Thomas K Zabasky
I am truly grateful and honored to have served alongside MSG David A. Mawae at Fort Polk from late 1981 to early 1985. I came to love and respect the man for his outstanding character, leadership skills, team building, honesty and integrity. Soldiers could always count on him to lead by example, provide caring guidance and discipline, and share proven experiences that held true. More than anyone in my military career, I hold MSG Mawae as my greatest and most trusted friend and mentor. He raised me in my young aviation assignments, helping me grow to understand officer and non-commissioned officer work relationships and job responsibilities and preparing me for a long career of military service. On field exercises and deployments he was the master innovator in making something out of nothing; need a cold soda in the heat of the afternoon when there is no ice, sling your soda can inside an empty bean can of JP4 and it gets cold; need lights at night, fill soda cans full of sand and then with JP4, you have continuous torch light; recover a helicopter with a debonding rotor blade, wrap the blade with 100MPH tape (today it's called Gorilla tape) and fly it home to the maintenance hangar; hungry for some home cooking, dig a pit in the sand, fill it with hot coals, a pig wrapped in banana leaves and everyone is fed. And we all got lessons on the proper rules of competitive volleyball, for he was a certified official. I could go on with stories/examples (I call them Mawae-isms) of how he cared about his family, his soldiers and his military mission.
What a man? To me he was a friend, colleague, mentor and an outstanding leader of men. Soldier On, David Mawae! I will never forget what you taught me. I'll see you one day at the feet of Jesus! Rest in Peace.
Thomas K Zabasky, COL (Rtd)