By MICHAEL SMITH
World Staff Writer

A Jenks soldier honored as the nation's top drill sergeant was killed in Afghanistan this week by a roadside bomb, U.S. Department of Defense officials announced Thursday.

1st Sgt. Tobias C. Meister, 30, was "patrolling a very dangerous area" of Asadabad in far east Afghanistan, near the Pakistan border, when the bomb detonated near a Humvee in which he was traveling, said Betsy Weiner, a U.S. Army spokeswoman.

Meister was assigned to the Army Reserve's 321st Civil Affairs Brigade in San Antonio and had gone to Afghanistan earlier this year.

The Army Reservist and his wife, Alicia, had a 1-year-old son, and he had previously worked for a Tulsa independent oil and gas company, Horizon Natural Resources.

The Association of the U.S. Army selected Meister in 2002 as Army Reserve Drill Sergeant of the Year, and he was recognized by Oklahoma's state Legislature for the accomplishment. "I am an army of one," Meister told the legislators, "not one individual, but one family." He noted at that March 2003 event that American troops were preparing for combat in the Middle East and said, "I would give up all of this recognition to bring them all home safely."

Meister had reportedly joined the Iowa National Guard in 1992. The 13-year reservist went to Afghanistan in June 2005 and was the team leader of an 18-soldier unit providing support for Afghanistan's first free elections.

"We've been quite busy since the elections ended," Meister wrote in a letter posted on a Web site thanking people for their support as well as care packages. "We have administered many of the donated school supplies, clothes and toys to the children and schools of this province. The need is great, especially now that it's getting close to winter and the refugee camps are full due to the forced exodus from Pakistan," he wrote.

He added that "Coming back from (a) mission and being able to unwide with a good cigar has been a large stress reliever for me and my team. They have been greatly enjoyed."

Meister was also known to show his pride in American patriotism here at home.

This was seen outside his employer's building, Horizon Natural Resources, located at 1343 E. 71st St., when it was vandalized in September 2002.

Vandals set fire to a flag outside, and when it would not fully ignite, they ran a hose through a mail slot and flooded the business, reports showed.

"You could see where they tried to set it on fire, but it didn't catch," Meister told the Tulsa World as he worked to clean up the mess left behind.

"If anything, this just makes me moore patriotic," he said.

Meister's letter: www.kitchentablegang.org/packages/page7.html

Michael Smith 581-8381
michael.smith@tulsaworld.com

By Michael Smith
World Staff Writer

JENKS -- Before a roadside bomb in Afghanistan ended the life of 1st Sgt. Tobias C. Meister this week, the Jenks soldier had lived a life full of adventure and inspiration in just 30 years, his family said Friday.

A high school class president and member of the National Guard two years before graduation, Meister also was a Golden Gloves boxing champion and an undefeated kickboxer, along with being Army Reserve Drill Sergeant of the Year in 2002.

He married in 2003, witnessed the birth of his son in 2004 and became part of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan in 2005.

"He was just a mover," Judy Meister said of her son, Toby. "He enjoyed life to the fullest, he enjoyed people, and he was a wonderful son.

"And he was very patriotic. He loved America, and Afghanistan just clarified that fact even more."

He "would never ask any man to do anything that he wasn't willing to do himself," his mother said, so when his term as a drill sergeant ended, he transferred to a unit of the U.S. Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command (Airborne).

"He had trained so many soldiers to go over, he felt it was his duty to do that also, to go over and fight," Judy Meister said.

Her son was as clear in his mission as he was about the potential consequences, she said.

"He knew what to expect, and he left a full set of instructions for us, in case something should happen to him. He's taken care of his family, and he told us how much he loved us all the time, so even though this is difficult, it makes it easier."

Meister was killed in Afghanistan on Wednesday when a roadside bomb detonated near the Humvee in which he was traveling in Asadabad near the Pakistan border, military officials said.

Previously employed by a Tulsa oil and gas firm, he had gone to Afghanistan in June. From his civil affairs post, he was team leader of an 18-soldier unit providing support for the country's first free elections.

Judy Meister and her husband, Dave, had moved from the family's native Iowa earlier this year and moved into a Jenks home, two blocks from the house where their son lived with his wife, Alicia, and 1-year-old son, William.

