DOB/DOD: February 25, 1985 (Hartford, CT) – August 22, 2010; 25 years old
MARITAL STATUS: Engaged to be married to Leeza Gutt (1986-) on September 17, 2011.
LOCAL ADDRESS: Kingswood Drive; South Glastonbury
ENLISTMENT: October 22, 2004
MILITARY OCCUPATIONAL SPECIALTY: 11B20; Infantryman
UNIT: A Company, 3rd Battalion, 172nd Infantry Regiment; Vermont Army National Guard
FAMILY: Born to Mark C. (1956-) and Diane Lysik DeLuzio (1956-). One brother, Scott [Army National Guard] (1982-).
DECORATIONS: Awarded the Bronze Star Medal, Purple Heart Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Army Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal with device, Iraqi Campaign Medal with two devices, Global War on Terrorism Medal (Service), Armed Forces Reserve Medal with ‘M’ device and ‘2’ device, Army Service Ribbon, Army Overseas Service Ribbon with ‘2’ device, NATO ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) Medal – Afghanistan, Valorous Unit Award, Navy Unit Commendation, and the Combat Infantryman Badge (1st award).
CIRCUMSTANCES: Sergeant DeLuzio died from wounds sustained at Paktika, Afghanistan, when insurgents attacked their unit with small arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire. Also killed in the incident:
Army Sergeant Tristan H. Southworth; Walden, Vermont
Glastonbury High School; Class of 2003
From The Day (New London, CT) on August 25, 2010
Jennifer McDermott | Day Staff Writer
HOME WAS JUST AROUND THE CORNER
National Guard Sergeant Killed In Afghanistan Had Come To Realize What His Roots Really Meant To Him
When Mark DeLuzio saw two uniformed officers at his front door Sunday night, the only question he had was which son had been killed. His younger son, Steven, was in Afghanistan with the Vermont National Guard, and Scott was there with the Connecticut National Guard. The family had not heard from Scott in several weeks while he was on a mission. “Is it Scott?” Mark DeLuzio asked the officers. No, they said. It’s Steven. Sergeant Steven J. DeLuzio, 25, was killed Sunday in Paktika, Afghanistan, when insurgents attacked his unit with small arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire, according to the Defense Department. Another member of the unit, Specialist Tristan H. Southworth, 21, of Walden, Vermont, was also killed in the attack. Southworth was promoted posthumously to sergeant. DeLuzio, an infantryman, was supposed to return home to South Glastonbury next month on leave. He wrote on his Facebook page on Saturday, “20 days until I’m outta here… a lot to look forward to once I get home, can’t wait.” Growing up in South Glastonbury, DeLuzio was an avid hockey player. He was the co-captain of the team at Glastonbury High School in his senior year. After graduating in 2003, he went to Hofstra University for a year and then transferred to Norwich University, a military college in Vermont. He joined the Vermont Army National Guard and had to put his education on hold in January 2006 to serve in Ramadi, Iraq, for six months. He finished his studies at the University of Hartford, graduating in 2009 with a business degree. He was working as an accountant at J.H. Cohn in Glastonbury when his unit, the 172nd Infantry, 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Mountain) based in Jericho, Vermont, was ordered to Afghanistan. Steven DeLuzio did not have to go to Afghanistan earlier this year, his father said Tuesday. His commitment to the National Guard would have ended while he was away, so he could either re-enlist or stay home. “He was a sergeant, and he did not want his guys to go over by themselves to Afghanistan, so he signed up for another year,” said Mark DeLuzio, who owns Lean Horizons Consulting in Glastonbury. “He fought with those guys in Iraq, and they were very close.” Listening to news reports about the increasing casualties in Afghanistan, Mark DeLuzio and his wife, Diane, have been “on pins and needles every day.” As the military pushed into Taliban strongholds, the death toll for July soared to 66 U.S. service members, surpassing June as the deadliest month in the nearly nine-year war. Last month, Steven DeLuzio wrote on Facebook, “I’m only 25, but feeling closer to 40 these days.” He planned to return home in November with his unit and resume his career as an accountant. He was going to marry his high school sweetheart, Leeza Gutt, next year. He also coached Little League in Glastonbury before leaving for Afghanistan. DeLuzio was on a foot patrol when