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Foreign honor, American pride

Valrico resident Col. Roland Tiso Jr. is the only American ever to receive the Ukrainian Order of Valor and Honor.

By DANA WILHOIT
Published February 25, 2005

MACDILL AIR FORCE BASE - Ukrainian Gen. Petro Haraschuk sat in his trailer at CentCom, sharing sweet Ukrainian tea with guests and talking about the day he pinned a medal on the chest of an American.

Haraschuk served in the Soviet Army 38 years, and for 25 of those, Americans were the enemy.

"I never expected, being in the Soviet Army, that I would serve side by side with Americans. In such different times, we were prepared to meet on the battlefield. I never dreamed we would meet as friends," he said.

But times change. Nov. 10, at a ceremony at CentCom, Haraschuk was proud to add the Ukrainian Order of Valor and Honor to the rainbow array on the chest of Valrico resident Col. Roland Tiso Jr.

The Ukrainians now fight side by side with Americans in Iraq. Haraschuk is in Tampa on a one-year assignment, serving as a liaison for his country, which has 1,600 troops in Iraq.

Tiso, who retired from the Army in May and now works at CentCom as a civilian in the Intelligence Directorate, is the only American ever to receive the Ukrainian Order of Valor and Honor.

"They told me the award is like our Medal of Honor," Tiso said recently. "I was quite taken with that."

Tiso has traded his military uniform for a crisply pressed suit, but he still has a military bearing, ramrod straight and always alert. The alertness comes from 31 years of military service, some of it in countries where people were shooting at him and his men. On one of those occasions, in November of last year, Tiso found himself side by side with a Ukrainian General, under fire at the Iran-Iraq border. It was the incident that earned Tiso his Ukrainian medal.

Tiso was serving as senior liaison officer and adviser to the Multinational Division-Central South. He was traveling with a convoy of Ukrainian infantry who had been on border patrol duty. They were on the way back to the Ukrainian headquarters at the city of Al Kut.

"We were on a paved road, as good as any of the roads there," Tiso said. They were maybe 10 minutes from Al Kut; they could see the city lights in the distance. Suddenly they were under attack. "We were ambushed by what we believe to be bandits," Tiso said. The shooters were crouched behind a clump of trees near the road, firing at the lead vehicle in the convoy.

Tiso recalls that it was 9:10 p.m. and dark. He was riding in a truck with Ukrainian Maj. Gen. Antonoli Soborra, and they were both armed; Tiso carried an assault rifle and Soborra carried an AKM.

The bandits kept firing at the lead vehicle, which went into a ditch, although no one in it was injured.

"There were hits all along the vehicle, but not on the engine block. In retrospect, we believe they wanted to take the vehicle. I do not think they knew that behind that vehicle was a line of other vehicles," Tiso said.

Soborra fired three rounds at the clump of trees where the bandits were firing. The bandits fired tracer rounds, which lit up to show where they were firing. The rounds also gave away their position, and Tiso fired back. "I looked at the general and said let's go," Tiso said.

After the exchange of fire, the bandits fled in a getaway car. Tiso spotted the vehicle driving through a field and fired at it; he believes he blew out the back window.

Afterward a dump truck driver told them he saw the bandits driving away, and he saw one of them in the back seat slumped to the side. Tiso and the Ukrainian troops escaped unhurt that night; later, back in Al Kut, they celebrated with vodka.

Dec. 27, 2003, there was an incident at a Bulgarian barracks in Iraq that didn't have such a happy ending. Two truck bombs were driven toward the barracks. Bulgarian infantrymen fired at the trucks, stopping them from barreling forward, but the infantrymen were killed when the trucks exploded. Six Bulgarians died, as did two engineers from Thailand; 27 Bulgarians were wounded.

Tiso flew in to help the Bulgarians re-establish security and bolster morale of the stunned and wounded troops. Days after the explosion, he helped organize a soccer game. "The soldiers showed up, some of them with bandages," Tiso said.

The Bulgarian commander helped put him in for a decoration, a Bulgarian Medal for Faithful Service Under the Colors. It was also presented to him at the Nov. 10 CentCom ceremony.

Now, after 31 years, Tiso is done with combat, safe at home with his wife and two daughters, 12 and 16. He keeps in contact with Soborra to this day, writing e-mails and letters.

[Last modified February 24, 2005, 09:35:09]