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Thomas Sidwell ‘Tom’ Mayberry was
born on February 28, 1931 in Cookeville, TN to Henry Eugene (Gene)
and Beatrice (Bea) Maynard Mayberry. In his early years he lived in
a small cottage in the country near the “cavalry barn,” an icon for
the rural Tennessee National Guard community, where his father
served as a field artillery officer and caretaker. Not surprisingly,
he developed a fondness for horses that stayed with him over the
years. Tom was a popular, personable and diplomatic youth, serving
as captain of the Cookeville Central High School football team his
senior year. He also served as president of his freshman and junior
classes, on the student council and in numerous other activities
(the “C” Club, “Hi-Y,” sergeant-at-arms, Latin club and science
club. In his senior year, Tom’s classmates voted him the “Most
Handsome Boy” and “Mr. Central.” After graduating in 1949, Tom
attended Sullivan’s Preparatory School in Washington, DC before
entering West Point in 1950 with a congressional appointment.
At West Point, Tom became close friends with all the
academic departments. His efforts to accumulate all the bits of
knowledge required of him—particularly in math, physics and
“juice”—took dedicated concentration during the academic periods of
his time at West Point. His constant good humor and determination
were an exemplary display of his resolve to graduate and become a
member of the Long Gray Line. All of his classmates held him in the
highest regard for conquering the challenge to reach graduation.
Upon graduation and commissioning, Tom started his
career with various infantry, intelligence and advisory
assignments. Tom married the love of his life, Sue Anne Eskridge, on
April 2, 1955. They had two sons, Thomas S., Jr. and Alan. They had
many wonderful years together. Tom served in the Panama Canal Zone
as Chief of the Regional Office’s Counterintelligence Detachment,
ensuring the canal’s security during the peak of the Cold War. From
1961 to 1963, he served as a Company Commander of the 506th Infantry
Regiment (Airborne) and Operations Officer in the 101st Airborne
Division. After recovering from a broken back suffered on his very
last airborne jump at Fort Campbell, KY, Tom served as Intelligence
Advisor to the G2 for the Armed Forces of El Salvador from 1963 to
1966. During this assignment he managed to perfect his command of
the Spanish language. While assigned to the U.S. Army Office of
Personnel Operations, he worked all aspects of appointments,
assignments and transfers for the 7,000 officers comprising the
Military Intelligence (MI) Branch and received accolades for his
efforts in increasing officer strength during the Vietnam build-up
period. Tom then attended the U.S. Army Command and General Staff
College at Fort Leavenworth, KS in 1967 to 1968. From 1968 to 1969,
Tom served as an MI Battalion Commander in the 525 MI Group, based
in Can Tho, Republic of Vietnam, and received a Legion of Merit for
his exemplary effort against the North Vietnamese Army and the Viet
Cong. Under Tom’s leadership, intelligence reporting increased by
300 percent and improved anti-communist forces’ ability to quickly
target and destroy the enemy.
Tom next served as Chief of the U.S. European Command
J2’s Counter-intelligence (CI) Section. He prepared and monitored
the command’s joint CI policy for the theater and also authored a
critical CI Estimate for all NATO forces. He was presented a Legion
of Merit for actions he took to identify and neutralize hostile
intelligence activities as well as for his efforts to directly
improve overall security in the command. After Germany, Tom served
as the Chief of the Threat Analysis Branch in the U.S. Army Training
and Doctrine Command’s Intelligence Division at Fort Monroe, VA. He
coordinated threat operations for standard scenarios and studies
that were conducted by 22 Army service schools and other study
agencies. A third Legion of Merit followed this assignment.
Tom contracted corioretinitis while serving in El
Salvador. The condition started with seeing a blip on the horizon
while visiting a beach on the Pacific Ocean and steadily degraded
his vision, resulting in legal blindness and his medical retirement
to Williamsburg, VA in 1976. Tom suffered a stroke in 1990 at age
60. This left him mobile but impaired his ability to articulate what
he was thinking, and it also severely affected his long and
short-term memory. In 2009, Tom suffered a second stroke, followed
by a lethal one in 2013.
Tom was a devoted husband and loving father. He
enjoyed fresh and saltwater fishing, skiing, his vintage
reel-to-reel stereo system, yard work, grilling out, woodworking and
delving into the earliest home personal computers.
Tom also enjoyed the regular reunions at West Point
and other classmate-hosted locations. One of his own was always
there to guide him to where he needed to be on the parade field for
the alumni formation. His classmates sat with him at dinner even
though they knew that they were not in for much conversation. This
sense of caring followed him home after the reunion, and Sue could
count on regular calls from concerned classmates to check on Tom.
West Point was a major part of his life, as attested by the items he
selected to take with him to his small room at his retirement home:
his time-worn class ring, his framed diploma, his 1954 Howitzer and
even his cadet shako.
Tom was much beloved by his family and will be
missed. He is survived by his wife, Sue Eskridge, who was very
dedicated to taking care of Tom in every way since his first stroke,
and by two sons, one daughter-in-law and five grandchildren. He is
also survived by two brothers, Dr. William E. and James D.
Mayberry. Tom brought great credit to the Long Gray Line and fully
embodied the true meaning of Duty, Honor, Country through all phases
of his life. |