"We came specifically to help out until Toby could get back home . . . that's the kind of family that we are," she said. "We said, 'Would you like us to do this?' and he said yes. We were wanting to anything to get him home safe."

Tim Meister said he was looking forward to coming to Oklahoma with his wife in February to see his older brother during a two-week leave from Afghanistan.

The little brother planned to compare fatherhood notes with Toby for the first time, as his and his wife's adoption of a son was official Dec. 9.

"Toby was most proud of becoming a wonderful husband and father in the short time that he was one," Tim Meister said by telephone from his Naples, Fla., home. "February was going to be the first time he would have met my son."

He recalled his brother joining the National Guard during his junior year of high school in Remsen, Iowa, where their mother taught. Tim Meister said his brother was also "always a good teacher, someone who could get his point across easier than most."

"He was a very motivated individual, and he loved to lead, but he really loved to make people better," Tim Meister said. "He wasn't the typical drill sergeant, not the yell-all-the-time type. He'd get his point across very easily."

After high school, Toby Meister left for college, then moved to Dallas at 19 to teach karate. He had an undefeated kickboxing career, and when he tried boxing, he won the Golden Gloves middleweight division at the Cotton Bowl, his mother said.

"He liked to parachute jump, he liked to rock climb, he backpacked through Europe for three weeks upon college graduation" from the University of Texas at San Antonio, with a degree in international business, Judy Meister said.

"His philosophy was that if there was something you really wanted to do, and you set you mind to it, there was nothing you couldn't do," she said.

Fatherhood was a new mountain Toby Meister had climbed and mastered, his mother said, talking warmly about her grandson.

"Little Will reminds us a lot of Toby. He looks like his dad," she said. "That's probably our biggest disappointment, is that Toby was a wonderful dad, and that little boy isn't going to know that. He's going to have to be told that. He won't be able to experience it."

The grandson was named after Judy Meister's father, an Army veteran of World War II. Toby Meister was very close to his grandfather, and that closeness led him into the Army instead of another branch of the military, Judy Meister said.

"Toby was so supportive of the war, and we just want to make it clear to everyone that his first concern was his fellow soldiers, and that they're all over there doing this for Americans," she said.

A memorial fund has been set up to assist Meister's family. Contributions may be made, in person or by mail, to: 1st Sgt. Tobias C. Meister Memorial Fund, Grand Bank, 12345 S. Memorial Drive, Suite 117, Bixby, OK 74008.

JENKS, Okla. (AP) --
Friends and family members of a 30-year-old soldier killed in Afghanistan gathered Friday to share their memories and pay their respects.

Pastor Eddie Stephens told more than 500 people who attended the funeral of 1st Sgt. Tobias C. Meister that they should share their stories with the fallen soldier's young son when he is old enough to understand them.

He said 18-month-old Will Meister -- called "Little Buddy" by his father -- will need such reminders of his father's legacy.

"We are all better because we encountered him," Stephens said.

Meister was remembered as a courageous man driven by his faith and love of his family and country. He died Dec. 28 when a roadside bomb exploded near his Humvee south of Asadabad, Afghanistan.

"Toby was a soldier," Maj. Gen Herbert A. Altshuler said. "He also was a husband, father, son, brother and a friend.

"As the grandson of a World War II veteran and a senior drill instructor, he knew that freedom isn't free."

Altshuler praised Meister as a "model soldier and natural leader" to a large contingent of his uniformed peers that joined other mourners packed into First Baptist Church in Jenks.

Meister's military career began when he joined the Iowa Army National Guard in 1992, two years before he graduated from high school.

Meister eventually transferred to a unit in Texas and spent four years as a drill instructor. Meister earned the Reserve Drill Instructor of the Year award in 2002 from the Association of the United States Army.

After four years as a drill instructor, Meister moved to a civil affairs unit tasked with establishing relations between the military and often-hostile civilians in other countries.

Altshuler said Meister had a vision of a safer world for his family and his country and he sacrificed his life to make it a reality.

"He represented everything that is good and kind and caring in the world," the general said.

"Toby Meister was a hero of his generation and an inspiration to us all."

Sgt. Maj. Victor Gomez, Meister's mentor in the military, said everyone loved Mesiter because he radiated strength.

