Birth date: Aug 20, 1962 Death date: Apr 27, 2026
Col. Theodore “Ted” Lee Davis, Jr., USAF (Ret.), lived a life defined by resilience, mentorship, and unwavering determination. He passed away on April 27, 2026, after courageously surpassing every expectation in his battle with gl Read Obituary
I have too many core memories with T.O. to share just one...but two somewhat recent ones stand out: One of the last times I got to sit on the Nellis flight line and watch an LFE launch was when I was the det D.O. for a Mission Employment Phase trip with the 964th AWACS in 2007 or 2008. T.O. was there too, not sure why, but we had just finished briefing the crew and getting them out to the jet, and there was nothing to do for a couple of hours so we just sat outside the Weapons School building shooting the breeze and watching the launch. Watching a launch at Nellis is always fun, and it was great sitting there with him enjoying the show.
A couple of years later I was pleasantly surprised to run into him in Iraq, of all places. I was deployed with the First Armored Division as an Air Liaison Officer and he was in Bagdad working in the JACCE, I think. Over the course of my six-month deployment we had dinner a couple of times and crossed paths here and there, chatted about what it was like reaching the "terminal stage" of our careers and reminisced a little. The really big memory was when he came to the 1AD awards ceremony toward the end of our deployment. It was a tremendous honor to have the Division Commander present me with my deployment decoration in-theater, but it was even better to have T.O. there to shake my hand and congratulate me on what was a pretty big day for me, that I couldn't share with my family or anyone else that I had half as much history with. It just meant a bit more to have an old friend who I had known my whole career be there, along with all of my great Army colleagues who I had only known for a year or so at that point. I really appreciated T.O.'s willingness to take time out of his busy schedule to be there that day (he was, after all, an O-6 in a fairly important position in the JACCE). That's just the kind of guy he was. He showed up.
Ted was my very first squadron commander when I was a Lieutenant in the ABM schoolhouse. We all respected him because he wasn't just the boss, but was as tactically proficient as the schoolhouse demanded we be. He would regularly tell us to do the very best we could at everything we did, every single day.
A few years down the road, I was eating one night in a deployed dining facility in the Middle East. I had not seen him in years, but I suddenly felt a hand on my shoulder, and a familiar voice say, "are you doing the very best you can at everything you do every single day?" We shook hands, briefly caught up, and I was buoyed not only by his remembering me but by the motivation of his question in a tough environment.
He was a great man and leader who will be missed dearly. My deepest condolences to his family.
-Jason Baker
“Game face, not clown face! “. It’s a lesson he taught at UABMT. It was simple, but stuck. We’ll miss you, TO! GO HEELS!
Remembering the Davis family, especially Caroline and Jackson-who participated in the same Youth Group at Fairfax Presbyterian Church with my 3 children over 20 years ago...
Accept our condolences and heartfelt prayers for peace.
Ms. Vasantha Rayman ( Mom of the Obasi Children )
T.O., you were a dedicated officer, an amazing instructor, and an incredibly kind person! What an honor to have served with you. Memories of you and our work together in MQT remain as one of my proudest military accomplishments. You will never be forgotten. R.I.P. Sir. Prayers to your family.
