Forgue, Tommy
Veteran’s Service Officer (VSO) Van Zandt County, Texas
U.S. 10th Mountain Division (Special Forces)
Canton, Texas
Tommy was in the Army’s 10th Mountain Division. He received TWO Bronze Stars and over 30 Ribbons and Citations, spending two tours in Kuwait and Iraq. His last assignment was to the Medical Corp Ft. Bliss Texas as a Surgical Tech in Neurosurgery.
He was a 23-year-old Captain with the Houston area (ALDINE) Fire Department and a Constable for precinct 5 in Harris County. Tommy owned a Private Investigation Company and was certified with the Texas Supreme Court to serve all the 254 counties in Texas.
Last year he accepted the position of our next VSO, Veterans Service Officer of Van Zandt County. Phil Smith, Matt Hernandez and I cook meals for our veterans once a month at Goshen Farms.
Early Years:
“I was born on June 26th of 1970 in Houston, Texas. I had three (3) half-brothers and four (4) half-sisters. My father’s name was Larry Forgue and he worked in the Oilfield business in the Houston area. My stepmother was a stay-at-home housewife. I played both baseball and football in Middle and High School. I also started as a Junior Fireman at 12-years-old. I played shortstop and pitcher on my baseball team and played linebacker and running back on the football teams. I enjoyed playing baseball much more than football. Both of those sports gave me something to do instead of getting into trouble. Lot of kids in my neighborhood did things I didn’t want to do, like getting into trouble, going to prison and doing drugs. Even though I grew up in an upper middle-class neighborhood, but the kids there had a lot of money and little to do.
There was a lady down the street named Mrs. Waxler, who got me involved with Junior Fireman. She was burning leaves off and I would go over and keep it under control with a garden hose. She told me I should be a fireman so a couple of days later I went down to the local fire station and became a junior fireman. I enjoyed getting on back of the firetruck and holding on, go to a fire and helping people. I’ve been doing that all my life. Back then we converted old milk trucks into firetrucks and paid for own gas for the firetrucks. We were an all-volunteer fire station.”
Attending College:
I went to the Fire Academy at Texas A&M in 1989 and the Police Academy in 1991 at the University of Houston. I went for a semester at George Washington University when I reenlisted into the military and eventually went to the University of Texas.
I attended Paramedic School North Harris Community College and when I got out of the military I went back to the Police Academy at Lone Star College. My work ethic came from my dad.
He worked from ages 18-43 for the same company when he died of cancer. My granddad worked for the same company my dad did. I worked there for a few months and hated every minute of it. He did tool joints, and he was the one who created horizontal drilling. My Grandpa is now VP of the Company. I didn’t want to be the third generation at the company and be coddled and get away with anything. I really didn’t like that, I wanted to work for what I got in life.
Play Professional Baseball:
I always wanted to play Professional Baseball. My dad died when I was 21 and it messed me up and I had to go out and get a real job. I then went to the Texas A&M Fire Academy, considered one of the best in the nation. I graduated from the Academy in 1990. I was also a fire instructor there from 1992-1997.
I ended up at two different fire stations, the Aldine FD and the East Texas FD. I was also a paramedic and in charge of precepting with EM students at one of the best trauma centers in Houston with Dr. Red Duke. In 1993 I became a Rescue Captain at 23 years old and was the top trainer in Texas. We trained all the time in all types of scenarios. I was walking around with a NO FEAR T-shirt. To me, it was all a job. All this training prepared me for my tours overseas in the military.
Military Career:
“I volunteered for the Army in 1998 at a recruiting station in Channelview, Texas close to Houston. I signed up for a 3-year enlistment. I was qualified thru the Navy and quailed for virtually anything I wanted. I chose infantry, where I felt you really do the ground pounding of the military. I wasn’t one to sit at a desk and twittle my thumbs. I wanted to be the best of the best, just like being the VSO (Veterans Service Officer) of Van Zandt County.
