SAUGUS — Frank Puccia has plenty of reasons to be proud of his son, Christopher.
Christopher Puccia was recently promoted to a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force during a ceremony in San Antonio, Texas.
“I’m proud of him of course,” said the elder Puccia. “He put in the hard work. He had an aim for success in the academy; graduating from the Air Force Academy sure put him on the right path. I’m very proud of him for his accomplishments.”
Whenever a high school student is reaching the end of their academic career, parents always wonder what their child will want to do after graduating. That’s exactly how Christopher’s father found out that he wanted to go into the armed forces.
After his junior year, Christopher and Frank had a conversation about his senior year of high school and the requisite search for colleges.
“That’s when he (Christopher) said, ‘I would like to apply to the Air Force Academy,'” said Frank.
After that, the Saugus High School graduate went to Valley Forge Military
Academy and College in Wayne, Pa. He then attended the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. where he received a commission — 2nd Lt. — from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 2004.
Once Christopher graduated from the Air Force Academy, he attended undergraduate pilot training at Vance Air Force Base in Oklahoma, where he earned his pilot wings. He then served in numerous leadership positions throughout his still-developing career.
Since then, Christopher Puccia has been deployed to Southeast Asia four times and was a part of Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn. He received five Air Medals for transporting more than 10 million pounds of cargo and over 5,000 personnel, as well as one Aerial Achievement medal.
However, Christopher’s father didn’t know about a lot of these accomplishments. Frank said that his son is rather quiet and he didn’t know the extent of what Christopher had done until attending the ceremony in San Antonio.
“He’s modest and he doesn’t really tell us much of what he accomplished and when I
went to the ceremony down in San Antonio, me and my wife were kind of surprised,” said Frank.
At the ceremony, Frank said that his son was rather quiet when it came to his accomplishments, but said he could tell that Christopher was proud of what he had accomplished.
Christopher has spent 17 years in the armed forces; Frank said that once his son reaches the 20-year milestone he doesn’t know if he will continue on or go into the reserves and possibly fly for the airlines.
