OLYMPIAN IN OUR MIDST
While Colonel Guy Troy, U.S. Army (Retired) was a late
bloomer as a modern pentathlon athlete, it did not keep him from winning a gold
medal in the very first Pan American Games 1951 in Buenos Aires. It wasn’t lost on Troy that another Armored Army
officer finished fifth overall in the same sport in the 1912 Olympics at
Stockholm. That soldier’s name was
Patton.
“Having served as a Cavalry Platoon Leader in Europe, I
would have been happy if the Army had sent me directly to the Korean War from Buenos
Aires after the Pan-Am Games. Instead,
they sent me to West Point to form and recruit a modern pentathlon team and
start training for the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki,” Troy recalled from his home
in Liberty, North Carolina.
Perchance you know more about shooting baskets or pool than
pentathloning, here are the Cliff’s Notes of competitive events: Fencing,
pistol shooting, 200 meter free-style swim, 4000 meter horseback ride with 25
jumps, and 4000 meter cross-country run.
During Olympic try-outs, player/coach Troy did well his
first two days, “I was first in fencing, second in shooting, and sixth in
swimming. I was about six years older
than most of the runners and came in eighth.
My wheels did not run off in the horseback competition, but my horse did
– she fell about half way to the finish line.”
 |
| TROY POINTS TO TAG REPRESENTING HORSE HE DREW IN 1952 OLYMPICS |
Troy finished fourteenth in individual completion and
coached his team to a fourth place position in those 1952 Summer Olympics,
“Actually, we tied with Finland for third, but they won the bronze medal
because they beat us in the cross-country.”
He holds no grudges against his Olympic steed, “That horse
had some age on her. She did the best
she could. After all, she was one of 14
hand-me-downs sent to us from Fort Riley, Kansas.”
At 93, and retired to his Liberty, North Carolina farm, Troy
is still an Olympic enthusiast. “Will I be
watching the events in Rio de Janeiro?
You bet!”
 |
| FORMER OLYMPIAN GUY TROY RECEIVED EARLY COPY OF 2016 PROGRAM FROM RIO |
He has served in many
Olympic capacities, including event judging in 1972, 1980, 1984 and 1990. He fondly recalls witnessing the 1980 “Miracle
on Ice” at Lake Placid.
Even though the Pan American Games and Olympic competition
kept Troy from Korea, he later commanded an Armored Reconnaissance Unit. He served in Vietnam as intelligence officer
for the 25th Infantry Division in 1967-1968.
Although Troy is a graduate of West Point, he originally
enlisted as an aviation cadet in the Army Air Corps in 1942.
“I already knew how
to fly. When the war started, I knew I
wanted aviation.” During aviation
training, he was selected for the Academy in 1943 and graduated in 1946. He served Cold War assignments in Germany and
Austria before and after his pentathlon competition. In 1959-1960 he served as a Military Adviser
in Iran.
Troy married Winifred Hildegarde Charles, who died in
2009. They had two sons, Guy K. Troy Jr.,
a West Point graduate and retired military, and Thaddeus W. Troy, a 30-year CIA
employee. There are four Troy
grandchildren.
 |
| FRANK HEBERER (L) AND GUY TROY TWO RETIRED COLONELS WHO SERVED TOGETHER IN CONSTABULARY FORCE AFTER WW II |
Troy’s father, Dr. Thaddeus Troy, practiced medicine in
Greensboro for many years. He and Dr.
Wesley Long III were cousins. Dr. Troy
served in World War I and retired from the Army Reserve as a colonel.
There is another colonel of interest in Guy Troy’s lineage –
Colonel Andrew Balfour. According to
Troy, ‘He is my great-great-great grandfather.” Balfour’s tombstone on Doul
Mountain in Randolph County reads, “ …murdered by a band of Tories at his
home.”
Balfour’s execution by the notorious loyalist leader, David
Fanning, was one of many such incidents in the Piedmont wherein Whigs were gunned
down during the unofficial “Tory War” in early 1782. It has not gone unnoticed by the folks of
Randolph County. An Asheboro community
is named in Balfour’s memory, as is a DAR Chapter and Masonic Lodge.
Obviously, Troy is a man of many interests – in his Liberty
environs of several hundred acres, he has farmland and timberland, “Right now,
I would have to say, my passion is forestry!”
He has his own tennis courts. Even though he has ample room for a golf
course, he opted out, “Golf takes too much of my day – I have other things to
do.”
Troy is a founder and active member of All Souls Anglican
Church in Asheboro. He also serves with
the Randolph County Honor Guard, which conducts hundreds of military funerals
each year for veterans across the Piedmont.
He is active with the West Point Society.
 |
| RETIRED ARMY COLONELS FRANK HEBERER AND GUY TROY AT TROY'S FARMHOUSE IN LIBERTY, NC DECEMBER, 2015 |