I knew I could make it in the military having worked out with the Fire Department every day.
I went to Boot Camp in Ft. Benning, Georgia. It was easy for me, both mentally and physically. I was assigned squad leader, and I took care of all the young guys. We had a mixed bag of people in Boot. Some were squared away and some that were not. I spent two and half months in basic training. I spent six months at Ft. Benning, including Airborne School. Basic training, AIT and Jump School all took place at Benning. It was all part of OSUT, One Station Unit Training.”
Airborne Training:
“My goal in Airborne was to be the best of the best. I had aspirations for the 82nd and the 101st but ended up with the 10th Mountain Division.”
INFO:
The 10th Mountain Division is a U.S. Army light infantry division,
historically specialized in mountain
and cold-weather warfare, one of the most deployed
units in the Army.
“The 10th Mountain Division takes care of most of the world’s Northern Hemisphere. It is extreme cold weather operations like how to wear snowshoes, skis, and dress in white vs BDU’s. We were deployed all the time.
I went to Ft. Carso in Colorado in a light infantry unit for my first duty station. I deployed there for ten months. We went to the National Training Center in Ft. Irvin California and Ft. Chafee, Arkansas with the special op guys. After 11 months they sent me to 10th Mountain Division. We trained in temperatures that were -30 degrees. It was a very specialized unit both mentally and physically. I have no idea why they would want to send a Texas boy to these places.
The 10th Mountain Division is headquartered in Ft. Drum in upstate New York, on the Canadian border.
Shortly after I got there September 11th happened. Eight days later fifteen of us were deployed to the Middle East.
Next stop, Ft. Polk, Louisiana: (JRTC) Joint Readiness Training Center.
We conducted building to building combat while we were with 10th Mountain Division. We did some crazy things there like repel down from the top of the building into a window and all kinds of stuff. My MOS at this time was 11Bravo.
INFO: Infantryman:
11 Bravo (11B) MOS refers to the Military Occupational Specialty Code for an infantryman in the U.S. Army. Infantrymen are the main land combat force, responsible for defending the country through real life combat and mobilizing vehicles, weaponry, and troops. They are considered the backbone of the Army, highly trained in both individual and small-unit tactics. ArmyPRT.com
9-1-1:
“We were outside training when we got the word about planes crashing into the World Trade Center. The Major came out and said, hey everyone get in here. We all ran in and saw the 2nd plane hit the building. We were watching the ticker tape across the ceiling wondering where we were going to go. I saw that and I was ready to kick somebody’s ass. We knew we were either going to Turkey or Djibouti, Africa, or Iraq. Djibouti is where they trained Al Quadi. We got our orders and only 12 of us went initially to Iraq.
DVIDS
We took off in a C-130 with three Humvees on board, plenty of ammo, food and water. We flew into Spain until we got clearance, and we played football in a C5 aircraft waiting on clearance. We waited three days in Spain and got our orders to Kuwait.
We flew into Camp Doha Army Base and as soon as we got there, we needed to make sure everything was secure in Kuwait. We didn’t want the same thing to happen like in 1991 and 92. The Kuwaiti Army would tell our operations what was going on and if another country was infiltrating their country like Iran or Iraq. We got the intel and then rolled our three Humvees and troops with
50 cals and Mark 19s. We pulled people over like police
officers.
INFO:
The Mk 19 is a belt-fed, blowback-operated, air-cooled, crew-served, fully-automatic weapon that is designed not to cook off. It fires 40 mm grenades at a cyclic rate of 325 to 375 rounds per minute, giving a practical rate of fire of 60 rounds per minute (rapid) and 40 rounds per minute (sustained). Source: Wikipedia
Rules of Engagement:
“Don’t shoot unless you have been shot at. I was the team leader, and we didn’t come under those rules, at that time. The war in Iraq started in 2003 and we were in Kuwait in 2001. We were the security forces for the high-ranking people in Kuwait. We were taking high value targets to certain areas, mostly for meetings. We usually did a (3) Humvee convoys for their people.”
