Family Affair

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Jonathan Hehnly
  • 911AW/PA
PITTSBURGH IAP ARS --  Some sixty years ago, Henry Costello stayed in the barracks that once stood in the location of present-day Perksburgh. Little did he know his son would eventually deliver the oath of enlistment to his granddaughter on that same piece of soil decades later.

That is exactly what happened though, in December of 2009, when Christy Costello was sworn into the U.S. military by her father, Maj. Phillip Costello. This special father-daughter moment marked the continuation of a family's military lineage, now spanning three generations.

Henry, a serviceman for more than 37 years, has great pride in his family's three-generation membership to the 911th Airlift Wing.

"I will always be close to the 911th and it will always be a part of me," proclaimed the retired senior master sergeant. "I fell in love with the military. Ever since I was five years old, I knew I wanted it as a profession. To this day, I still think it is the best opportunity for any young person."

Enlisted as an airplane engine mechanic for the Army Air Forces in 1947, Henry said he is especially proud of his granddaughter, who followed in his footsteps, and became a crew chief with the 911th Maintenance Squadron.

"When my grandfather found out I was going to be a crew chief he was all excited about it," said Airman 1st Class Christy Costello. "He was like, 'Oh, now we have stuff to talk about!' He's very into that."

Henry said guys she met, who knew him, kidded her that she had awfully big shoes to fill.

Originally assigned as a Category R, a full-time position similar to the existing Air Reserve Technician, Henry was on location when Old Red Dog Road was the only roadway on base. That route, now paved and called Defense Avenue, is the path his son and granddaughter travel when fulfilling their Reserve duties here.

The Pittsburgh International Airport Air Reserve Station, as we know it, has gone through many changes since Henry Costello was first assigned here. He witnessed construction, development, the change of airframes and unit names, and most notably the addition of his son and granddaughter to the unit.

"It's more of a bond," said Christy. "We're all pretty close in our family, but it's just one more thing that we can relate to each other about. I really like that, and then seeing my dad out here is always cool."

Maj. Phillip Costello, a navigator with the 758th Airlift Squadron, said he remembers when he was younger; his father worked as an ART in the hydraulic shop and would bring him out to the base to see the aircraft.

"It was cool. I'd hear these stories of him going to the Azores or Madrid and ten years later I'm doing the same thing," said the major.

Phillip and Henry's careers overlapped at the 911th AW for a number of years during the 1980s. It was during that time period that the father and son pair was able to go on several trips together to Europe, South America, and across the U.S.

"We had some fun times," said the major. "But you know it's all professional, put all things aside."

Maj. Costello described one particular mission, which the two men were somehow scheduled together on the same plane headed to South America.

"We had some maintenance problems so my father was below the cockpit working on it, talking to the pilots on the headsets, and trying to fix it. I was up in the cockpit doing the navigation and we were all conversing back and forth," he said. "It was one of those stories you came back with afterwards and you bring up every so often, 'hey dad remember when we were here?'"

Experiences such as that were not necessarily anticipated by Phillip but he said they were definitely good ones. As Henry's military career was reaching its end, a new opportunity came about that would allow the family members to work together, this time on the civilian side. That opportunity was the Costello Door and Millwork Company, which Phillip started in 1985.

"It was a curious overlap; things sort of meshed together, the military and the personal family business, and then my father's retirement from the ART position," said Phillip. "He just walked right into what we were doing and became heavily involved."

For several years after Henry's retirement from the ART position he stayed on as a traditional reservist. Henry balanced his involvement with the family business and the Reserve until officially retiring from the military in 1990.

The 1990s also brought with it the need for Phillip to step away from the Reserve for a period of time.

Phillip said in order to throw more effort toward the family business he took a nine-year sabbatical, returning to the unit in 2006.

"It wasn't until 2004 that I started thinking, 'ya know my son's starting to get more capable of helping out and I need a change of pace,'" said the major. "Let's jump back in [the military]."

As Phillip's oldest son, Eric, and eldest daughter, Christy, grew older he was able to give them more responsibility in the business and go back to flying once again.

"In our family everyone works in the business," said Christy. "It's a whole family thing."

This became especially true in 2010, when Phillip was deployed to Qatar for several months. Christy, Henry, and the rest of the family, all had to help out a lot to run the day-to-day operations in the absence of Phillip, said Christy, who normally runs the glass company, which supplements the main business.

"We all sort of cover for each other when the other person's not around," said Phillip.

Now that Christy has been on military orders for several months taking part in basic training, technical training and seasoning training there has been a need for the family to once again help each other out.

Phillip, soon approaching the twenty-year mark, said that it has always been his philosophy that his children have two things sort of opposing each other on the opposite ends of the spectrum that they are capable of doing, to fall back on, in case something would happen to the economy or to them.

"It gives an opportunity to have a broader perspective on life," said Phillip. "For Christy, she has the glass and then she has the Reserve."

Like her father who had the military, as well as the family business, Christy ensures she is definitely staying in for 20 years too.

"I'm doing it at least 20," said Christy. "From the beginning that was the plan. That's the only thing I haven't changed my mind about," she said confidently with a smile on her face.

With those words being said, it seems that the Costello name will live on at the 911th AW for at least another two decades.

There is a possibility that one day, as the young crew chief continues to follow in her grandfather's footsteps, she too will be able to share similar experiences with her navigator father, as he and his father had, on flights around the globe.