Mark your 2014 calendar and start your new year off with inspiring stories of service to our country! 

All in our D-E community are invited to attend a special evening presented by D-E 125 Events:

"In Service to our Country"
D-E First Thursday
Thursday, Jan. 9
7:00 pm
Hajjar Auditorium

Hear compelling stories of service and sacrifice, from alumni and other members of our D-E community who are veterans of the US armed forces.  This D-E 125 "First Thursday" will include both Middle and Upper School assemblies for our students (during the day) and the evening panel discussion. 

Though the panels will differ for the three events, given their audiences, scheduled panelists will include the following:

• Army Lieutenant Ed Hochman (ret) ESB '70, a military expert and Vietnam-era veteran.  After graduating from ESB Ed attended the University of Vermont, at which he was a member of the ROTC, and upon graduation he was commissioned a lieutenant in the United States Army.  In 1973, he performed his basic officer training at Fort Bragg, NC and further trained with the 82nd Airborne Division.  He also attended the Armor Officers Basic Course at Fort Knox, KY, from which he graduated as a tank platoon leader.  Other assignments included being posted in Sioux Falls, SD, and eventually at Fort Dix, NJ, where he was the executive officer and then briefly the commander of a basic training company.  From 1976 to 1979, Edward attended law school at Georgetown, where he served as an editor of Law & Policy in International Business, Georgetown’s international law journal.  While in the Army reserves during that period, Edward was the aide-de-camp to Gen. Albert Bryant, the commanding officer of the 220th Military Police brigade.
   
  Since the 1980s, Edward has been involved in a number of military-related activities, including a life membership in the Reserve Officers Association, participating in various Defense Department tours of military facilities, lecturing at the United States Military Academy at West Point, and serving as an advisor/adjunct to the Strategic Studies Institute at the United States Army War College in Carlisle, PA.  Edward also is a member of Business Executives for National Security, and Stand For The Troops, an organization which was started by one of his close friends, Gen. John Batiste, to assist returning veterans who may be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

• Air Force Major John Proietti (ret) '92, former captain of a B-1 Bomber crew. John went to Colgate University following his graduation from D-E in 1992, and after graduating from Colgate he was accepted to the Unisted States Air Force Officer Training School.  After receiving his comission in May 1997, John attended Joint Undergraduate Navigator Training at Naval Air Station Pensacola, FL.  After graduating second in his class, he received his wings and was selected to fly the B-1 Bomber as a Weapons Systems Office.  Next, John attended Electronic Warfare School, where he would master the electronic warfare critical to operating the advanced defensive systems employed by the B-1. At Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene, TX, John completed the rigorous nine month initial qualification course for the B-1 at the 28th Bomb Squadron. In the 15 sortie program John became qualified to operate both the defensive and offensive systems of the B-1.   He then reported to Ellsworth Air Force Base in Rapid City, SD,  to join his first combat squadron, the Tigers of the 37th Bomb Squadron.
  
   
  John would deploy for three more combat tours in the B-1 to Diego Garcia and Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. On his last deployment, from July 2007 to January 2008, John was hand-picked from over 60 candidates to lead a combat squadron as third in command, serving as the Assistant Director of Operations. As operations supervisor John directed and supervised over 450 hours of B-1 combat operations, successfully launching over 110 combat missions. Flying as Mission Lead on 16 combat missions, John and his crews engaged targets in two combat theaters. In September 2008 John was awarded both the Meritorious Service Medal and the Aerial Achievement Medal for sustained meritorious achievement while participating in aerial flight.  John separated for the Air Force as a Major and received his MBA from Columbia Business School. Today John is an executive at Expedia focusing on global operations.

• Army Major Dan Schwartz '90, a veteran of the Army medical corps in Iraq and Afghanistan.  While a student at D-E, Major Schwartz was an active member of the Teaneck Volunteer Ambulance Corps as an Emergency Medical Technician, logging over 1,000 EMS/911 responses prior to graduating in 1990. His dedication to Prehosptial Medicine continues to this day in his current career. He graduated from Wesleyan University, then continued his education at Sackler School of Medicine in Tel Aviv Israel. While in Israel Major Schwartz witnessed the beginning of the intifada and as a result began his initial education in acute battlefield trauma care as a medical student volunteer with Magen David Adom, the national EMS service in Israel, and with the Trauma Surgical division of Tel Aviv's medical center.
   
  Major Schwartz then continued his education in Trauma Critical Care at Lincoln Hospital in the South Bronx, and King Drew Medical Center in South Central Los Angeles. It was during this period that he was Commissioned as an Officer in the US Army Medical Corps. As a Medical Corps Officer, he transferred to training to Corpus Christi, TX, where he completed his residency in Emergency Medicine. As an Army Reservist, Major Schwartz completed training as a Tactical Medical Provider and Combat Medical Field Provider.  As an emergency medicine and tactical physician, he was deployed to Iraq to as emergency physician for the 501st  Medical Company, where he was responsible for immediate care of local battlefield injuries, and as the tactical support physician for the base rapid response team and in-flight physician for medevac care.  After Iraq, Major Schwartz returned to his EMS roots and completed Fellowship training in EMS and Pre-Hospital Medicine at The University of Texas – San Antonio and The Brooke Army Medical Center. In his fellowship, he specialized in Medical Special Operations with extended training in Tactical Medicine, rescue operations, and Austere / Remote care medicine.  In 2012, he was selected as the Battalion Surgeon and Tactical Medical Provider for the 125th Infantry Scouts and deployed to Afghanistan.  While there he was the solo medical provider for an operational outpost in the mountains of Afghanistan, completing multiple tactical operations and working with Afghan National and Border police on the development and integration of combat medical education for the Local Afghan Soldiers.
   
