The Town of Crawford Senior Center stirred with savory smells and overseas anecdotes last Wednesday, February 5 during the East Coast Industrial Services’ veterans luncheon, providing attendees with plenty of food, company, and storytelling.

The event’s host, ECIS, is an industrial and commercial sweeping company based in Pine Bush, owned and operated by the Presutti Family. Both the company and family are adamant about giving back to local veterans in various ways, with the luncheon being their latest effort.

“The veterans of our community, as well as around the world, hold a very special place in our hearts, and we try to give back as much as we can,” said Jay Presutti, the general manager of ECIS.

Dozens of veterans and their families enjoyed pasta, meatballs, chicken, salad, and other delights from Little Italy, a deli from Monroe. After everyone filled their plates and sat down to eat, Presutti gave his opening remarks, thanking Little Italy for catering and everyone else for attending the luncheon. He also recounted the life of his late father, Joseph, a U.S. Navy veteran who served during World War II.

“My father, Joseph Presutti, quit school in 1944 to join the U.S. Navy. On November 13, 1944, he went from New York to Perrin, Virginia, to a logistics support company, Seabee North Special Naval Construction Battalion Division 104 on USS Pine Island,” Presutti said. “His unit was involved in the Invasion of Okinawa in 1945 during World War II. My father was a crane operator before he was honorably discharged in July of 1946.”

Presutti then introduced Steve Neuhaus, Orange County Executive and a commander of the U.S. Navy Reserves. Neuhaus announced a few of the county’s current and upcoming veteran initiatives, including increased veteran discounts to property taxes, free war movie screenings, and an air show coming this August. He added that the county is very excited to host more veteran luncheons in other municipalities, with Crawford’s serving as the first of many.

“I want to say a special thanks to Jay Presutti and his family. He’s been planning this for two months, and he’s been like a wedding planner every other day,” Neuhaus said. “We’re going to replicate this (luncheon) around the county, and this is the first one we’re doing. We have a private, family-run company that’s sponsoring the lunch for veterans, and we’ll pair it with a local town that’s going to host it.”

After he finished, Neuhaus introduced the event’s two other keynote speakers: CW5 Alan Mack, deputy commissioner of the OC Department of Emergency Services and a Master Aviator of the U.S. Army, and Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Townsend, a 105th Airlift Wing pilot of the U.S. Air Force. Mack shared a dangerous but humorous memory about his crew flying over mountain ranges in Afghanistan without sufficient oxygen, and Townsend recounted the time his team evacuated refugees in Kabul, Afghanistan.
“Have you ever been with a drunken car, and you realize the guys had too many drinks? That’s how hypoxia feels, it’s the lack of oxygen at high altitudes,” Mack said, explaining how nearly everyone on board acted strange at low oxygen altitudes. “Nobody on board the aircraft but me and the other crew chief remembered crossing the mountains or taking in a soldier. That’s how weird that can be, and those were the challenges we faced in the early days in Afghanistan.”

“We volunteered to go back into Kabul and bring out refugees; we raised our heads and said, “We want to go back.” Took a couple of days, but they put us on the roster, and we went back in,” Townsend said. “There were C-17s pulling out hundreds of people at a time, and so it was a huge privilege to be part of that effort to pull people out and save them by the numbers. We had three teams and crews operating in and out of Kabul, and I think altogether, we pulled out 2,500 people from Kabul.”

At the end of the luncheon, Presutti announced that the Orange County American Legion is seeking more members for its veteran support programs, Be the One and Buddy. More information on these programs can be found on the American Legion’s national website at legion.org.