FARMINGTON – Glenn Kapiloff, an educator and a father of four, knew that his military unit could be mobilized someday.
But for two decades it hadn’t happened.
That changed two weeks ago for the 42-year-old man.
Kapiloff, director of Foster Regional Applied Technology Center in Farmington, learned his unit had been mobilized to go to Iraq to teach Iraqi soldiers.
He has served in the military for 24 years and is now a major. His 30-member unit is the Army Reserve’s 98th Division, 12th Battalion, based in Schenectady, N.Y.
Members of the unit, most older than Kapiloff, await their orders.
Kapiloff’s unit is a battalion of instructors who teach Command and General Staff College courses required of all officers at the rank of major.
Besides being a military instructor, Kapiloff taught 18 years of technology education at Mount Blue Middle School in Farmington before becoming director of Foster Tech in January.
“I’ve never been mobilized,” Kapiloff said Wednesday as he sat as his desk.
“It’s something you think about in the back of your mind,” he said. “I had never thought I’d go to another country to teach. It would have been easier at 22 than it is now.”
He has a family and is in the first fall as director. SAD 9 is trying to fill his position in-house until he comes back from Iraq.
“I was very surprised,” Kapiloff said of being called up. “I haven’t been told how long it’s going to be for. It could be for a year or more.”
The uncertainty of when he’s going and where he’s going makes it harder to prepare, he said.
Kapiloff said he and his wife, Sharri, a Title 1 teacher at Mallett School in Farmington, and daughters Ayla, Amber, Leanna and Jordan have had their lives disrupted by the news.
Kapiloff and his wife will celebrate 22 years of marriage on Saturday. He said his wife is nervous and apprehensive about what the future holds but is handling it well.
The older kids understand what’s going on, he said, but he doesn’t think his youngest daughter, Jordan, understands how long he’ll be gone.
When he leaves for his two weeks of military duty each year, he leaves a present for Jordan for each day he’s gone.
She’s asked him if he’ll be leaving a present for each day he is gone on his new mission.
Kapiloff said he’s trying to keep the atmosphere light at home.
“I try to joke around about things to make light of it, but it’s a serious situation,” he said.
The Kapiloffs are receiving a lot of support from family and friends.
Kapiloff said he’s not quite packed. But his last will and testament, power of attorney and those sorts of things have been taken care of.
He knows he’ll face challenges in a foreign country as an educational military leader, he said, though he doesn’t quite know what they will be except for a different culture and language barrier.
A lot of his former students are in Iraq fighting, he said. Maybe he’ll catch up with them.
Kapiloff said he, too, is nervous and apprehensive about his mission.
It’s another step to build democracy, he said.
“As much as I don’t want to go, I’m proud to be going,” he said. “It’s what we’ve been in the reserves for,” only now working with foreign military personnel.
“It’s a whole new realm of education,” he said. “It’s going to be an experience.”
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