Generations see tradition of service

On one very special day 43 years ago, John D’Errico put on his father’s flight helmet and lugged his parachute to the flight line at the Air National Guard base. The scrawny 7-year-old struggled under the weight of the 60 pounds of folded nylon, but delivered it to his father, Maj. Peter D’Errico, as he prepared to navigate the skies above Bangor.

His mission complete, John reported to his perch in the back seat of a parked F-89 Scorpion. For the next three hours, he traced the course of his father’s jet as it streaked through the wild blue yonder.

John still chuckles when recalling the struggle he had with the chute that day, but remembers fondly many afternoons spent at his perch in the navigator’s seat of a fighter jet, dreaming about pursuing his father’s vapor trails in the sky.

For MAINEiacs, the legacy of the Guard runs thicker than jet fuel.

“The Guard is like a family business that gets handed down,” said Col. John D’Errico, 50, now vice commander of the wing. “We often joke out here at the base if your Social Security number starts with a double zero [the prefix given to many born in Maine], then you know they will probably fit in pretty well.”

After participating in Bangor High School’s Junior ROTC program, Amanda Gleason decided to enlist in the Air Guard at age 17. She simply needed parental consent to join the military. But when she arrived at basic training, the instructors stopped the young woman at the fort doors.

“They said, ‘Your recruiter waived your parental consent. A recruiter can’t waive that,'” Staff Sgt. Gleason, 31, recalled with a smirk.

Gleason explained her situation to the instructor. One of the recruiters for the 101st Air Refueling Wing was legally capable of waiving the parental consent of his own recruit.

He was her father – Senior Master Sgt. Michael Gleason.

“Then they asked, ‘Are you here of your own free will? You weren’t coerced into doing this, were you?'” Amanda said.

For Senior Airman Abel Gleason, who, you guessed it, is the son of Michael and Master Sgt. Della Gleason and brother of Amanda, fitting into the Guard family isn’t a challenge. In fact, sometimes it’s too easy.

“To some people I will never be Abel Gleason. I will always be Mike and Della’s son,” Abel said.

His job requires him to seek approval from “Master Sgt. Mom,” the commander’s administrative assistant.

“You gotta watch what you do out here,” Abel said. “You’ve got family out here and you can’t mess up.”

While the entire Gleason family of four is employed or retired from the Guard, none sought careers in the same departments as their predecessors.

“What would ever compel me to do the job that my dad did for all those years?” Abel said. “I would constantly be staring down the barrel trying to be him or better than him.”

In the D’Errico household, John had no qualms about joining the flight crew like his father, but instead of navigating jets, he decided to pilot them.

“Some people like to golf, and some people like to bowl. This was the wide world of sports for me,” Peter D’Errico said. “But [John] far exceeded anything I did out here,” he said, looking at his son proudly.