DEPLOYMENT TO KUWAIT:
“My first deployment was in the central part of Kuwait and was for nine-months in 2001. We stayed at Camp DOHA. We stayed in warehouse types of buildings. We had lockers in front and back of us with a small curtain for privacy and slept in a small cot. A friend of mine named Todd Spurlock was my teammate in one of three Humvees.
We had a 6-man crew, 2 assigned to each Humvee. We were a very close-knit crew. We each knew what we had to do; we were all very highly trained. We had a job to do and had one thing on our minds, going back home. On our first deployment to Kuwait, we never fired our weapons nor did any of our crew get killed on the first deployment.
I did get injured clearing a building. I tore the tendons in my pinky finger when it got caught in a door jam. My pinky looked like a hammer finger. I got x-rays on my hand, and they couldn’t find out what was wrong with it. I was wearing shorts, and I put my hand on top of the table so they could x-ray them, and the x-ray tech lowered the table too low on my legs and ended up tearing a tendon on my knee. I stayed there three more months humping with a rump sack and all the activities, because I didn’t want to leave my team. After I did my 3-years I re-enlisted into the Army for 6-more years. I had a cast from the tip of my fingers all the way to my elbow. I couldn’t walk for another 3-months. I had a college option, so I went and got my surgeries. I ended up going to George Washington University for a semester.
We would get calls like being a police officer. We would roll up in the three Humvees and make sure the area was secure. It could be in the oil fields or in someone’s house and many times we pulled over cars to see who was in them.
We worked one week on Quick Reaction Force (QRF), one week of training and one week of R&R. Where do you go for R&R in Kuwait? The malls were nice after we fixed them up when we were there in the 90’s.
My weapon of choice on the Humvee’s was an M-4 carbine.”
INFO: https://combatoperators.com/firearms/rifles/m4-carbine/#google_vignette
M4 Carbine: The world’s most popular special operations forces rifle.
CQB and CQC
While the M4 Carbine′s maneuverability makes it a candidate for non-infantry troops (vehicle crews, clerks, and staff officers), it also makes it ideal for close-quarters battle (CQB) and close-quarters combat (CQC). The M4 was developed and produced for the United States government by Colt Firearms, which had an exclusive contract to build the M4 family of weapons through 2009. However, several other manufacturers offer M4-like firearms.
The M4A1 and the M16A4 have mostly replaced the Colt M16A2; the U.S. Air Force, for example, plans to transition completely to the M4 Carbine. The M4 is also the standard rifle for U.S. Air Force Security Forces members, whether at home or deployed abroad. They maintain a yearly qualification on it.
The M4 Carbine is one of the most popular rifles and the first pick for many special operations force’s operators. It belongs to a family of firearms tracing its lineage back to earlier carbine versions of the M16, all based on the original AR-15 designed by Eugene Stoner and made by Armalite. It has been in service for more than 25 years.
“On our vehicles we had 50-cals and Mark 19s. The Mark 19s shoot 40mm grenades faster than you can pull the trigger.”
TAKE ME ON A MISSION: “Door Kicker”
“In 2000 when I got to Fort Drum in the 10th Mountain Division, we were the most deployed unit in the military over anybody else. This was a time where I was shooting my weapon so much, I got blisters on my thumb. I had shot so much it had deteriorated all the metal on my wedding band and it fell off at the range. I was part of over 100 ops or more. To do the things we did, it must come within, it is not something you can normally train. NO FEAR is in your blood, in your DNA. The average person can’t do what I did. We train over and over to weed out those who couldn’t stand up to real life battleground operations over and over.
My first tour was in Kuwait and my 2nd tour was in Iraq in 2002 and my 3rd tour was in 2003. Of the over 100 ops about half were kicking in doors, looking for High Value Targets (HVT). Most of the intel we received, eighty per cent, ended up being good days. A lot of our intel was using aerial images and our own unit’s intel. That was our goal. We were there two years before we bombed Baghdad.