his unit was attacked, Mark DeLuzio said. The Army sent a Black Hawk helicopter to pick up Sergeant Scott DeLuzio, 28, from the battlefield. He is a member of the 1st Battalion, 102nd Infantry Regiment, the same unit that Staff Sergeant Edwin Rivera of Waterford was serving in when he was killed in May. Scott traveled with Steven’s body to Kuwait before returning home on Tuesday. The family is waiting to find out when Steven will be returned from Dover Air Force Base before finalizing funeral arrangements. Gov. M. Jodi Rell called the DeLuzio family on Tuesday to say that she told the Connecticut National Guard that Scott DeLuzio would not return to Afghanistan, Mark DeLuzio said. Mark DeLuzio said the family is grateful for the outpouring of support from relatives and friends, but his “best therapy” is a smile from Scott’s 9-month-old son. Rell ordered state and U.S. flags to be lowered to half-staff until DeLuzio’s interment. “Please honor the memory of this brave soldier, who gave his life for our liberty,” she said. “We will be forever grateful for his dedication to duty, to our freedom, and the American ideals we hold so dear.” Mark DeLuzio described his son as a “clown.” “He was funny,” he said. “He was serious, and he was a big sports fan. He loved hockey, and he loved baseball. I’m a big Red Sox fan, and he’s a Yankees fan. We always had fun battling each other all through the years. “He was just a great kid.” Steven DeLuzio talked about his life in South Glastonbury in a Facebook message posted on June 25. “Funny, you spend so much time in your younger years making plans of escaping where you grew up, but the older you get, and the more time you spend around the world, the more you appreciate and miss home,” he wrote. “Almost July, only a few more months…”
From The Hartford Courant on August 28, 2010
Sergeant Steven Joseph DeLuzio, 25, of South Glastonbury, CT, died in battle on Sunday (August 22, 2010) in Paktia Province, Afghanistan, while serving with the Vermont National Guard. Steven was born on February 25, 1985, in Hartford, CT. He was the beloved son of Mark C. and Diane (Lysik) DeLuzio of South Glastonbury, where he lived most of his life. Steven graduated from Glastonbury High School in 2003 and was president of his freshman class. He attended Hofstra University in New York, Norwich University in Vermont, and graduated Cum Laude from the University of Hartford in 2009 with a degree in accounting. Before his deployment to Afghanistan, he was employed as an accountant at the CPA firm JH Cohn in Glastonbury. Steven belonged to Company A, 3rd Battalion, 172nd Infantry Regiment, 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Mountain) in Jericho, Vermont. This was Steven’s second tour of duty as he was deployed in Ramadi, Iraq, in 2006, earning the Combat Infantryman Badge, Army Commendation Medal, and the Navy Unit Citation from that deployment. For his service in Afghanistan, Steven was also awarded the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, NATO Ribbon, Combat Infantryman Badge, and the Army Good Conduct Medal. Steven was co-captain of the Glastonbury High School hockey team when they won the state championship in 2003. Steven was involved in Glastonbury Little League as an umpire and also coached his team to the Town championship in 2009. He was an avid sports fan and especially loved the New York Yankees and the Boston Bruins. Besides his parents, he is survived by his brother and sister-in-law, Sergeant Scott and Victoria DeLuzio of Farmington; his high school sweetheart and fiancée Leeza Gutt of Glastonbury, whom he was to marry on September 17, 2011; his grandfather Joseph Lysik of South Glastonbury; his nephew and godson, Adam DeLuzio; aunts; uncles; numerous cousins and many, many dear friends. Steven always had a smile on his face and could light up a room just by entering it. He was protective, loving, and compassionate and will be greatly missed by all who knew him. A Mass of Christian burial will be celebrated on Monday, August 30, at 10 a.m. in St. Paul Church, 2577 Main Street, Glastonbury. Burial with full military honors will follow in Holy Cross Cemetery, Glastonbury. Family and friends may call at St. Paul Church on Sunday, August 29, from 2-7 p.m. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Sergeant Steven J. DeLuzio Memorial Fund, c/o Merrill Lynch, The Keating Group, 185 Asylum Street, Hartford, CT 06103. For online tributes, please visit http://www.mulryanfh.com.
