Down from the Afghan mountains to Long Beach

Alfred Palmieri has marched in the Long Beach Memorial Day parade since he was a first-grader at Long Beach Catholic Regional School on Broadway. Now a staff sergeant in the Army 3rd Brigade, Palmieri will be the first veteran of a post-9/11 conflict to be named the parade's grand marshal.

For the past seven years, Palmieri has been stationed in Fort Hood, Texas. After his deployment to Iraq, he spent 2008 and 2009 in Afghanistan, where he was a squad leader. This weekend, for the first time since last November, he will return home, just in time for the holiday event.

"I am very grateful that they picked me," Palmieri said. "It's an honor."

Growing up in Long Beach, he graduated from Kellenberg High School in 2001. After being trained as a cavalry scout at Fort Knox, Ky., he was sent to Iraq. Palmieri initially joined the Army because of his family's military history and his strong interest in public service. "Men in my family have served, and it has always been near and dear to my heart," he said.

Palmieri has earned the Combat Action Badge and the Iraq and Afghan Campaign Medals, and was awarded the Army Commendation Medal six times.

He is looking forward to being back in Long Beach and seeing friends and family. "People that live in Long Beach you won't find just anywhere," he said. "They are generous and kind. It doesn't take you long to find a friend in Long Beach."

Palmieri's parents, Alfred and Marie, are in high spirits over the honor their son has received. "We are busting with pride," said Marie, a teacher at LBCRS. "People are stopping me and asking if he is my son. It's a great feeling ... We are very lucky to have him home and unharmed. Some aren't so lucky."

His duties in Afghanistan included patrol as a tactic to attract the enemy. He led a four-man patrol group near the Hindu Kush mountains, hiking at an altitude of 8,000 feet.

"It was very scary to know that an enemy fighter could be behind the next rock or even up the trail," he said. "There was common knowledge of what would happen out there — blood and bullets."