BACK FROM IRAQ

The Riverhead School District and the New York Air National Guard’s 106th Air Rescue Wing located at Gabreski Airport in Westhampton, Long Island, have had a long history of caring for one another.

When the District was preparing to wire its buildings for the internet and computer networking, the 106th came to the rescue. Some members of the crew that had wired the Pentagon expertly laid fiber optic and other computer cable in the schools. It saved the district thousands of dollars in labor costs. For a number of years before they began being deployed, the 106th provided personnel and programming for the Pulaski Street School’s popular Galaxy science and anti-drug program. There have been numerous field trips by all grade levels to the Air Base in Westhampton. One high school class read Sebastian Junger’s book The Perfect Storm and then traveled to the Base to meet some of the men who participated in the “longest over-water rescue mission, which saved a Ukranian sailor in the North Atlantic.”

This symbiotic relationship between the 106th and the District is especially strong with the students at the Riley Avenue School in Calverton, where a few of the members of the 106th live. In a small, but significant, way, this quiet sense of community and mutual concern recently played itself out in the third grade classroom of Nicholas Gagliano. Nicholas' father, Sr. Master Sgt. Anthony Gagliano, a member of the 106th, was deployed to Iraq.

“It’s a traumatic event to have your dad involved in a war. It can’t help but impact a child,” explained Art Apicello, Nicholas’ third grade teacher at the Riley Avenue School. “Some of the kids didn’t believe him when he told them his dad was in the war, so working with Nicholas’ mom and the Guard’s Family Office at the Base, we designed a short program to help the students deal with their own fears and concerns and to help them indirectly become part of a support system for Nicholas.”

Three members of the Guard’s Family Support team came to Riley and presented a short slide show and talked about the unit’s training and expertise, but on this day, these three were on a special mission of their own: to help a little boy cope with the anxieties that a war places on the families of those men and women who have been deployed.

“The unit’s Pararescue Specialists, some of the most vigorously trained personnel in the entire United States Military, are trained and equipped to meet all contingencies and to save lives from ocean swells to the highest mountaintops,” Lt. Danielle Pettit reassured the class during the slide show.

The three gently fielded questions and addressed concerns that the children had for those fighting in the war. Then they gave Nicholas a framed picture of the 106th, and pointed out Nicholas’ dad in the picture. The palpable relief and pride in Nicholas’ eyes as his classmates gathered around his desk for a closer look at the picture made it clear that their mission had been successful.

Mr. Apicello’s class adopted the members of the 106th and sent them cards and letters, and in December they got a surprise visit from one of those recipients of their cards and concern: Nicholas’ dad, Sr. Master Sgt. Gagliano.

“What struck me,” Mr. Apicello shared, “was that he had obviously come straight to the school after he had landed. There was still dust on his jumpsuit from the flight. He immediately came to see his son and the members of my class.”

Mr. Gagliano returned again later to the classroom (right before the school break) to give the kids the thanks of his squadron for their cards and letters and to present the students with certificates and some Iraqi money. As his smaller son and daughter wandered in and out of the circle, Mr. Gagliano answered questions about what it was like to be in Iraq. Nicholas beamed.