Hero's welcome for Wadsworth teacher
With more than 650 flag-waving students loudly chanting “USA,” Navy Lt. Daniel Smigielski embraced his two children in a parking area behind St. Patrick's School in Wadsworth.
It was a rousing welcome-home celebration for Smigielski, who had just returned from a deployment to Afghanistan. He said he was happy to be back with his family after being gone for more than a year.
“This is pretty exciting,” the Gurnee resident said of the crowd. “The kids know me and I know the kids. This is a pretty exciting time.”
Smigielski is a part-time teacher's aide and substitute at the large Catholic school on Wadsworth Road when he isn't serving in the military.
He joined the Navy out of high school and did a standard four-year tour. Once that ended, he married, completed college, became a teacher and a dad.
However, after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks he rejoined the Navy as an officer and has had numerous deployments overseas in the past decade. While in the Navy, he has traveled the globe and has been stationed in such places as Guam, Japan, Korea and Israel.
He joined the staff of St. Patrick's school after returning from a deployment in Israel in 2010 and before heading to Afghanistan in January.
“He signed on initially to be a substitute, but I asked him if he would be a teachers' aide,” said Principal Marcie Bosmak. “He said he could only do it for half the year because he was being deployed, so we took him in and he worked here until he left for Afghanistan.”
During his deployment, Bosmak said, the school kept in touch with Smigielski, and students and staff anxiously waited for the day he would return.
Warrior Watch Riders arranged to pick up Smigielski from the airport Friday morning and bring him to St. Patrick's to surprise the students and his two sons, Maclain, 10, and Harrison, 9.
“We're going out for pizza tonight and spending time together,” he said about being home, despite the 20-degree weather. “I really am glad to be back in the cold.”
Smigielski is also a volunteer coach with his sons' baseball and hockey teams.