Beacon House honors hometown veteran

The United Veterans Beacon House, a nonprofit veterans service organization, applauded various distinguished veterans with a Red Carpet Salute at their Veterans Salute Gala earlier this year. Among their honorees, was Valley Stream resident Captain Lissette Lugo, US Air National Guard and a National Grid Compliance Manager.

Lugo joined the United States Air Force and served in active duty for 6 years in the Health Services Management field. While active, she was stationed in Oklahoma, Ohio and the Republic of Panama. When Lugo decided to pursue her engineering career full-time, she transferred to New York and joined the New York State Air National Guard in Newburg. In 2011, she transferred to the 106th Rescue Wing at Gabreski Air National Guard base in Westhampton Beach. She is currently a Medical Service Corp. officer with the rank of Captain.

During the pandemic, Lugo was selected to Command the Joint Task Force, Long Island Operations with over 500 military members under her command with over 12 different missions. She was responsible for the oversight of over half a million Covid-19 testing swabs and 1 million vaccines administered to communities. She received the Air Force Meritorious Award for her service during this critical time.