We did about 90 per cent of our ops at night, using high intense night vision. We could clearly see the enemy, but they couldn’t see us. We had the element of surprise. We were called “The Green-Eyed Monsters.” Normally we would opt out with 6-man teams in 3-Humvees. The 3rd guy in line in the squad in the team leader, the 2nd guy or the 4th who breaches the door. We used battery rams or C-4 explosives. A lot of times we didn’t carry the big weapons, because they were too heavy. Each member of the team had a different weapon system. We were all cross trained on every weapon. I liked the M4. We also hard Mark 19s that shot 40mm grenades, 50 cals. It all depended on the mission. We trained so much that each of our members were highly qualified in each weapon and knew each other tendencies and strengths.
Kurds in Iraq
We had ops in several cities including Tikrit, Fallujah and Baghdad. In Tikrit we did a lot of our missions with the help of the Kurds. We trusted the Kurds, sometimes. If the leaders were with them, they always did what we said. But, if their leaders were not with them, they were kind of hesitant. In many cases the Kurds were used as interpreters, and they knew the areas we visited.
We knew Saddam Hussein was from Tikrit and had options to capture him on several occasions. We had good intel he was in the area. He had 4 or 5 body doubles, and we thought we saw him on several occasions but never had the chance to put a positive ID on him. Our orders were to take him alive if we could. He could furnish us with a lot of intel if we could capture him because he knew too much. I was the Assistant Battle Captain in the Command Center when Sadam was killed, we had all the assets in place, and we knew where he was hiding.
His two sons, Uday and Qusay were worse than their father. They were two of our top targets. Both were killed in 2003 during Shock and Awe in Mosul. My unit was the one calling in air strikes. We knew where they were and sent them one of our Tomahawk missiles.
I can’t think of any ops that went sideways. I never lost any of my men in combat during these door-to-door operations. No team member in my squad were under six foot one. We were an intimidating group coming into someone’s home. Most of the people in the Middle East are shorter than us. We were all ex-athletes and many of us already had a warrior’s mindset even before any of us got into the military.
Most of the time the bad guys gave up, but there were cases where we had to take them out. Most of them knew what we were there for and they cooperated. We always giving them medicine, food, water, and whatever they needed.
I had NO FEAR going on missions. I started out at as a Junior Fireman at 12 years old working for a fire department where I saw house fires, people injured and sometimes dead.
GOING BACK TO IRAQ:
“While I was rehabbing my finger and knee injuries, I still missed not being with my guys. After going to George Washington for a semester. I ended up changing companies to go back to Iraq. There was a Company Commander in the Security Shops (“S Shops) where they worked security and cleaned up all the weapons and training. They were forming a new company, and I wanted to be a part of them, so I ended up joining the “S” Company and going back to Iraq. We had a group of 60 soldiers in this company. We were based in Kuwait but going on missions in Iraq. I was still hurt and became Assistant Battle Captain. I oversaw supply shipments to Iraq, Afghanistan and Africa.”
ASSISTANT BATTLE CAPTAIN:
“As an Assistant Battle Captain my responsibilities was to supply our military in these countries to make sure they had the supplies like ammo, water, food, weapons to carry out their missions. I was in contact with the U.S. to make sure they were shipping us all the supplies we needed. I missed being with my guys and still miss it today. I was the Battle Captain for 9-months.
FUNERAL DETAIL:
“The war in Iraq started in 2003 and I was hurt on my 2nd deployment, and I was assigned to funeral details all over the East Coast. We averaged three funerals every day with nine of us. Our detail was made up of military personal ready to get out of the Army. A lot of these guys were the worse delinquent soldiers the military.
