'I'll do it as long as I'm able,' says Elgin veteran who's hosted sailors for Thanksgiving since 1973
It's been more than 50 years since Archangel "Arky" Mastrangelo served in the Navy, but that time in uniform is never far from the Elgin resident's thoughts.
That's especially true this time of year - and it's why, once again, the 75-year-old Mastrangelo and his family will welcome personnel from the Great Lakes Naval Station to their Thanksgiving table.
"(It's) really gratifying," said Mastrangelo, a Vietnam War veteran who served aboard the USS Constellation aircraft carrier during that conflict.
Mastrangelo first invited recruits from Great Lakes to his family's Thanksgiving feast in 1973. He was inspired by a newspaper article about the Navy's adopt-a-recruit program, which for a time also included Christmas dinners.
"I thought it'd be nice to give back to the Navy," Mastrangelo said. "And we kept on doing it."
In recent years, he's hosted sailors who are in specialty schools at Great Lakes rather than recruits.
The big difference is, the sailors he gets these days have seen more and done more than the inexperienced recruits - and sometimes even more than Mastrangelo himself.
"I can't keep up with the Navy today," he said.
The tradition took a brief hiatus from 2004 to 2010 and again in 2011, but Mastrangelo's family resumed hosting sailors in 2012 and has done it every year since.
Mastrangelo's wife, Donna, said she's amazed by the tradition and its longevity.
"To keep something like that going ... what a wonderful thing," she said.
Mastrangelo applies annually to host sailors. Once approved, he drives to the base near North Chicago early on Thanksgiving morning and waits in line to be assigned guests.
Typically Mastrangelo gets two or four sailors. He insists on informality.
"Forget the 'sir,'" he tells his guests. "You're part of the family."
This year, Mastrangelo will drive them to his son Matthew's house in Wisconsin for a big meal and lots of talk about life in the Navy.
And when the festivities are over, he'll drive them back to the base before a 10 p.m. curfew.
Before they leave, Mastrangelo will ask the sailors to sign a Navy recruiting poster as a memento.
He already has two filled with signatures he's gathered from guests through the years.
Mastrangelo is looking forward to the gathering.
"I'll do it as long as I'm able," he said.