TRAVERSE CITY — Maggie Pezzullo will shed plenty of tears today.
That's likely an understatement, considering the emotional roller coaster she's experienced leading up to her trip to Fort Campbell, Ky.
Pezzullo, formerly of Rapid City, plans to reunite with her battle-wounded younger brother, Luke Clark, as his U.S. Army unit returns today from Afghanistan.
"I want to hold him and put my arms around him," Pezzullo said. "That for me is the best therapy I could ask for, just for me to hug my brother."
Their family reunion is anything but typical. Pezzullo was at a friend's house on March 30 trying to come up with an April Fool's Day prank to pull on her husband, who's overseas working for a security company.
That's when she got the call. It was her mother, and she had bad news. An improvised explosive device exploded near Clark's patrol unit in Afghanistan, a blow that left him with a mild brain injury.
Pezzullo threw her phone down and screamed.
"I will never forget that day, ever," said Pezzullo, an Iraq War veteran. "I don't remember dates and times of what happened to me in Iraq, but that is a date to me. I have all this stuff flashing through my head of all the things I saw in Iraq. I watched two of my best friends get blown up by a (rocket-propelled grenade). They survived, luckily."
Pezzullo calmed down once she found out her brother was OK. But a few days later, her brother again was attacked by enemy combatants during his return to base. Clark avoided serious injuries and contacted his family members to let them know he was safe.
Pezzullo recently learned that her brother's unit was scheduled to return to Kentucky this weekend, but money was tight and she couldn't afford to fly from her home in Washington state to attend the welcome ceremony.
Then it hit her. She recalled a magazine article she read while in line at a grocery store about a nonprofit organization that helped military members and their families. She also recognized the name -- Walt Fricke, a former Traverse City resident who founded Veterans Airlift Command in 2006 to help provide air travel to injured members of the military so they can reunite with family.
Pezzullo and Fricke traded a few Facebook messages over the past year about the organization, and she contacted him when she learned of her brother's return. She asked Fricke how she could get a cheap airline ticket. Days later, a representative from the organization contacted Pezzullo and told her that a North Carolina couple, Dan and Cheryl Rogers, offered to pay for her flight to Kentucky.
Fricke had to pull some strings to help Pezzullo, but did so because of the situation and her ties to northern Michigan.
"This is really more out of friendship for a local Traverse City person," Fricke said. "Because she's a hometown kid, we wanted to take care of her. She kind of went to the top of the list."
The Rogers never met Pezzullo or her brother, yet covered her airline ticket out of respect for their military service, Pezzullo said.
"I never expected someone to do this," she said. "It's kind of like paying it forward. Who knew a year ago that me contacting Walt Fricke would grant me a blessing?"
Pezzullo is among many beneficiaries of Veterans Airlift Command. Fricke has coordinated thousands of flights for military members and their families.
His three-person staff coordinates flights for military members throughout the country. Most of the flights involve private aircraft, but Pezzullo's case was different because of the distance.
"The people that fly the airplanes donate the time and the fuel and everything," Fricke said.
But because some military members require commercial flights, like Pezzullo, Fricke said the organization also relies on donations from the community.
Meanwhile, Pezzullo plans to write about her experiences this weekend in Kentucky. And as for Fricke and the Rogers' family, Pezzullo plans to bake them a hefty batch of cookies to express her gratitude.
"People are put in your life for a reason," she said. "They will be family for life. Their service to us means the world."