We had a lot of military funerals with wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan. We were conducting funerals all the way from Maine to the Carolinas. We had to coordinate all the details and meeting with the families. Many times, we would go to the VFWs and the American Legions with the families after the funerals. We presented the flags to each family. We wanted to make sure we did it the right way and to help the families grieve as they each saw fit. For me, it was the last thing that soldier would ever get from a military standpoint. We presented the flag to a military ranking of Colonel or above and did the gun salute and playing of taps at their funeral. I took a lot of pride and a great satisfaction to send off a soldier for their ultimate sacrifice to this country. It was one of the hardest jobs I have every done. I was part of 60-70 funerals during the five months I served on military details. There was a lot of satisfaction on these details.
SURGICAL TECH IN NEUROSURGERY:
After my tour I came back to the states, ending up in Fort Drum, New York. There, I went to the Med Board to change my Military Occupational Specialty (MOS). I had very high scores and I was offered virtually anything I wanted to do in the military. I chose to go to Surgical Tech School working in Neurosurgery. It was like the civilian world. If someone comes in and needs back or neck surgery, where you create a bone for them or fuse the bones so they can go back to a somewhat normal life.
I did my training at Brook Army Medical Center at Ft. Sam Houston. There were two phases of training. I spent the second two-months training at Ft. Hood in Texas. I liked my new MOS because I like the medical field, and I am a science-based person. I didn’t like it because I was not in a combat arms unit, or being in what military guys call a “POG” unit, meaning a person other than grunt and is used to describe anyone who is not in infantry. It was a lazy life, and you didn’t have to go to “PT” every day.
My next duty station was Ft. Bliss where the Major hated my guts. Why, to this day I do not know. I thought it might have been because I had a Special Forces Combat Infantry Badge. He was overweight and very demanding that I wear my BDU’s and had to wear my combat badge and on and on. Everyone else was coming to work in scrubs. I was there for about three months, and he came to me one day and asked if I wanted to get out of the military. It was 2005 and I didn’t want to get out of the military but if I couldn’t do the ground pounding then I didn’t want to do it anymore. I was not happy and wanted to do my 20. I had two young kids and was having marital problems at the time. I was out of the military in two weeks with a 40% medical discharge. Along with the jammed pinky, the busted knee I also had hernia surgery. I went back to Houston and rejoined the Fire Department and became a Police Officer.”
LIKED ABOUT THE MILITARY:
“I liked the comradery of the military. I loved working with my teams and know that someone I knew, had my back. When I was a team leader, I am most proud of the over 100 missions I led, no one was shot or killed. I take a lot of pride in that fact. We kicked in a lot of doors and there as always that unknown behind that door. There was a lot of adrenalin flowing with each of the members within my squad. We trained constantly and we all had an impeccable work ethic. We trained each time we went into these “shoot houses” and was taught to shoot the triangle. There would be all types of shapes everywhere. Or you must shoot the yellow balloon in a group of different colored balloons. These balloons are three inches in diameter. If you can shoot in three inches diameter at 50-feet away, you are a pretty good shooter. You had to be focused and precise in your training methods. You double-tap everything. You go for center mass. You don’t shoot at the head or any other part of the body. We went in and shot shapes and colors. Many cases you had two hostages on each side of the target. We did this every day, all day.
If I had a chance to go back in the military and go into a war zone, I would go back in a minute.”
ANTHRAX SCARE: Hardest part of my Military Career
“When 9-11 happened, I was stationed in upstate New York. My son was born in August of that year and my daughter was three. Four days after 9-11, she was sent to the hospital, and we didn’t know what was wrong with her.
This was the time Tom Brokaw and others were getting a scare from Anthrax. Four days after she was admitted to the hospital I was headed to the Middle East. CID from the Army went to my house, and they found an envelope with white substance in it. They thought it could be Anthrax.
My wife wouldn’t give a spinal tap for my daughter, so I had to give authorization for a spinal tap over the phone. After running several tests, they found she did not have Anthrax. I was in Kuwait by this time and my daughter was still in the hospital. She ended up in the hospital for nine days. She ended up seeing a psychiatrist and she was diagnosed with separation anxiety. That was probably the hardest thing I did in the military.
