08-10-2015, 21:06
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#1
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Free Pineland
Posts: 24,824
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SGM Ernie Tabata
I regret to inform you that Sergeant Major Ernest K. Tabata passed away this afternoon in the hospital in Chapel Hill, NC.
Details to follow.
I was privileged to serve with Sergeant Major Ernie Tabata for two years on Demo Committee and have been close friends with him for more than twenty-five years.
I learned more in those two years concerning every subject I asked him about than any other two years of my life. I learned not just about SF engineering, but about how to be a better SF officer, soldier, and man in general.
Ernie took charge of the saber arch detail at my wedding and became a Sergeant Major again, like he was still on active duty. He did it exactly right, and his uniform still fit perfectly.
He was a man who lived simply and humbly, but who was rich in friends and experience.
His legacy lives on in the 20+% of the force he personally left his stamp of approval on, in his more than sixty years of service.
He was a good friend, a good man, and will be sorely missed. The world is truly a lesser place with his departure.
Thank you, Sergeant Major, for your service and your sacrifice, and for the time and wisdom you shared with me over the years.
I hope that you and Anna are together again tonight.
Rest in Peace, Sergeant Major. And save me a place at that final RV.
You will not be forgotten in my lifetime.
TR
__________________
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." - President Theodore Roosevelt, 1910
De Oppresso Liber 01/20/2025
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The Reaper is offline
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08-10-2015, 21:19
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#2
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Occupied Pineland
Posts: 4,701
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A fitting epitaph for a man whose inner strength and humility influenced everyone he touched. May you rest in eternal peace CSM.
__________________
A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear.
~ Marcus Tullius Cicero (42B.C)
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Peregrino is offline
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08-10-2015, 21:30
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#3
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: DFW Texas Area
Posts: 4,741
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Rest in Peace Sergeant Major!!
__________________
Martin sends.
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Ambush Master is offline
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08-10-2015, 21:34
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#4
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Sneaking back and forth across the Border
Posts: 6,691
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Rest in Peace CSM. You taught me many things and you will live on in all our Brothers that you touched in your life.
See you in the ORP.......
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SF_BHT is offline
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08-10-2015, 21:49
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#5
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Location, Location
Posts: 4,083
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Sargent Major.
__________________
The two most powerful warriors are patience and time - Leo Tolstoy
It's Never Crowded Along the Extra Mile - Wayne Dyer
WOKE = Willfully Overlooking Known Evil
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MR2 is offline
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08-10-2015, 22:10
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#6
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Florida
Posts: 362
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Fantastic words Reaper. What an incredible loss. I was very honored to have known him. Rest in Peace Sergeant Major. De Oppresso Liber.
__________________
"Leadership consists of nothing but taking responsibility for everything that goes wrong and giving your subordinates credit for everything that goes well."
DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER
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Chairborne64 is offline
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08-10-2015, 22:22
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#7
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Tampa
Posts: 2,632
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A true legend. Rest in Peace Sergeant Major. DOL
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Joker is offline
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08-10-2015, 22:22
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#8
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: In transit somewhere
Posts: 4,044
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SGM Tabata touched a lot of people who did not go through the demo committee, he was a fixture at the schoolhouse for many decades. If anybody didn't know something, the normal response was "Go ask Ernie, um, SGM, um Mr. T...."
The Regiment lost a great man here on earth, but gained an angel watching over us.
Rest Easy, SGM, your legacy is great and our respect is undying.
__________________
In the business of war, there is no invariable stategic advantage (shih) which can be relied upon at all times.
Sun-Tzu, "The Art of Warfare"
Hearing, I forget. Seeing, I remember. Writing (doing), I understand. Chinese Proverb
Too many people are looking for a magic bullet. As always, shot placement is the key. ~TR
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x SF med is offline
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08-10-2015, 22:27
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#9
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Consigliere
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Free Pineland (at last)
Posts: 8,841
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I had the honor of meeting him once, and the pleasure of hearing others tell stories about him. Huge loss. RIP
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Roguish Lawyer is offline
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08-11-2015, 09:40
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#10
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: 18 yrs upstate NY, 30 yrs South Florida, 20 yrs Conch Republic, now chasing G-Kids in NOVA & UK
Posts: 11,901
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RIP SGM, Vaya con Dios..
__________________
Go raibh tú leathuair ar Neamh sula mbeadh a fhios ag an diabhal go bhfuil tú marbh
"May you be a half hour in heaven before the devil knows you’re dead"
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JJ_BPK is offline
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08-11-2015, 09:58
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#11
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: NorCal
Posts: 15,370
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Ernie was the personification of the term 'NCO' and 'Sergeant Major' to me.
"RIP, Sergeant Major." 
Richard
__________________
“Sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whisky bottle in the hand of (another)… There are just some kind of men who – who’re so busy worrying about the next world they’ve never learned to live in this one, and you can look down the street and see the results.” - To Kill A Mockingbird (Atticus Finch)
“Almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.” - Robert Heinlein
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Richard is offline
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08-19-2015, 15:50
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#12
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Area Commander
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: UK
Posts: 2,952
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Rest In God's Own Peace, SGM. Prayers out.
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Red Flag 1 is offline
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08-21-2015, 12:11
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#13
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: South Louisiana
Posts: 58
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Rest in Peace SGM. God rest your soul and prayers to your family.
It was a personal honor to be one of your students.
__________________
"What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms."
-- Thomas Jefferson
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SF Hunter is offline
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08-21-2015, 21:47
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#14
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Guerrilla
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 202
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It was a fitting memorial
__________________
Someday, we'll look back on this, laugh nervously and change the subject.
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P36 is offline
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08-11-2015, 10:05
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#15
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Near Catharpin Virginia
Posts: 48
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As one of the "Island Boys", Mr.Tabata would always talk pidgin to me and steal extra moments to bs about food, surf and the way things are back home. It is an honor to be one of the many who learned from him.
RIP SGM.
__________________
To be now a sensible man, by and by a fool and presently a beast
Semper Erectus
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kalanis is offline
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