By TIFFANY RAZZANO
He not only works as a state trooper upstate, but has also served in the U.S. Army and remains in the National Guard, seeing several tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan as a para rescuer.
Kakis, whose family owns Mormile Florists in the village, enlisted in the army a year after graduating from Oceanside High School in 1987. "I always had a big interest in it," he said. "But I didn't know much about it. I was always fascinated with it, watching World War II movies."
So Kakis joined the 82nd Airborne out of Fort Bragg. He served in the army for four years, going to the Middle East during the first Gulf War. After that, he left the army, but remained in the National Guard.
After leaving the army, Kakis graduated from Nassau Community College in 1994 with a degree in criminal justice. Around this time his National Guard unit disbanded, forcing him to seek a new unit.
Someone just happened to point him in the direction of the Para Rescue unit out of Westhampton. After interviewing with them, and liking what he learned about the unit, Kakis went back into active duty for nearly two years, between 1994 and 1996, for training. "I liked the mission, search and rescue," he said. "I got to do some pretty incredible things." The unit has taken him all over the world, including Venezuela, Japan and Iceland, as well as his recent stints in Iraq and Afghanistan. He also helped out during the bad ice storms and flooding upstate over the past year.
His most memorable, and favorite, mission so far was when his unit was deployed to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina to rescue people stranded on rooftops. "I felt terrific doing it," he said. "I'd drop anything to do a mission like that. It's not just helping Americans out. It's not war. I'm just there to help people out. It's not take a life to save a life. It's a humanitarian leap."
Still, the training to become a para rescuer was not easy. Kakis says only 85 percent make it.. "It's mostly water confidence that gets people," he said. "I was no natural at it. Some guys breezed through it, but not me. I was never a natural at the water. But they build you up. It gets harder every week, so you progress and get better at it."
After coming out of training and again no longer on active duty, Kakis became a state trooper in the Hudson Valley area in May of 1998. This was also something he had always wanted to do. He had missed an earlier test for the job because he was in para rescue training, but he took a test in 1997 and was called right away because he did well on it.
He's remained in the National Guard throughout his nine years as a state trooper. He was sent to Kuwait in 2001, Baghdad in 2003 and Kandahar, Afghanistan in 2005. He just recently came back from another tour of Afghanistan.
Kakis will be the first to say he didn't always see a lot of action. "I wasn't being shot at every day," he said. But he was on call at the base, just waiting to rescue soldiers, or others, if something happened. And if something did happen, he was there to save people.
During his recent time in Afghanistan, Kakis left the base for a day to interact with the locals, which he enjoyed immensely. He and other members of his unit got to hand out clothing and toys to children from a nearby village. "They really have nothing," he said. "No electricity, no running water... not many hospitals. The kids were great kids. There are no garbage dumps there, so the garbage is spread out. The kids are walking around in it. But they're happy kids. They went crazy when we were there, like regular, hyper kids at Christmas."
He and the others who visited the village also helped to take care of cuts, scrapes and other minor ailments. Kakis helped one little boy with a broken arm, redress it with clean bandages and supplies.
Though Kakis loves serving his country overseas, he also simply just loves to help people. He's been able to see a lot of the world, as well as human nature, this way. "The worst events you see, you really get to see human nature at its best and its worst," he said. "You will see people who lost everything helping their neighbors, or people selling a bottle of water for $12 to someone dying of dehydration. It changes your perspective on the way people are."
Comments about this story? TRazzano@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 221.
