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For the next year, Boston College Dining Services employee Brian Casey will be replacing his white chef’s hat with a camouflaged Kevlar helmet.
Casey, first cook at the University’s Stuart Hall dining facility, is also a member of the first battalion of the Massachusetts Army National Guard’s 182nd Infantry Regiment – a combat-ready unit that was recently activated for deployment to Afghanistan.
Army Specialist Casey and nearly 700 of his fellow National Guard citizen-soldiers were given a rousing civic sendoff Sunday at an inspirational ceremony hosted by Boston College at Conte Forum.
Casey won’t be doing much food preparation during the unit’s anticipated 12-month deployment to unspecified locations along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. His military assignment will be as the battalion armorer – the person in charge of maintaining and repairing all of the unit’s weapons.
“We are going over there to do a good thing,” said Casey, a 13-year BC employee. His National Guard combat unit will provide security for military construction and civil affairs teams who will work to rebuild the war-torn nation’s infrastructure.
“I’m a pretty quiet person and I don’t want to make a big deal out of it. But it is something that I want to do. I believe in the cause and I believe that it is good. I’m not on any soapbox — that’s not my thing. I am just doing my job.”
Before becoming a professional chef, Casey served on active duty in the Army between 1984 and 1988, assigned as a tank crewman with the 4th Infantry Division at Fort Carson, Colo. He spent 10 years in the BC Dining Services Catering Department before moving up to his current position at the Stuart dining facility.
He rejoined the National Guard four years ago, and this will be his first extended active duty deployment.
Sunday’s sendoff ceremony for Casey and his fellow soldiers was complete with full military trappings, Sousa marches, and distinguished speakers – all enthusiastically enjoyed by 4,000 family members and friends of the departing Guardsmen. A number of speakers, including Massachusetts Lt. Governor Timothy Murray and US Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), lauded the University for offering Conte Forum to the National Guard for the military sendoff ceremony.
Near the conclusion of the hour-long ceremony, University President William P. Leahy, SJ, presented the battalion with a Boston College flag that will be flown over the unit’s posts in Afghanistan and returned to the Heights for display at the end of the deployment.
“We feel that Boston College has made us part of your community,” said Major Eric J. DiNoto, deputy commander of the battalion and principal planner of Sunday’s event. “We have a theme that ‘We are all in this together,’ and BC has opened their arms to us,” he said. “It means so much to all of us.”
“There are a lot of BC fans in the unit,” added Casey, who noted that many of his fellow soldiers joined him at Alumni Stadium for a BC-Army football game and tailgate party two years ago and have maintained an affinity for the University and its sports teams.