Giving Tuesday at Arete Prep

“When the time came to fly our unit in, I specifically chose a seat at the very back of the Chinook,” Osman Toruno explains. Coach T, as his flag football team of 5^th and 6^th graders call him, takes a seat on the brand-new bleachers at Arete Preparatory Academy in Gilbert.

GIVE AT ARETE PREP

He clarifies that ‘The Chinook’ of which he speaks is a 98 ft long Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopter, used to transport infantry troops into enemy territory.

“You see, they keep it open in the back,” his eyebrows raise, “and I wanted to see what we were getting into with my own eyes.”

He pauses as a group of middle school students stop by to say hello, passing out high-fives and calling them by name. Osman and his wife of 12-years, Andrea Toruno, are well-known at both Archway Arete and Arete Prep by students, faculty, and parents alike. That’s what happens when you’re on campus multiple times a week serving lunch, planning class parties, and coaching middle school sports (Coach T coaches flag football AND basketball at Arete Prep).

A moment later the students disperse, and his story continues.

19-year-old Os and the other members of the 3^rd Infantry Division took off under cover of night and flew through stunning darkness for what felt like a very long time. Then, without warning, flashes of red and orange light erupted out of the still blackness below them.

He peers over the side of the bleachers, as if still looking into the abyss of that night. Then points with an open palm down and to the right, “There,” his left hand does the same, “and there.”

Then, waving both hands in front of his face, “Everywhere you look. Fire fights everywhere. We were there.”

‘There’, was in the heart of the conflict in Iraq, in the year 2005. Two years after he volunteered to serve in the United States Army.

“I was only 17 when I enlisted,” he says with a smirk and a shake of his head. “My mom had to sign for me.”

Even at such a young age, Os had felt the call to serve for some time. When asked why he wanted to serve, he answers without hesitation.

“I’m from Miami, and ever since Hurricane Andrew hit; and I saw the military personnel come in and help my community in the aftermath; I knew I wanted to be like them. I wanted to help.”

He joined the ROTC at his local high school, enlisted in the Army after graduation, and served his country honorably through two tours of duty in Iraq. A year after his honorable discharge, he and Andrea met while working at Best Buy.

“I was drawn to her,” Os says. “She worked so hard and cared about people and their feelings. I just really admired her as a person.”

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