By MICHAEL SMITH
World Staff Writer

JENKS -- As a former U.S. Army drill sergeant of the year, 1st Sgt. Tobias C. Meister knew how to give an order.

Pastor Eddie Stephens told more than 500 people who filled the First Baptist Church of Jenks on Friday about this ability. He recalled the two were eating lunch -- Meister was preparing to leave for Afghanistan -- and the subject was "if something happens."

"Toby, in a sense, gave me my orders to do what was necessary (for his funeral), and I begrudgingly agreed, thinking that to say no, he might order me to drop and give him 50" pushups, Stephens said.

The tale generated laughter among those in attendance at the 30-year-old soldier's funeral, which was the point of many of the pastor's remembrances.

"(Toby) told me to be humerous today, so I'm trying," Stephens said.

There were several opportunities to smile and laugh between the many tears shed for Meister during the service and later burial in the Veterans Field of Honor at Floral Haven Memorial Gardens in Broken Arrow.

A visual projection of family photos showed Meister as a baby in playful outfits, then as a boy playing football, a teen performing martial arts and then competing in a kickboxing match.

The photos progressed in time, showing him as a man, a soldier, a friend, a husband and a father.

Meister was in dress uniform for his 2003 marriage to his wife, Alicia. He was in jeans and a T-shirt in a 2004 photo as he held up Will, his now 1-year-old son, whom he called his "little buddy."

Meister was killed Dec. 28 near Asadabad, Afghanistan, when an improvised explosive device detonated near the Humvee in which he was traveling, military officials said.

The Jenks soldier who joined the Iowa National Guard at 17 and later became a drill sergeant -- named the U.S. Army Reserve's best in 2002 -- decided in 2004 that after training men to go overseas for years, he should go as well. He joined the U.S. Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command (Airborne), assigned in Broken Arrow, and moved to the 321st Civil Affairs Brigade in San Antonio.

The former employee of Horizon Natural Resources, an oil and gas firm in Tulsa, left for Afghanistan last summer and led an 18-soldier unit that provided support for Afghanistan's first free elections.

Meister's team worked to "restore broken societies to natural operations," Maj. Gen. Herbert I. Altshuler told mourners and more than 50 U.S. Army personnel at the funeral.

"As the grandson of a World War II veteran, Toby knew that freedom isn't free." Altshuler said. "And he knew these (freedoms) were worth fighting for and perhaps worth dying for.

"Every generation has its heroes, and this one is no different. Toby Meister is a hero. We mourn his loss; we celebrate his life."

Honors posthumously awarded to Meister and given to his wife included the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart and the Meritorious Service Medal.

His life was full of celebrations. He was an undefeated kickboxer who also won a middleweight Golden Gloves championship in Dallas at the Cotton Bowl. Many of his martial arts friends attended the funeral.

"To the black belts, the family wanted to say thank you," said Stephens, noting the Meister "got his heart" through martial arts.

Meister weighed about "165 pounds, and you knew 100 pounds of it was heart if you saw him fight," Stephens recalled one competitor telling him.

Following the burial, Staff Sgt. John Olson, 28, of Broken Arrow, recalled drill sergeant school, where "Toby was my drill sergeant leader, basically my teacher, my mentor."

While Olson was there, Meister was selected drill sergeant of the year. This year, Olson -- also a drill sergeant leader -- was selected to participate in the same competition.

He last spoke with his mentor before Meister left for Afghanistan.

"I had to talk with him, because I figured that if anyone knew how to compete, it would be him," Olson said. "He was talking about his new unit, and he was excited, like he was about life and everything else."

Stephens had gotten to know Meister in the last couple of years as his pastor at Christ's Community Church in Bixby. His friend had a "curious, unflinching faith in God, an admirable, earthy, raw faith," Stephens said.

"He lived a life worth fighting for . . . He would want you to ask yourself: What's worth fighting for in your life? All of us, let's fight better, let's live better."

Meister's life was full, providing many stories and prompting an unusual request from his father, Stephens said.

"Dave asked me, 'Would you please apologize to everybody?' I asked what for, and he said, 'Toby was just so darn hard not to brag about.'"

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Michael Smith 581-8381
michael.smith@tulsaworld.com

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