From The Day (New London, CT) on May 3, 2011
By Jennifer McDermott | Day Staff Writer
FOR U.S. MILITARY, ‘THE JOB IS NOT DONE’
Despite Sacrifices And Successes, The War On Terror Seen As Fight That Won’t End Soon
Mark DeLuzio feels his two sons played a part in the death of Osama bin Laden. Steven and Scott DeLuzio, both sergeants in the Connecticut National Guard, served in Afghanistan with units that helped push the al-Qaida leader into Pakistan, where he was killed Sunday, DeLuzio said. Scott returned home safely from Afghanistan. Steven did not. DeLuzio said that when he heard bin Laden had been killed, he was proud since the entire military contributed, but “we obviously don’t need a watershed event like this to remind us of the sacrifices that people have made.” Steven J. DeLuzio, 25, was killed last August 22 in Paktika, Afghanistan, when insurgents attacked his Vermont National Guard unit. His father said Monday that bin Laden’s death comforts him — “to a degree.” “From a personal perspective, no, it wasn’t worth it,” said DeLuzio, who lives in South Glastonbury. “From a patriotic perspective, it’s something we’re very proud of.” Of the Connecticut National Guard’s 5,000 airmen and soldiers, close to half have been sent to Afghanistan since September 11, 2001, with some serving there two or three times. About 100 are currently in Afghanistan. “Their efforts have pretty much paid off as a result of what has happened,” said Colonel John Whitford, spokesman for the Connecticut National Guard. There is concern for the Guardsmen in Afghanistan, given the potential for retaliatory strikes against the military because of bin Laden’s death, Whitford said, but these soldiers have been briefed and will continue to receive updates as the situation develops. “The job is not done,” Whitford said Monday. “It’s still not over.” An elite team of Navy SEALs was tapped to get bin Laden, but the Defense Department would not say whether any were based in Groton or if any of the training or planning was done locally. Lieutenant Colonel Elizabeth Robbins, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said, “We are not releasing this level of detail at this time.” White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan called the successful mission a “defining moment” in the war on terrorism, which could demonstrate that “al-Qaida is something in the past.” “And we’re hoping to bury the rest of al-Qaida along with bin Laden,” he said, according to a transcript of a Monday press briefing. Stephen Flynn, a national security expert from Old Lyme, hailed the successful operation as a “real victory” since bin Laden was “once the effective manager of the war against the U.S. and then became at least the symbolic head.” “Terrorism always relies on a compelling narrative to keep it going,” Flynn said. “Osama bin Laden’s capacity to seemingly avoid capture by the most powerful country in the world helped provide fuel for those in the fight who wanted to stay in the fight.” While his death is a major blow to al-Qaida, Flynn said the terrorist network was already in decline since many of its senior leaders had been captured, killed, or forced into hiding, undermining their ability to plot sophisticated, large-scale attacks. Terrorists who act alone or with a few accomplices will likely mastermind future smaller attacks rather than catastrophic ones, said Flynn, president of the Center for National Policy. Flynn wants to bring attention to the changing nature of terrorism in the hopes that the public will be more resilient in the future and the government will do a better job of informing and involving civilians in the country’s defense. Terrorists count on Americans overreacting to terrorism and embracing draconian measures damaging to the economy, in effect making similar attacks a more attractive option, he added. “We need to move away from the inflated public expectation that the federal government has the capacity to essentially always be successful in protecting and intercepting terrorists to one that’s more realistic,” Flynn said. “The threat will materialize from time to time, even on U.S. soil, and it’s going to tragically lead to the destruction of property and the loss of life. It’s important that we as a society not overreact.” In remarks late Sunday night, President Barack Obama said there is “no doubt that al-Qaida will continue to pursue attacks against us” and bin Laden’s death “does not mark the end of our effort.”
From The Hartford Courant September 7, 2011
By Matthew Kauffman
CALLED TO SERVICE
Glastonbury’s Scott DeLuzio Is Basically The Same Person
He Was In 2001, But Then Again, Everything Has Changed
Tucked away in Scott DeLuzio’s spacious childhood home are photos and videotapes of DeLuzio as a kid, joined at the hip with his little brother Steven in frozen memories of a patriotic American family. There’s the picture of Scott and Steven dressed in junior camouflage outfits during an air show at Westover Air Force Base and the home movies of the boys squeaking out the national anthem in their high voices. Scott thinks it might have been the first song he ever learned. Mark and Diane DeLuzio had always taught their sons to have pride in America and respect for the armed forces. But honoring military service was always an abstract, and from the comfort of concept, the big house in South Glastonbury, both boys seemed fated for safer paths: four years of college, an accounting degree, a good job at Dad’s consulting firm. And that’s how it was, until the Tuesday morning in September 2001, when Scott walked into a psychology class at Bryant University and students buzzing about a plane that had somehow flown off course and crashed into the World Trade Center. By nightfall, after watching agonizing replays of the second 767 plowing into the South Tower, Scott DeLuzio had made a snap decision to turn his life upside down, trading the prospect of suits and