This past weekend, Rocky Point High School held their Salute to Service football game. The game was put together and organized by Richard Acritelli and honors not only local veterans but also those who were lost at 9/11. Before the opening ceremony, the local heros, who were all wearing some sort of military clothing, were seen getting reacquainted with each other. Men from different wars, different backgrounds, different branches of the military all had one thing in common and it binds them closer than even some families.
Catching up with Richard beforehand he spoke so highly of the event and what it meant to himself and the community. Acritelli is a longtime educator and coach, as well as being in the military for 9 years. He was called away from his Hicksville teaching job when all of the military was called up after 9/11. He certainly feels the connection, even naming his daughter after one of the fallen on that dreadful day. Acritelli was quick to say how "important it is to acknowledge all of our veterans. Every veteran of today
and tomorrow." He went on to say how vital it is that "this generation understands the sacrifices that the armed forces gave to protect our way of life."
Acritelli then praised the guest of honor that day, Gregory Monz. Monz was not only a veteran but he was a former Rocky Point football player. He explained how Monz "answered the call right away." The 2005 graduate was an allcounty football player that almost immediately went to battle after
that fateful day.
Speaking with Monz, you could not only feel the passion within each word when he spoke about the veterans, but the humbleness that he brought to the conversation only made him even that much more of a hero. Monz enjoys the small-town feel of Rocky Point, so much so that he now raises his four sons in the very house he grew up in with his wife Kate.
Monz is somewhat of a local hero, but it's not because of his excellent
play on the football field but what he did after that. More than one person told me the tale of him carrying a full ruck sack of rocks in the woods to prepare for his training. His father was a military dad and he wanted to follow in his footsteps to make him proud.
Monz went right into the Marines and became a sniper. He signed up at 17 years old and wanted to immediately go into recon, which entails being on the front lines of the fighting. His recruiter wouldn't even put him down as such because "there is such a high drop rate because it's so competitive." But like everything else in his life, Monz would overcome that. He joined as a rifleman but was able to try out for recon, did very well and went to school. In time, there was a need for a sniper and the tryouts were ultracompetitive, but Monz overcame that once again.
Monz was "one of just four recon Marines to go to sniper school." To understand how difficult that is we got into the talk about percentages. Monz said "less than 1% of the US population are Marines. Less than 1% of Marines are recon Marines.
And at the time I was serving there were less than 50 Marines that held the title of recon and sniper."
As soon as Monz began to say he was proud of his accomplishments, he quickly shifted into the other veterans. World War II heroes gave him inspiration and drove him, but he doesn't believe that he is a hero. Monz quickly pointed out that who he thinks are heroes are the "men from World War II, Vietnam, the Korean War, Persian Gulf and others before me." He went on to say "there are a lot of people who don't get recognition and I think about that a lot."
Monz is a true hero in every sense of the word. As I sat in the stands with my three children, I was surrounded by the veterans. Each one of them a hero and someone to look up to, but I made sure my kids knew the story of Gregory Monz. I told them he was once on this football field and going to the same school you go to, but he made a choice and that choice led him to be a true hero. These are the men that we should be honoring on the field, and thanks to Rocky Point, we were able to do that this weekend.