A Peachtree City man is fighting

terrorism firsthand, flying bombing missions over Afghanistan as part

of America's war against terrorism.

Lt. Kris Gasko, a 1992 graduate

of McIntosh High School, pilots an F-14 stationed on the aircraft carrier

Carl Vinson in the Middle East. While details of his wartime activity

are sketchy, the lieutenant has left clues that he has seen combat.

In one e-mail to his parents,

Kerstin and Bob, the younger Gasko told his parents to ask his older brother,

Bobby, a former Marine Corps pilot, "what yellow and blue ink make."

The reference was to green ink, which is military speak for "how

they log their combat time," the elder Gasko said.

Lt. Gasko's ship was in the

area when the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks occurred in New York and Washington,

D.C. Although the Carl Vinson was one of the first carriers on the scene,

Bob Gasko believes his son didn't get to fly a mission until the second

day of the attacks on Afghanistan.

Kris called home on his birthday,

three days after the attacks, and expressed concern for his family and

friends in America, his mother said. That irony was not lost on his parents,

though.

"They're out fighting

the war and more concerned about us than their own safety," Kerstin

Gasko said with a wry smile on her face.

Bob Gasko, who flew B-29s over

Korea in the Air Force nearly 50 years ago, said he is somewhat concerned

for his son's safety. He quickly added that he feels confident about Kris's

safe return. The elder Gasko, a retired commercial pilot, served as a

Peachtree City councilman during the 1980s.

"He has good equipment

and good training, and he's a pretty good stick," Gasko said, referring

in the latter to his son's piloting skills.

"We never lost any sleep,"

Kerstin Gasko said.

Lt. Gasko briefly appeared

in a television news report in Norfolk, Virginia about the war on terrorism

being staged in Afghanistan. His patriotism shone through in the brief

seconds he was on the air:

"I fell very fortunate

to be a part of what the U.S. is doing to rectify the situation,"

Gasko told the reporter.

While at McIntosh, Kris Gasko

received a coveted appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy, but he had to

pass up that opportunity after being diagnosed with Hodgkins disease,

a cancer of the lymphatic system. He fought the cancer into remission

and resumed his interrupted quest to become a military officer.

Lt. Gasko later attended The

Citadel, a military college in Charleston, S.C., where he became a commissioned

Naval officer after graduating in 1996 with a 3.7 grade point average.

While the lieutenant's mother

and father are proud of their son's role in the war on terrorism, they

are also thankful for recent wartime innovations, particularly his ability

to read and reply to e-mail while stationed on the carrier.

"It has made it a whole

lot easier for us," Kerstin Gasko said. "We have a lot of pictures."

The e-mails have also been

a way for the Gaskos' friends, even those who've never met the pilot,

to thank him for his efforts to come to America's defense.

"He told me to tell all

those people who sent him e-mail how grateful he is," Kerstin said,

adding that he didn't have time to reply to all the messages. "It

really is amazing how people have wanted to support them."

The Gasko family will be making

its sacrifice for the war effort when Christmas rolls around: it will

be the first time Kris hasn't been home for the holidays.

But they won't have to wait

too much longer to see their war hero: Lt. Gasko is expected to return

to the states in January.

"We'll have a late Christmas

this year," Bob Gasko said

Back

to News Home Page |