Army promotion brings local native back home

By William K. Alcorn

Tobias was promoted on YSU’s Dike Beede Field at Stambaugh Auditorium.

YOUNGSTOWN — “Youngstown is my power base. I’m humbled to be here where it all started,” said Army Lt. Col. Daniel L. Tobias, after having his lieutenant colonel bars pinned on his beret by his father, Michael, and on his shoulders by his daughters, Barbara, 13, and Daniella, 12.

“Dad gave me life, and I give him back respect by serving our country,” said Tobias, who wanted to come home to be promoted from major to lieutenant colonel so his father, whom he has not seen in five years, could be present.

“I’m very proud of Daniel,” said his father, who served in the Navy during World War II aboard the USS Lyons, and was a gunner on troop landing barges. Michael Tobias, retired from Lordstown General Motors, lives in New Middletown.

Daniel Tobias, a 1983 graduate of Woodrow Wilson High School, was promoted Tuesday morning in the company of family and friends on Youngstown State University’s Dike Beede Field at Stambaugh Auditorium, where he played football as a young man.

He and his family are on vacation here from Japan, where he is stationed with United States Forces Japan at Yokota Air Base. They will return to Japan for two more years to finish out his tour there.

Strangely enough, it was a football injury and his bad temper that started him on his highly successful military career, he said.

He injured his arm during football practice in 1986. He was a walk-on and had worked his way up to second string when the injury occurred.

“I tried practicing with a brace, but it didn’t work. My temper sent me straight to the nearest Army recruiter, and 10 days later, I was in the Army,” he said.

But, Tobias admitted going into the Army was an unexpected blessing. “The Army changed me. It took my temper away,” he said.

Also, he was assigned for two years to the 3rd Infantry Regiment, known as The Old Guard, in Washington, D.C., whose members serve as an escort to the president and do guard duty at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

“I got to see who made this country great, and I wanted to be one, too,” he said.

When his enlistment was up in 1988, he came back to Youngstown and YSU. He was 22.

Jim Tressel, YSU’s football coach at that time, gave him a tryout. After one day on the gridiron, however, Tobias said he knew he had a decision to make.

“I realized I was an average football player but was great at the Army. I was already living the dream. I just didn’t know it at the time,” he said.

Tobias stayed at YSU but left football to concentrate on the Reserve Officer Training Corps program. He graduated in August 1991 and was commissioned a second lieutenant. He went on active duty in September 1991 into the air defense artillery field.

As a lieutenant, he was a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne. When he was promoted to captain in 1996, he was switched to military intelligence, which is what he was involved in during his two tours in Iraq.

The first, from October 2003 to April 2004, was with the Coalition Provisional Authority; and the second, from July 2005 to December 2006, was with the 172 Stryker Brigade out of Alaska, an infantry outfit with the military’s newest equipment.

Tobias has received two Bronze Stars, one for each tour in Iraq, and the Combat Action Ribbon.

Tobias, who has been in the Army for 20 years, was stationed in Korea for six years, where he met his wife, Sun Ae, and for the last five years in Japan.

He said he would volunteer again to go to Iraq, but he owes his wife and children some time at home.

“Deployment is relatively easy for me, but it is very difficult for my wife and daughters. It is their strength and support that allows me to do what I do,” he said.

“I love this town and this field [the YSU footfall field]. There were some heavy days in Iraq, and to hear about a Penguins win just made my day,” he said.

Tobias, although proud of his promotion, said he does not particularly want a higher rank, which he says is “too political.”

“I like being around soldiers. I like taking the hill,” he said.

He thanked Youngstown for giving him the pride needed to succeed.

“Thanks for believing in me. I believe in you,” he told those who attended the ceremony.

alcorn@vindy.com