spreadsheets in an air-conditioned office for combat uniforms and an M-16 in the desert. Back home, little brother Steven would eventually have the same idea. A tumultuous decade later, Scott DeLuzio is back in Glastonbury. He’s served his country. He’s gotten his accounting degree. He’s working for his father. He says he’s still fundamentally the same person as that teenager who stared wide-eyed at the fireballs in lower Manhattan and that rookie infantryman strapped into the cargo net seats on a military transport helicopter. But everything has changed. “I wish it could have been different,” DeLuzio said, his easy smile fading, “But I’ve come to the conclusion that I can what-if it to the day I die, so I’ve kind of stopped doing that to myself. “Because that’ll drive you crazy.” Scott DeLuzio was innocent enough on September 11, 2001, that the college sophomore was willing to dismiss early reports of the plane crashes as a fluke. “I didn’t really comprehend the fact that we were under attack because that had never really happened to us,” he said. “But then actually seeing the second plane, I was just like: ‘There’s no way’; they were flying directly at it for quite some time. ‘There’s no way that was just a freak accident.’” And as the scope of the attack was coming into focus, DeLuzio was thinking about his role in the response. “That day, I started really considering: ‘Do I drop out of school and join the Army? Because I know there’s going to be something happening.” His attitude a decade ago was as simple as it was direct: “They did something bad to us; we need to go root them out.” He didn’t drop out, but he did keep his word. And years later, with a college degree, a good job, and every reason in the world to stay home and stay safe, he walked into the Connecticut National Guard Armory in Manchester and signed the paperwork, “I mean, I could have just stuck with the career and went with it,” DeLuzio said. “But it was also at a time when recruiting numbers were at an all-time low, and I said to myself, ‘I’m young, I’m able-bodied. I might as well. Why not me?’” DeLuzio took written tests, suggesting that the college boy would do well at any number of jobs away from the front lines, maybe even officer material. But that seemed the easy way out. Instead, DeLuzio went with the infantry. At home, DeLuzio was working at a local accounting firm and settled into the National Guard routine of training one weekend a month and two weeks a year until word came down in 2009 that his unit was being activated to Afghanistan. For the first time, he was worried. “Had it been the Basic-Training Scott, it would have been: ‘Yeah, let’s do this; let’s go,’” he said. “But my family situation somewhat changed from the time I joined the military to the time I got deployed.” DeLuzio got married in August 2008, and his son was born 15 months later. “So, I was nervous,” he said, “because there were now people who depended on me, and I didn’t want anything to happen to me because I didn’t want them to be affected.” But in November 2009, DeLuzio was aboard a C-130 Hercules en route to a base near the Pakistan border. On the bumpy ride, DeLuzio thought to himself, “This is it. There’s no turning back at this point.” Steven DeLuzio, three years younger than Scott, had been too eager to wait for graduation and joined the Vermont National Guard while at Norwich University, a military school in Northfield, Vermont. He served a tour in Iraq in 2006, then returned home to finish college at the University of Hartford and was deployed to Afghanistan about the same time as Scott. The two brothers overlapped at training in Indiana and were able to grab dinners together. Those memories are seared in Scott’s mind. The trip to the war zone takes several days, with transfers at airports in Kyrgyzstan, Kuwait, and cities in Afghanistan. Each time the aircraft doors opened in a new city, Scott thought the air seemed hotter and drier than the last stop. But the large military base by the Pakistani border offered a measure of comfort, with plumbing and gas generators that fed electric lines. Plywood barracks were laid out like city blocks, with a central area that offered food, e-mail, movies, and cell phones. Steven DeLuzio was stationed no more than 100 miles away, but the brothers know that in Afghanistan, that’s not as close as it seems. “That kind of trip would take four or five days driving, just because the terrain’s so rough and you’re going slow and get obstacles and you have to stop,” Scott DeLuzio said. “Yeah, it would have been nice had we gotten to see each other ever while we were over there, but I didn’t actually think it would be a possibility.” But they were in contact and were able to talk openly about the hazards they faced. Scott knew that Steven’s unit was seeing enemy activity on a fairly regular basis. “I guess his base was just in a more dangerous area than mine was,” Scott DeLuzio said. Scott’s unit primarily had a border patrol mission, keeping the supply line open for non-lethal NATO supplies coming through Pakistan and securing against enemy agents who might try to slip across the border. The days were generally peaceful, and DeLuzio never felt in real fear for his life. But there were a string of missions off the base as well. In August 2010, DeLuzio’s battalion was assigned to track down Taliban operatives in various villages throughout the country. In some places, residents were ecstatic at the appearance of us. In others, they cast a skeptical eye and scurried away. Nearly two weeks into the operation, the missions were still going on, and DeLuzio’s unit prepared to search another village at daybreak on August 22. “We had flown in the night before to the top of a mountain nearby one of these villages, and that whole day, we were kind of rooting around through one of the villages and came back up afterward,” DeLuzio said. “And that’s when I found out about Steve.”