Leaving the Military:
“I got out of the military in 2005. I had four kids living at the house. I moved back to Houston. Three of my kids ended up in the military. I was able to start back with the Fire Department where there was a different chief, but they were able to work me in. I worked right in to the medical captain position and eventually became certified as a senior dispatcher for fire and EMS.
Eventually I went to the Police Academy for six months and became a County Constable for Precent 5 in 2007. A Constable is considered a high paid security guard. In the Houston area a Constable rolls on all calls. You are contracted thru a subdivision. In Precent 5 from Cypress to Katy down to Houston the subdivisions would pay you on top of the Sheriff’s department pay. I was assigned to two separate subdivisions, which were some of the worse in Harris County. I worked for a high intensity Drug Task Force. I worked closely with HPD and the Drug Task Force. I stayed on the Houston PD for six years.”
Fondest Memories of being in the military:
“I really enjoyed traveling to several countries and seeing their cultures. I felt like our team did make a difference in whatever our mission was.
There are always humorous moments being in the military. In Iraq we stayed in tents, and we had four of us in my tent.
People said we had no A/C, no refrigerator, no coffee, but in our tent, we had a coffee pot, a refrigerator and all kind of modern conveniences. On the refrigerator there was a signe that read, “Don’t *&^% with this water and outside our tent was the word “Margaritaville,” laughed Tommy.
“We had a feeling of real comradeship with all of us in the military. I could call any of my squad guys and they would do just about anything I asked them to do.
We were a very small unit, and I keep in contact with some of the guys. Some, unfortunately died in Afghanistan when I got out.
I don’t know why but I got two Bronze Stars and over 30 ribbons. I just did my job; I wasn’t there for the medals or ribbons. Would I go back and do all again? in a heartbeat,” said Tommy emphatically.
“Don’t ever tell anyone to do something that you wouldn’t do yourself. Ninety-eight percent of the people in the world could not have done what we did in Kuwait or Iraq. They don’t have that mentality or that hunt. To do whatever it takes. One of things I learned in the military is how to read people. Knowing weapon systems and knowing the threat first, no matter where you are at, in a restaurant, in church.
On my bucket list would be an Alaskan cruise and see the whales or visit Mt. Rushmore with my wife.
I always wanted to be a professional baseball player. I want to play shortstop on any team. A couple of years ago it would have been the Astros.
VSO (Veteran’s Service Officer of Van Zandt County)
Tommy was selected as our next Veteran’s Service Officer of Van Zandt County around nine months ago. “I have a strong military background and am good at research. I feel our veteran’s feel very frustrated when they deal with the Veteran’s Administration. “Being the VSO is not a job to me. I feel it is a calling and I have a passion for. I came out of retirement to do this line of work. I have had over a hundred veterans who have had 15-20 per cent Disability for the last 10-15 years. Working with them now, they are at 70-100%. They just don’t know all the benefits entitled to them or what is available to them. My biggest challenge in working with our Veterans is not being able to work full time. I want to be able to be there when that Veteran needs me. Right now, I can only visit with Veterans 24 hours in a week. I feel like I am handcuffed.
I see the hidden scars, mostly dealing with PTSD. I need to know is the Veteran looking for compensation for their PTS or do they need somebody to sit down and talk about it or do they want a book given to them to do it on their own. With PTSD there is also Anxiety, Depression, Sleep Deprivation, and all other symptoms dealing with a person diagnosed with PTS. They could be looking at two or eight different discussions for compensation to help our Veterans cope with Post Traumatic Stress.
NOTE: Meet other Veterans from around the country by going to the top of www.meetourveterans.com and click on Our Veterans. On the drop-down menu, click one of the (5) branches of services and read each of our veteran’s stories.
“Every Veteran has a story to tell.” Phil Smith
GOD BLESS OUR VETERANS AND GOD BLESS AMERICA
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