. Our thoughts, prayers and love go to his family at this difficult time.
I had been on leave back in Austin and found out the night before I left to come back to Afghanistan. My wife and I met his wife and son at our going away picnic just before we deployed. Such a beautiful family. A very sobering reminder of the dramatic costs being paid here and in Iraq every day. Every nine hours to be exact.
1SG Meister was truly a soldier's soldier being named the "U.S. Army Reserve Drill Sergeant of the Year" in 2002, he was at one time head of the Drill Sergeant school at Ft. Jackson, SC. To have made the rank of First Sergeant before the age of thirty is truly a remarkable accomplishment that indicates just what a tremendous asset he was to our team and equally what a devastating loss his death has been to his family, his friends and to us.
He was traveling between our PRT here at Jalalabad and his PRT just a few hours north of us in Asadabad when his vehicle was hit with an IED. Indications were that his death was instantaneous and there was no suffering. An Afghan national, an interpreter was also killed. One Marine was seriously injured but is recovering back home.
Here is another post that has a photo and more detailed biography. What an amazing man. A true role model for us all to follow.
1SG Meister, you will be missed. Your life will be honored every day that Afghans are free to speak and go to school and improve their lives free of tyrany. And we will be here to continue to ensure that they have that chance. As long as is necessary.
Update
Someone from the Asadabad PRT put together a very nice memorial video for him.
12 Comments:
Another reminder that life is fleeting.It is good to remember that the quality of our life is of greater import than the quantity of years. "I am a part of all that I have met" is a famous quotation. Each of you in your group will be a different person because you met Tobias Meister.
Please accept my heartfelt condolences.
We will miss you Toby. You were the greatest person I ever knew and I love you so much. Wish you were still here.
You always strived to be the best of the best in any endeavor. Your legacy will live forever at the Drill Sergeant School. Its all good brother, all the soldiers are trained.
I type this with tears in my eyes as I think about the loss suffered by his wife and son, our nation, your unit and humanity as a whole. What a beautiful son who will never really know his father. But he will grow up in the knowledge that his father was a great man, respected and loved by so many and willing to lay his life down so that other children could grow up with the peace and freedom that he experiences.
Thank you Sgt Meister.
Stay safe cousin.
With love,
BK
Sometimes, a man touches people in ways he will never know he could have. 1sg was a man like that. I asked him a few months ago if he honestly knew how many people looked up to him. He knew people did but not as many as there really are. I think I can speak for almost everyone here in Asadabad when I say that; “1sg Toby Meister is truly a Hero and a man any one of us can look up to and learn from.” I know in the few short months I have spent with him he has shown me ways to grow as a soldier and a man. I will always be in debt to the many times he and I sat down and talked about the things going on in my life. Every time we spoke about a problem or any random issue, he always showed me another way to look at a situation and assess it. Many times he showed me something about those situations I never would have seen. And more than once he saved me a lot of trouble before I could open my mouth. He taught me a lot about being a good soldier, and just as much about being a good man and father. He will be missed.
Always Missed, Never forgotten!
As for the link to the video on the blog. The video was created by SSG Scott D. Cole. He was our medic here in A-bad.
CPL Anthony Felscher
PRT Asadabad
Thanks for posting Sgt. Kling's video memorial for Sgt. Meister. It is fantastic!
Please pass on my congratulations to him and my condolences to his wife and son.
May God bless Toby's work in the Army and multiply its results a hundredfold.
"As for the link to the video on the blog. The video was created by SSG Scott D. Cole. He was our medic here in A-bad.
CPL Anthony Felscher
PRT Asadabad"
---My mistake, Cpl. I didn't read the comments until after I posted to FS. Thanks, Sgt. Cole, for the video! You did a fantastic job!
Thank you to all of you serving overseas on behalf of all of us back home. We love "you guys"! And Thank You to your families for sharing you with us!
I send all my greatest sympathy for this loss. It will always be with you, though with the passage of time grief finally evolves past the immediacy of the pain into the memories of shared laughter, happy times, good done, trials endured, knowledge of duty done.
1SG Tobias Meister, American hero, I feel the most profound gratitude for the sacrifice you have made for your nation and for me and mine. In that place where there is no sorrow and where all tears have passed away, know joy and peace in the warmth and light of the Creator.
God bless and keep 1SG Meister's wife and son, his other family and all who called him comrade and friend.
I met Toby when he was a candidate in the Drill Sergeant School and my husband was in command. I knew right away that he was someone who was headed for greatness. He has achieved that greatness, many times over. I think of his precious wife and son often and pray for them. Time has passed but I know that a life without Toby has to be almost unbearable. I am still thinking of you and praying for you both, Alisha, and for Toby's parents, family, and friends. My husband loved Toby like a brother and misses him tremendously. We lost a GREAT American soldier.
it was a honor serving for/with 1SGT Meister in the times i was in asdabad supporting the prt, in the short time i knew him he made an effect on me as well as everyone else on the prt. rest in peace man, see you on the other side
FFXI GIL
Welcome to our website for you World of Warcraft Gold,Wow Gold,Cheap World of Warcraft Gold,cheap wow gold,buy cheap wow gold,real wow gold,sell wow gold, ...
Here wow gold of 1000 gold at $68.99-$80.99 ,World Of Warcraft Gold,buy wow gold,sell world of warcraft gold(wow gold),buy euro gold wow Cheap wow gold,cheapest wow gold store ... ffxi gil buy euro gold wow wow gold--buy cheap wow gold,sell wow gold.welcome to buy cheap wow gold--cheap, easy, wow gold purchasing.World of Warcraft,wow gold Super ...
We can have your wow gold,buy wow gold,wow gold game,world of warcraft gold, wow Gold Cheap wow, Cheap wow gold,world of warcraft gold deal,Cheap WOW Gold ...
Welcome to our website for you World of Warcraft Gold,Wow Gold,Cheap World of Warcraft Gold,wow gold,buy cheap wow gold,real wow gold,sell wow gold, ...
Here wow gold of 1000 gold at $68.99-$80.99,World Of Warcraft Gold,buy wow gold,sell world of warcraft gold(wow gold),buy gold wow lightninghoof instock Cheap wow gold,cheapest wow gold store ...
ffxi gil wow gold--buy cheap wow gold,sell wow gold.welcome to buy cheap wow gold--cheap, easy, wow gold purchasing.World of Warcraft,wow gold Super ...
Wow gold- Gold for buy gold wow lightninghoof instock EU-Server: ...wow Gold EU: starting from 84,99?; 3000 WoW Gold EU: starting from 119,99?. wow Gold- Leveling Services: ...
We can have your wow Gold,buy wow Gold,wow Gold game,wow gold, Cheap wow Gold, Cheap World of Warcraft Gold,world of warcraft gold deal,buy cheap wow gold,Cheap WOW Gold ...
Here wow Gold of 1000 gold at $68.99-$80.99,World Of Warcraft Gold,buy wow Gold,sell world of warcraft gold(wow gold),Cheap wow gold,cheapest World of Warcraft Gold store ...
Post a Comment
<< Home