Kids & Family

Bethpage Air Show at Jones Beach Honors Hurricane Heroes

Ten families awarded meet and greet with GEICO Skytypers, climb aboard vintage WWII aircraft.

The following story was posted by Andrew Coen. It was written and reported by Joe Dowd. 

As Hurricane Sandy pounded ashore last fall, Westbury's John Romandetti got a desperate call for help. 

The New York City Sanitation Employee didn't hesitate. He rolled into the howling storm and managed to save his parents from a burning home. He waded into another man's flooded house and led him and two small children to safety. 
Romandetti was one of 10 Long Islanders honored for their heroism by the Bethpage Federal Credit Union at a ceremony Thursday at Farmingdale's Republic Airport. The 10 had been nominated by friends and family for outstanding works during and after the devastating storm. 

Among those honored by Kirk Kordeleski, Bethpage FCU's president and CEO, included: 

  • Donna Christina Oliverio of Southampton, who arranged for a 15-year old Ronald McDonald House child to see his grandmother in New York City and meet Miss Teen USA the day after the storm. The teen had to return to Montana almost immediately.
  • Amy Castiglia of Lindenhurst who created Lindy Manpower, a group of 20 volunteers to provide demolition, clean-up and construction relief, which is still ongoing.
  • Tony Brown of North Babylon, who ran one of the area’s few pet shelters and worked for months to care for displaced animals.
The contest winners earned prizes that included Thursday's meet-and-greet with the GEICO Skytypers pilots on Republic's tarmac beside their squadron of six vintage World War II planes.  

Romandetti won the grand-prize, a flight aboard one of those planes, a restored and updated SNJ-2 advanced trainer plane. The SNJs, like their North American-built counterparts, the T-6 'Texans,' were the primary tool to teach pilots to fly and fight in both theaters of operation during WWII, experts said. 

The Skytypers Airshow Team performs precision flight maneuvers at select air shows across the U.S., including this weekend's Bethpage Air Show at Jones Beach. 

The GEICO Skytypers also "write" computer-generated messages in smoke at an altitude of 10,000 feet. The letters alone are the size of the Empire State Building.


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