VALDOSTA — Troy Tolbert (Brig. Gen., USAF, retired) saved Moody Air Force Base.

He doesn’t say so in his autobiography, “From Dirt to Duty,” but having covered his tenure leading the Moody Support Committee, this reporter saw his efforts in action.

In the early 1990s, Moody was placed on the Base Realignment and Closure list. In the book, Tolbert mentions how he knew this detail before it was made public. He approached then-Valdosta Mayor James H. Rainwater. On a paper bag, Tolbert and Rainwater outlined a chart to garner community support and refute the reasons Moody had been placed on BRAC.

Getting Moody’s name off that list was a community effort — one supervised daily by Tolbert, Joe Prater and Bob Ator from a second-floor office of what was then C&S Bank in Downtown Valdosta.

Tolbert’s efforts are a key reason why Valdosta-Lowndes County still has Moody Air Force Base today.

He doesn’t say so in his book, though. Tolbert doesn’t take credit for saving Moody. In fact, he only gives this event about a page in “From Dirt to Duty.” Most of the book details how a young farm boy rose to become a fighter pilot, a base commander, a family man, and a brigadier general.

“From Dirt to Duty” tells the story of Tolbert’s life on a Mississippi farm, the son of Troy and Louise Tolbert. He describes churning butter, hours of farm chores, big breakfasts, being one of 14 students in his graduating class, playing football and dealing with a football injury.

It was football that took him to Mississippi State, and the football injury that led to his deep involvement in the ROTC and, after graduation, a career in the Air Force. Tolbert tells fascinating stories about learning to fly, serving as a general’s aide, his harrowing arrival in Vietnam at the time of the Tet Offensive. There was the rise in rank, the assignments to various bases, including his command at Moody Air Force Base.

Throughout his adult life, there has been wife Louie, with whom he raised three children, Terri, Tracie and Michael, and when it came time to retire from the Air Force, of all the places they had been assigned through the years, the Tolberts chose Valdosta as the place to return to and call home.

“From Dirt to Duty” chronicles one man’s life but Tolbert also provides vivid insights into aspects of the Air Force’s past as well as historical events of the latter 20th century. A fascinating read, “From Dirt to Duty” is his first attempt at serious writing and his first book.

Tolbert became hooked and is already working on a second book, which he says will include more “From Dirt to Duty” tales from his time in the Air Force, while the majority of it will focus on his conservative views regarding our country.

BOOK

Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. William Troy Tolbert’s “From Dirt to Duty” may be purchased for $19.95 (plus shipping and handling) from amazon.com; or for $17.50 by contacting Tolbert at 247-5411.