ABOUT TOOMEY

Toomey was born and raised in North Carolina, graduating from Cary High School in 1970. After graduating with distinction from the Virginia Military Institute in 1974 with a bachelors degree in Civil Engineering and commissioned a second lieutenant in the Army Corps of Engineers, he began his professional career as an officer in the United States Army. As a VMI cadet he earned Army parachutist wings. He earned the Ranger Tab while a second lieutenant.

From 1974 until 1988, he served in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg and the 3rd Infantry (Mechanized) and 3rd Armored Divisions in West Germany. During this same period he earned a masters degree in Civil Engineering from North Carolina State University when he was also licensed as a Professional Engineer in North Carolina. Following graduate school, he served in Saudi Arabia as the Assistant Area Engineer for a $1.24 billion construction project that built a new military academy for the Saudi Arabian army.

From 1988-89 he attended the Army's Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He was selected to remain at Fort Leavenworth for an additional year of advanced academic work with the School of Advanced Military Studies, where he earned a Master of Military Arts and Sciences degree from the accredited military college.

In June 1990 he was assigned to the G-3 Plans section of the XVIII Airborne Corps headquarters at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. On 8 August 1990 he was among the first small group of soldiers from XVIII Airborne Corps to deploy to Saudi Arabia in response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. For the next seven months, he was involved in the Corps' planning for Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, when he accompanied the Corps commander to the Corps forward command post. Upon his return from Saudi Arabia he re-assumed his primary duties as the Corps' planner for U.S. Atlantic Command contingencies.

In 1992 he became the Deputy Commander of the 20th Engineer Brigade (Airborne) at Fort Bragg, where he again led the first unit to deploy in the wake of Hurricane Andrew to south Florida. During 1994-96 he served on the Army Staff in the Pentagon with the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, Force Modernization.

In 1996 he returned to Fort Bragg to serve first as the Chief of Current Operations, XVIII Airborne Corps G3 and then as the Director of Plans, Mobilization and Training. He retired from active duty in 2000 with the rank of lieutenant colonel. His numerous decorations include two awards of the Legion of Merit and the Bronze Star.

Since retiring, he has devoted most of his time to researching and writing The XVIII Airborne Corps in Desert Storm - From Planning to Victory. During the 2003 war in Iraq he was a military analyst for one radio and two television stations. He currently resides in Southern Pines, North Carolina.