COL Joseph A. Tirone

COL Tirone was born 6 April 1962 in Chester, NY. He entered active duty Army Service at Redstone Arsenal in 1984 as a Distinguished Graduate of the University of Wyoming ROTC program. Upon graduation from the Ordnance Officers Basic Course and Nuclear Weapons course, he was assigned to a NATO Ordnance Company (96th OD Co.) in the 557th U.S. Army Artillery Group, 59th Ordnance Brigade supporting the III German Corps. During this assignment, he provided tactical nuclear weapons support to the U.S. and NATO, which contributed significantly to the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union. He was instrumental in the safe and secure movement of numerous tactical nuclear weapons around the EUCOM AOR in support of the ultimate retrograde of these weapons to CONUS.

As a Battery Commander at White Sands Missile Range, his unit was responsible for the test firing of multiple new weapon systems in support of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. The test firing support they provided for numerous new Artillery, Tank, Air and Shoulder fired munitions, was highly instrumental in the defeat of the Iraqi military and directly contributed to minimizing U.S. and Coalition losses.

As a senior munitions action officer in the USAREUR G4, he was responsible for determining post-Soviet Union munitions requirements, which drove a massive retrograde of munitions from Europe to CONUS, saving millions of dollars in excess infrastructure and munitions reallocation. At the fall of the Soviet Union it was estimated that USAREUR had in excess of 800K short tons of ammunition staged in Europe. Using HQ DA methodology, this was safely reduced to 65K short tons of ammunition over time.

Upon graduating with honors from the Army Logistics Executive Development Course (LEDC), he was assigned to the CASCOM Battle Lab where he was designated as the lead action officer for the redesign of the Army’s Division Support Command (DISCOM). Working closely with the Ordnance, Transportation, Quartermaster, and Medical School subject matter experts, he provided multiple DISCOM designs to support numerous Force 21 Division designs. The introduction of significant organizational and technological enablers, allowed the Army to rapidly transform and develop a more agile and flexible sustainment force.

As the last commissioned Ordnance Ammunition Officer to retire from active duty, his 34 years of mentorship, leadership and technical abilities contributed significantly to attaining National, Strategic, Operational and Tactical goals across the Department of Defense.

COL Tirone retired on January 1st, 2014.