I'm going to talk about why that bottom name is on there. I never knew SSG Toby Mallet. PFC Toby Mallet was one of my soldiers in 1-9 FA at Ft. Stewart. He was an extraordinary Battery Computer System (BCS) operator, but he was a kid from Kaplan, LA that didn't have life figured out yet. He married young.... may or may not have cheated on his wife and she may or may not have beat the crap out of him more than once because of it.
Like I said, he was a genius on the BCS. Every morning when 1-9 was in the field, we'd fire a time on target into the center of the impact area at 0630 as Reveille was sounding on post. PFC Mallet would call up the fire mission from the Battalion FDC, I'd safe it (sometimes from my cot, because it was always the center of the impact area. We a and he would send it to the guns, and then we could all shave, pee, or whatever we had to do in the morning because the guns would do the rest. One morning, when I was shaving, the guns didn't fire... It wasn't that big of a deal, because unless you're really counting, no one can tell the difference between 48 rounds and 54. Turns out, Toby had called up the mission to teach his understudy how to process it, but that removed the mission from the guns. No harm, no foul, and he was teaching and leading as a PFC.
Then there was the great C/1-9FA BDU scandal. There is a narrowly defined situation in Army regulations that allows soldiers to get four new uniforms from Clothing Sales if they had major body composition changes since Basic Training. We had a supply Sergeant that had a fake signature card at Clothing Sales that would sign a memo and take new soldiers down there and tell then to "get two for you and two for me". Tobey confessed to his Chief, SGT Rich Howell (Who was also an extraordinary FDC Chief with an equally extraordinary backstory) that he'd participated and exposed the whole scheme. He may or may not have had immunity. It was debatable, but every soldier involved got extra duty. Our Battery Commander (racist, worthless piece of $h!+, Ken Sanderson [but that's another story]) told him that he wouldn't give him any punishment because of the question over immunity, but he was involved and everyone else involved is doing extra duty, so if he didn't.... Tobey voluntarily did 14 days extra duty.
Our last field problem was an External Evaluation. I, and SGT Howell made an error. We were both inside the M577 trying to maintain communications while the soldiers were outside hooking up the trailer. One of us should have been supervising, because they tried to bring the trailer to the track instead of bringing the track to the trailer. Tobey got is finger caught between the trailer and the pintle as the trailer surged forward over a bump in the ground. One of the other soldiers opened the back hatch and yelled, "SGT Howell, Mallet cut his finger off!" We both jumped out and Toby was running across the firing point. His finger was broken. I could see the bone on the lower half of his finger sticking out of the skin. He was yelling, "I know it's silly, but it hurts!!!!" He got fixed up and sent a messy, hand written note back to the field that said how proud he was to be part of our team and how he knew the other soldiers would take up up his place and do well.
After that, his expiration of term in service (ETS) was quickly approaching. Although I knew he had great potential, he had a record as a f-up and just wanted to get out and get away from his Army history he'd built in his first unit as a dumb kid. He wouldn't listen to our pleas to re-up and left the Army and went back to Kaplan, LA.
The rest is just speculation. I can only assume SSG Mallet went back to Kaplan, LA and couldn't find anything there, so he rejoined the Army. When he did, he realized all the potential he always had inside him and was quickly promoted to Staff Sargent. He was a FDC Chief, just like his mentor, SGT Rich Howell, when he was killed by an IED in Iraq on April 9, 2004. I only know that Toby Mallet was a good kid that served under me, but he was a grown man when he died. I hope his Mother, his Wife, and his his children can take some comfort in knowing the man he became and can find comfort in his memory.
Army Staff Sgt. Toby W. Mallet
Died April 9, 2004 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom
26, of Kaplan, La.; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 7th Field Artillery Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, Schweinfurt, Germany; killed April 9 when a rocket-propelled grenade struck his patrol vehicle in Baghdad.
Kaplan family mourns loss of soldier
Associated Press
KAPLAN, La. — Todd Mallet didn’t think his younger brother, U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Toby Wayne Mallet, would be able to handle military life.
“I’d tell him, ‘Aw, you won’t be able to listen to them. There was no way you could follow orders,”’ the older brother recalled saying to his sibling, who enlisted in 1995. “He said, ‘Oh, I can do it. I can do it.’ And he did a good job at what he did.”
Toby Wayne Mallet died in Iraq on Friday when his convoy was ambushed in Baghdad. The Department of Defense announced his death Tuesday.
Mallet, 26, was killed when the M-2 Bradley vehicle he was patrolling in was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade, said Martha Rudd, Army public affairs spokeswoman.
Mallet’s parents, Linda and Jesse Baker and father Ron Mallet, all are from Kaplan. Though the family is requesting privacy as they grieve, Todd Mallet said he wanted to share the story of his brother.
“We’re very proud of him,” said Todd Mallet, who is two years older than his brother. “My mom would like to thank people for the sympathy and condolences.”
He said his mother declined to comment and that his statement would be the last from the family.
“The family requests no further interviews,” he said. “My mom doesn’t want camera crews at the funeral.”
Toby Mallet graduated Kaplan High School in 1995 and enlisted in the Army in June of that year. He was a field artillery automated tactical data systems specialist and was stationed in Germany with the Army’s 1st Battalion, 7th Field Artillery Regiment, 1st Infantry Division in Schweinfurt.
In March, Toby Mallet visited his family in Kaplan. He had been in Iraq for only about a week.
“He has a brand new baby, about six weeks old,” the soldier’s brother said. “That’s the whole reason his trip was delayed. They let him stay back until his wife had the baby.”
The soldier leaves behind four children, said his aunt and godmother, Millie Vincent, of Kaplan.
“We’re very saddened by his loss,” Vincent said.
Her voice began to waver as she stifled a sob.
“He was a loving child,” she began. “He loved to laugh. Loved to have fun. He was a very good student. A sweet person. A real sweet person.”
The family expects Mallet’s body to be returned from Iraq sometime next week, Vincent said.
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