It had been a productive day in the village, with the discovery of useful intelligence and the apprehension of several people believed to be working with the Taliban. The day began before dawn, and by mid-afternoon, DeLuzio had made his way back up the mountain. “I heard on the radio they were looking for me — the commander was looking for me,” DeLuzio said. “And I was like: What did I do? I started checking all my equipment, all my guys’ equipment. Who lost something? Who did something wrong? That was my initial thought.” He found the commander and quickly surmised no one lost any equipment — “because he already would have been yelling at me for it.” “So, then I started thinking, ‘OK, well, maybe something happened to someone back home.’ I started thinking: ‘I have elderly relatives, so maybe someone sent a Red Cross message about that. I thought maybe someone had gotten into a car accident,” DeLuzio said. “My brother didn’t even cross my mind.” The commander took him aside and told him Steven had been in a bad firefight, and he began rattling off the vague details of the battle before Scott cut him off. “I asked him: ‘Well, is he OK?’” DeLuzio said. “And he said, ‘Well, there’s really no point in beating around the bush here. He didn’t make it?” Sergeant Steven J. DeLuzio had been co-captain of the state champion Glastonbury High School hockey team. He was the family goof who liked to mug for the camera. He had a wedding date 13 months out with his fiancée, Leeza Gutt. He was Scott DeLuzio’s kid brother. On August 22, 2010, Steven DeLuzio and other soldiers were on patrol in a mountainous area in Paktya Province. The ambush was precise and deadly. DeLuzio was struck in the head in the initial volley of bullets and died almost instantly. The firefight lasted two hours and took the life of another Vermont National Guard member, Tristan H. Southworth. Scott DeLuzio broke down when told of Steven’s death, but he wasn’t given much time to mourn. “Shortly after I got word of my brother’s passing, we started getting attacked, just some potshots,” he said. “I didn’t really have the time to feel sorry for myself or feel sorry for my brother or anything, and I had to avoid maybe the possibility of my parents getting a second knock on the door that same day.” The knock came at 9:30 pm. in Glastonbury, and Mark and Diane DeLuzio opened the door to the terrifying sight of Army officers. It was more than Mark could process. “I actually felt it was happening to someone else,” he said. “It took a while for it to sink in.” In Afghanistan, fellow soldiers circled Scott DeLuzio and never gave him grief for crying. Within hours, a helicopter had landed on the mountain to pick up DeLuzio and a couple of wounded soldiers. He never returned to his base.
Two weeks ago, on the anniversary of Steven’s death, hundreds of relatives and friends gathered under perfectly sunny skies at the Glastonbury Hills Country Club for the first annual Sergeant Steven J. DeLuzio Memorial Golf Tournament, which raised money for college scholarships and military charities. There were 44 golfers and twice as many at an evening banquet. There were smiles all around and laughs and ribbing about golf skills. But earlier that morning, Mark and Diane DeLuzio still woke up to August 22 and shared a long private hug to mark the day. Then, they pinned gold stars on their shirts and headed into the glaring sun. “We’re still grieving over it,” Mark DeLuzio said. “And that’s just the way it’s going to be.” Ten years after the 9/11 attacks, there is a photo in Scott DeLuzio’s family room of the two brothers at Scott’s wedding, acting silly in their formal Army dress uniforms. Scott thinks about when and how he’ll explain to his son what happened to Uncle Steve. But he hasn’t lost faith in the mission. Still, he says his perspective on the Middle East has evolved since the smoke ‘em out attitude of his youth. Having served in Afghanistan, he says he understands the value – for American security – of helping the Afghanis build a stable and peaceful country. “I still think that if we were to leave today and just everyone picked up and left, I don’t know that the Taliban would have much trouble getting back into power,” he said. If it means we have to be over there to save another 3,000 people from another 9/11, then so be it.” DeLuzio said he’s proud he served and proud to be able to carry that record of service for the rest of his life. But his mother sees a more immediate benefit. “I think had he not joined, and we had this end result, I think he might have felt guilty,” Diane DeLuzio said. “But having also served, I think he’s at peace.” Scott DeLuzio, a man not taken to heavy self-analysis, concedes she’s probably right. If I hadn’t served, maybe I would have some regrets, and maybe I would have blamed myself,” he said. Even now, he catches himself wondering if there’s something he could have done. What if he had joined the Vermont National Guard? What if he had served alongside Steven? “But I try not to do that to myself and everybody else,” he quickly adds. “Like I said, that will drive you crazy.”
Sergeant DeLuzio is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery, 17 Wickham Road, Glastonbury, Connecticut; Section 1, Lot L23.
