For Michael DiSilvio, a dose of patriotism and community support could not have arrived at a better time.

Ahead of Veteran’s Day, Mattituck Cutchogue Jr. Sr. High School held its seventh annual Wall of Honor Dedication Ceremony Thursday morning. Each year, the school amends its hall with new plaques of former students who served in the armed forces. Mr. DiSilvio, who graduated in 1995, was one of the veterans and actively serving members of the armed forces between the classes of 1956 through 2023 recognized this year.

“Today, we added 15 new members to the wall of honor, bringing our inductees up to a total of 159,” Mattituck-Cutchogue Union Free School District superintendent Shawn Petretti said to the crowd gathered in the high school’s library Thursday morning. “Seven years ago, at our first ceremony, we honored 40 inductees. That’s an impressive number for a community of our size. It speaks to the importance of military service to this community … As I looked over the plaques on the wall last night, it amazes me that every year the amount of history that jumps out.”

For the past four months, Mr. DiSilvio, his wife, Kathleen Stewart, and their children, Raylan, 12, and Isla, 10, have been longing to reunite with their beloved black lab, Gigi, who went missing from their Mattituck home on July 15. For Mr. DiSilvio, a combat veteran, Gigi opened him up this past year in ways he hadn’t previously since his time overseas. 

“Since Gigi went missing, it’s made me appreciate what I did, where for 10 years I haven’t,” he said. “The news and everything makes you really wonder ‘When you went over there, did you do the right thing?’ Did you do what you were supposed to?’ For 10 years, it was up and down and then Gigi came into my life, and that little dog changed my whole life, and now she’s missing, now I look at everything differently … I guess just good things come out of bad things.” 

Things have been tough for Mr. DiSilvio, but his community and even distant online do-gooders have supported him and his family anyway they could, from translating, laminating and hanging signs with Gigi’s face all around town to blasting updates and missing dog alerts to thousands of social media users. Thursday’s Veterans Day honor, an annual recognition for the community’s armed service members and veterans, was the latest boost to Mr. DiSilvio’s morale. Surrounded by fellow veterans, the affair also offered the Mattituck native a moment to appreciate his service and those of his fellow honorees, an appreciation Gigi lit inside him.

“I appreciate what I did, especially [today] being around all these other veterans and all these older guys,” Mr. DiSilvio said.

Among the Vietnam veterans whose pictures now hang permanently and proudly on the Wall of Honor is a very special addition for Mattituck High School. For the first time since it began adding heroes to the wall, the school welcomed a faculty member who served the school but did not graduate from it: John Jack Gibbons, who served students from 1974-2005 as a social studies teacher and a track coach.

“Jack served the United States Navy,” Mr. Petretti said. “His first assignment was operations officer aboard the USS Phoebe, a coastal minesweeper that boarded Japan. Jack served a 13-month tour in Vietnam and was awarded a Navy commendation ribbon for superior performance of duties during combat operations. We are proud to welcome you as our first faculty honoree, and I know there’s quite a few alumni and faculty members that are here in attendance today to support Jack, as well as his daughter, Theron. Welcome aboard Jack, and welcome back.”

Mr. Gibbons was nominated for the recognition by Brian Janis, who was also added to the wall this year, and Michael Sanchez, one of the inaugural honorees.

“I don’t know which is more meaningful to me, being placed on the wall or being nominated by a couple of my former student athletes,” Mr. Gibbons said after seeing his plaque on the wall Thursday morning. “It’s really meaningful to me to be remembered by guys that I care so much about.”

For Mr. DiSilvio, Thursday’s event offered a moment of self reflection. As a young man, no one would have pinned him as the kind to selflessly serve his nation. Admittedly a class clown, he cut class and listened to underground, hardcore punk music courtesy of bands like the Bad Brains, whose first album cover depicts a lightning bolt striking the nation’s capital.

“They didn’t want me,” Mr. DiSilvio said jokingly, referring to the school during his time as a student. “Now they’re welcoming me back.”

It wasn’t until 2007 that he felt a desire to serve. As he watched the news of American soldiers fighting and dying overseas, he said his father, a Vietnam veteran, told him “you wouldn’t understand.” He decided to learn firsthand overseas. He served with the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, K.Y., and at Fort Drum in Jefferson County, N.Y. While he wanted to finish out the terms of his enlistment — so much so that he even reenlisted while still stationed in Afghanistan — he was honorably discharged due to injuries he sustained.

On Friday, his mother-in-law surprised him and the family for lunch since his kids were off for Veterans Day. Afterwards, he introduced a reporter from The Suffolk Times to another new bright spot in his life: Simba, a friendly, calm and alert six-year-old white lab whom he and his wife took off the hands of someone about to give birth and sought a good home for her pup via Facebook. Ever patrolling the internet for signs of Gigi and other lost dogs, Mr. DiSilvio saw her post and headed west to meet Simba. Within seconds of interacting with the white lab, he knew he would take him home, not as a new service dog, and certainly not to replace Gigi — who in his heart he believes is out there somewhere — but as a new furry companion. Afterall, labs have been integral to his and his wife’s lifes, both separately and as a couple. In fact, Ms. Stewart said she wouldn’t give Mr. DiSilvio her phone number until he placed Stinker, the lab he had at the time, in her lap.

“I come across hundreds of posts a day, and this one really hit me,” Mr. DiSilvio said, referring to the post by Simba’s former owner. “A couple of people offered us puppies, there are some great people out there … we were just not ready to bring a puppy into our life. There was something about Simba’s picture.

“We took a ride, the dog was looking at me barking,” he continued. “I got on my hands and knees, then Simba came up to me, I said ‘we’ll take her.’”

The Mattituck High School Wall of Honor is “an ongoing project,” Mr. Petretti said. Anyone who wishes to recognize a member of the armed forces within the community is encouraged to reach out to his office so they may be honored next year.

In the distant future, another DiSilvio, Raylan, who wishes to follow his father’s footsteps and enlist in the army when he grows up, may find their name and photograph on the Wall of Honor.

“This is an ongoing project. And I know that we have other veterans that are alumni, or former and current faculty members in our community that have not yet been recognized. So please share the video and encourage them to reach out to my office so that we can include them in the wall next year.”

“He’s always said that from day one,” Ms. Stewart said of her son. “He was born to do it … I believe in him and I support him.”