The Calero Family Touches Base––

 When Serving Others Means Time Apart

By Dottie Evans

Saturday, July 31, can’t come too soon for the family of Kim and Mario Calero.

That will be the day when three of them board a plane headed to Rapid City, S.D., where Lieutenant Christopher Calero, 24, is stationed at Ellsworth Air Force Base. Making the journey west will be Reed Intermediate School teacher Kim Calero and her daughter Ashley, 15, as well as her father, John Wallace, 82, who is joining them from Florida. Mario Calero already visited his son in May.

The family’s plan is to spend ten days in the Rapid City area in order to snatch a few precious hours visiting with Lt Christopher Calero, who has very limited leave time and who may soon be deployed overseas.

Lt Calero is in the third year of his four-year commitment to the US Air Force, and though he does not like to discuss exactly when or where he might be sent, he has indicated to his family that in all likelihood he will be overseas “sometime in the fall.”

At first, Kim and Mario Calero had thought their son would go in June. So she and her husband, who teaches eighth grade history and language arts in the South Bronx, N.Y., both traveled to Milwaukee in May. They met their son for one weekend while he was there on leave. But Ashley, now going into her sophomore year at Laurelton Hall School in Milford, was not able to go along.

“She hasn’t seen her brother since she was in eighth grade, in March 2003,” said Mrs Calero.

Getting the family together and touching base with Chris is an ongoing goal, yet their busy lives often interfere.

“Be a Brother to Others has always been our family motto,” said Mrs Calero, and she added her son seems to have embraced this ideal to the fullest extent.

Not only is he fully committed to his leadership role as USAF Armed Flight Commander of 92 men and women in the 28th Munitions, he finds time help residents in the surrounding community of Rapid City. During his lunch break he drives for a local chapter of Meals On Wheels, and when he is not on duty, he coaches Little League Baseball.

“Chris loves little kids. He did Pee Wees last year, and he was really amused because all they really wanted to do was eat,” Mrs Calero laughed.

“We raised him to serve others and he’s doing exactly that. He cares about people. If more were like him, the world would be a better place,” she said.

At the same time, she admits the family missed him terribly when he did not come home for Christmas this year. Instead, he used his precious 14 days leave time to go to Honduras in January 2004 with a medical team from his alma mater, Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wis., on a relief mission to help single mothers and their children.

“When he told me about the opportunity I said, ‘Of course, you should go.’ How do you say no? I’m very proud of him. He even raised money for their medical supplies,” Mrs Calero said.

The whole family is delighted that Chris has found a life partner who shares his passion to serve. In June 2005, her son and his fiancée, Kelly Carlson, who graduated from Marquette University in June, will be married in Vail, Colo.

“She went with him on the medical brigade to Honduras, and she is in training now to be a physicians assistant [PA]. She’s supportive of his goals and it’s wonderful,” she said.

Tenacity Showing Through

The Calero family has lived in their Roosevelt Drive home off West Street for 21 years. Chris attended Newtown’s St Rose School through the eighth grade, at which point he entered Fairfield Preparatory School in Milford, graduating in 1998.

“He always loved sports. He played baseball, rugby, football, and swam,” Mrs Calero said.

“He was recognized for his tenacious qualities when he received the first ever Micaela McSweeney Award in the eighth grade at St Rose.”

At Marquette, Christopher Calero was a history major, but he also spent two years in Officer Training School before entering the US Air Force after graduation in 2002. In preparation for this post, he was sent to a technical school in Texas where he underwent on-the-job training.

Additional details were provided by Chris himself in a cell phone interview July 9. On leave and allowed to travel no more than six hours away from base, Lt Calero was driving through Wyoming to Colorado with his fiancée, Ms Carlson, by his side. The two were headed for Littleton, Colo., where her family lives. Besides spending a weekend together, their goal was to plan their wedding.

“Whenever I get the time, I try to see Kelly,” said Lt Calero.

“We met at Marquette, and when we were engaged we went together on the medical brigade. At first I was not sure how I could help, but soon I was able to step in and take the patients’ vital signs while they waited to see the physicians.”

The mission to Honduras was important, he added, “because it wakes you up.”

“When I think how materialistic our society is, and how these people have nothing. We should do everything we can to help them. There are so many villages to visit. Marquette students have set up a program to go once a year. If we go back to the same village, we’ll be able to renew their meds.”

The medical team was only able to provide a one-year supply of medications to the Honduran people suffering from diabetes, high blood pressure, or AIDS-related diseases.

Asked to describe his life at Ellsworth AFB, Lt Calero was enthusiastic about his job, which he described as maintenance work on the release systems for weapons dropped by the B-1 bombers.

“They were going to can it in the 1980s, but they brought it back and I’m proud to be a part of that. I’m excited at the opportunity to make things happen.”

While in the service, he is also working on a double major master’s degree in aeronautical space engineering and the environment from space. Ms Carlson, 22, who was a science major at Marquette, plans to go to Belize in six weeks for an internship toward her PA degree.

“We get together whenever we can. The 14 days in Honduras were wonderful…medically and otherwise. It was a true reality check.”