North Fork colonel retires after 18 years at the 106th: A look back on his service on the East End

Cutchogue resident Colonel Shawn Fitzgerald has spent more than 20 years in the Army and Air Force. His most recent assignment, as commander of the 106th Rescue Wing at Gabreski Air Force base in Westhampton, came to a close Nov. 1, with a formal ceremony to mark the change of command. It also marked the end of his service in the military.

Col. Fitzgerald comes from a military family; his father and grandfather served in the Army. His grandfather served in World War II and his father was on active duty for 30 years. During his childhood, the colonel grew up all over the world, in places like Korea, the Panama Canal, and locations in the United States. He knew from a young age he wanted to follow in father’s and grandfather’s footsteps.

When the films “Iron Eagle” and “Top Gun” came out, he decided he wanted to be a pilot, and was accepted into the Air Force Academy right out of high school. While his hearing was not acute enough to qualify for a pilot slot, one of his instructors offered an alternate path.

“So this instructor in the Army knew my background … and he just kind of planted that seed. He’s like, ‘Well, you know, there are opportunities for you to transfer over,’” recounted Col. Fitzgerald.

This cross-commission let him go back to his roots in the Army from the Air Force Academy. He did 10 years in the active Army, deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan, before learning about the 106th Rescue Wing. He transferred from the Army back to the Air Force, and has spent the last 18 years at the 106th.

Col. Fitzgerald said he’s happy to call Cutchogue home. Because of his long tenure in Westhampton, both of his children have been able to grow up in one place. They’ve spent their whole lives in the same school, giving them a different childhood experience from his own.

“Growing up with my dad in the Army, we grew up all over, and we never came to New York, so this was a new adventure for me,” said Col. Fitzgerald. “And when I came to the North Fork I was like, ‘Oh, wow, this is incredible up here.’ So we were very fortunate to be able to live in a place like this.”

He cited two things that have made his time at Gabreski so special. The first was the servicemen and women of the 106th, their care for one another and those they serve.

Most at the base are there part time. “They’ve got completely other lives. You know, they do this, essentially, in a way, on their own time to come and be a part of something that’s greater than them. And so they’re balancing not only the things that normal people would on any given day, but also this whole other military career that they’re doing.”

The other exceptional quality he noted was the mission, and how intrinsic it is to all that the 106th is doing on a day-to-day basis. “The folks in our unit are willing to risk their lives to help somebody on their worst day and save their life. It’s a really special thing,” Col. Fitzgerald said. “It develops very close bonds. And you know, through the years I witnessed those bonds be formed and become even stronger based on some of the precarious situations that we are placed in, all for that greater good of trying to save somebody else.”

On his first day of terminal leave, the colonel saw the aircraft of his former command flying from his house. He said the scene was bittersweet.

“I spent the last 18 years there forming those bonds, doing what I could to make myself in that place better, and then to see them carrying on the following day and I’m not a part of it officially anymore, it was like, ‘Wow, I’m definitely going to miss that,’” he said. “At the same time, I’m just one cog of many cogs. They’re not missing a beat. They’re gonna crush it going forward.”