Roland Tiso Jr. grew up on Fifth Avenue in the late 1950s listening to every word as his uncles talked about serving during WWII. Those stories convinced the eight year old he wanted to become a soldier.

He achieved that career goal and then some, retiring in 2004 as a highly decorated colonel in the U.S. Army after serving around the world for 31 years.

“Growing up in Pelham, I had the good fortune of competing in sports,” said Tiso. He still has his trophies from varsity sports earned at Pelham Memorial High School, from which he graduated in 1969. “I had a little bit to do with student government and the like. And so there were many leadership opportunities.”

After graduating, Tiso received his degree from the Virginia Military Institute and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the infantry in 1973.

“When I entered the Army, I started fine-tuning the intricacies of leadership and leadership training,” Tiso said.

His career took him to Korea, Panama, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia. He was the first commander of the United States Task Force Sinai and simultaneously served as the chief of staff of the Multi-National Force and Observers in Egypt.

He was also chief of the war plans division of U.S. Central Command, working in Somalia to plan the UNOSOM II withdrawal in 1994 and was one of the primary planners of the Iraq War Plans. He was the executive officer to the commander of U.S. Central Command from 1998 to 2000 and deployed to Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan in 2002 as the chief of U.S. Central Command’s Joint Security Directorate.

And those are only the highlights of his military resume.

A key assignment in his career came when he worked with troops from Ukraine in Iraq during the Second Gulf War from 2003 to 2004. Due to that service, he became the only American to so far receive the Ukrainian Order of Valor and Honor.

“I feel very honored indeed,” said Tiso. “I have a high regard for the Ukrainian soldiers with whom I fought. I talk about them a great deal in my memoir. I talk about being in ‘strange company,’ which is the title of my book. They were probably the strangest of all with a language that I did not speak. But we all spoke the language of army. They were a wonderful bunch to be with.”

Tiso’s memoir, with the full title “In Strange Company,” covers the last ten years of his career in combat and working on peacekeeping missions, with all the book’s profits going to causes supporting veterans.

A surprise came to Tiso two decades after his first decoration from the Ukrainians. He received a second. However, that honor arrived at the headquarters of the 72nd Ukrainian Brigade in December 2023.

“It was sitting there until an officer with whom I had served noticed it,” said Tiso. “He said, ‘Hey we need to get this to the U.S. and present it to Col. Tiso.’ To be remembered, after 20 years since I left Iraq, it was a pretty tremendous thing. I hold the Ukrainians in the highest regard.”

Tiso was selected by the secretary of the Army as a Distinguished Member of the 506th Infantry Regiment in 2022 and will be inducted into the U.S. Army Senior ROTC Hall of Fame in October. He holds a number of other decorations for meritorious service and heroism in combat, including awards from four foreign nations aside from the ones he received from Ukraine.

The retired colonel is currently outlining a book about the first decade of his career. Through a series of vignettes and historical references, Tiso said he wants to “contrast my military upbringing at the Virginia Military Institute with the army in the seventies because there was a significant contrast as that army came out of Vietnam and had to develop. I’m pretty excited about the possibility of getting that done.”

The boy from Pelham who grew up to serve his country was honored at the town’s Memorial Day commemoration this year when he was asked to give the keynote speech.

Since completing his 31-year journey through the military, Tiso said he does a lot of work for his church and is engaged in speeches and book signings. He and his wife Judie reside in Florida. They have two daughters and two granddaughters.

He works at a local gym where he teaches middle-aged and older individuals, especially veterans, how to train, lift weights and take care of themselves. That makes sense, since he continues to compete as a bodybuilder.

Through his gym, he knows many young people.

“I find, contrary to a lot of things people read about this generation, that young people love their country,” Tiso said. “My advice to them would be to stay focused, make sure you have an azimuth on what you want to do in life and understand that life can be a little tricky. You never know when your community or country might need you to serve.”

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