by Mike Schnitzel
³It feels good to be home,² he said. ³It¹s been a long time, and it¹s been something that I¹ve been waiting for a long time.²
Castiello isn¹t the only one who¹s glad he¹s back. ³It was a constant concern and a constant worry,² said his father, Matthew. ³I was dreading the day I¹d have two Marines pull up in my driveway. Having him back from Iraq brings me peace of mind.²
Castiello, who will be discharged from active duty Aug. 12, served a seven-month tour of duty in Iraq, much of it in Fallujah, a hotbed of insurgent resistance. As a sergeant with the Combat Logistics Battalion 8, part of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force, he served several functions in Iraq, the most dangerous as a machine gunner providing security for convoys.
³My team had to face some fire,² said Castiello. ³About 90 percent of the time it was IEDs [improvised explosive devices], sometimes it was small-arms fire.² The convoys he was assigned to protect supplied military outposts with food, water, ammunition, fuel and generators. According to Castiello, his interaction with Iraqi citizens was limited to searching their vehicles at security checkpoints along convoy roots. In addition to those duties, he spent the first four months of his tour helping to move cargo at the landing zone in Fallujah.
Castiello enlisted in the Marines after graduating from Central. He also served with U.S. peacekeeping forces in Haiti during the civil strife that gripped that Caribbean nation in 2004.
Now living at home, Castiello plans on attending Adelphi University in the fall. ³I consider myself fortunate to have a family to come back to,² he said. ³A lot of the guys I knew weren¹t so lucky.²
Comments about this story? MSchnitzel@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 265.