  Today, Major Schwartz is board certified in Emergency Medicine and remains in the Army Reserve with 256th Combat Support Hospital, most recently having been selected to complete training as a Flight Surgeon. In addition to his combat deployments, Major Schwartz has responded to numerous humanitarian medical missions internationally and to rural underserved parts of the US.  In his civilian capacity today, he is the EMS Medical Director and field response physician at Forbes Regional Hospital in Pennsylvania with direct oversight of over 300 EMT’s and Paramedics.   He is a tactical field physician for the Pittsburgh FBI SWAT Team and Special Medical Response Team and the medical director for a variety of medical special operations, rescue and tactical medical teams in Western Pennsylvania.

• Active duty Navy Lieutenant Frank Doré, deployments include Somalia, Djibouti and Afghanistan. A native of Teaneck, NJ and the son of Patricia Doré, executive assistant to Dwight-Englewood's Head of School, Lieutenant Frank Doré graduated from the U. S. Merchant Marine Academy in 2007 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Logistics and Intermodal Transportation and an Unlimited Tonnage US Coast Guard Third Mates License.  Upon graduation, he was commissioned as an Ensign in the United States Navy. Lieutenant Doré reported to USS COLE (DDG 67) in January 2008. His first Division Officer tour was as Auxiliaries Officer. In 2009, he received a positional promotion and served as the Navigator for the remaining 16 months of his tour. His collateral duty was the Visit, Boarding, Search and Seizure Officer, where he led a team of 12 highly trained Sailors in counter piracy operations. He completed two deployments of six months to the fifth fleet Area of Responsibility conducting counter piracy operations, and one training mission of four months in the Baltic region. His second Division Officer tour, from 2010 through 2011, was served at Maritime Expeditionary Security Squadron Two as a boat detachment Officer in Charge.

Lieutenant Doré led a 55 Sailor detachment that operated eight high speed, tactically outfitted boats. The mission of his detachment was to secure high value American assets entering foreign ports, providing security and deterring piracy. During this time Lieutenant Doré completed two deployments, one to Fujairah, United Arab Emirates and a second to Djibouti, Djibouti (Africa). In 2012, he volunteered for a Global War on Terror Support Assignment in Afghanistan assigned in support of the Special Operations Joint Task Force – Afghanistan where he worked closely with the Afghan Local Police Program. During his tour he traveled to 25 Districts in 12 Provinces across the Combined Joint Operations area contributing to a strong partnership with Afghanistan through mentorship of District and Provincial Chief of Police leaders, Provincial Recruiting Officers and Ministry of the Interior Officers. Lieutenant Doré reported to Naval Support Activity Saratoga Springs, NY in March 2013 as the Executive Officer. The base directly supports the Navy Nuclear Training Program that graduates half of the Navy’s nuclear engineers. 

Lieutenant Doré is currently enrolled at the Naval War College in Newport Rhode Island, in the Joint Professional Military Education Graduate certificate program, and Empire State College, in Saratoga Springs NY, in a MBA program.  His awards include the Joint Commendation Medal, Navy Commendation Medal (two awards), Navy/Marine Corps Achievement Medal, Battle “E”, National defense ribbon, Afghanistan Campaign Medal, NATO International Security Assistance Force – Afghanistan, Rifle and Pistol Expert Medals, and other various campaign medals.

• Joseph Iwanski, D-E Math Department faculty member and US Navy veteran.  Joe Iwanski has been with the D-E School faculty since August 1999, and is currently a member of the
  Mathematics Department. Joe has also coached for all but two of his years at D-E, serving as an assistant lacrosse coach of MS boys lacrosse for two seasons, head coach of middle school
  boys tennis for four seasons, and is about to begin his seventh season as head coach of the varsity boys tennis team, which he has guided to six league, three county and two state
  championships. Joe graduated from Rutgers College with a BA in Mathematics, after which he entered the US Navy’s Nuclear Propulsion Program, and was commissioned as an ensign (O1) after completing Officer Candidate School in Newport, RI. He subsequently volunteered for submarine duty and was assigned to the fast attack submarine USS San Juan (SSN751), becoming a “plankowner” on this ship as it was being constructed at Electric Boat in Groton, CT.

Joe had the unique experience of going through sea trials for this ship and was a member of her commissioning crew. While on the San Juan he served as Radiological Controls Officer and Main Propulsion Assistant. Joe also went on extended missions with the USS Pittsburgh and USS Providence, other fast attack subs. Joe completed his naval career with a brief assignment as a tactics instructor at the US Submarine School at Sub Base New London, and was discharged in December of 1990 with the rank of Lieutenant (O3), immediately prior to the First Gulf War. He then earned a Masters in Mathematics at the Courant Institute of NYU, and a Masters in Applied Mathematics at the University of Colorado in Boulder before coming to D-E.