Brick father and daughter reunite in Iraq BY COLLEEN LUTOLF Staff Writer Above: Arthur DiLonardo pins sergeant stripes on his daughter, Beth, during a recent promotion ceremony. Sgt. DiLonardo is an intelligence analyst for the U.S. Army. Below: Sgt. Beth DiLonardo (r), Headquarters and Headquarters Troop, 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Task Force Lightning, and her dad, Arthur, pose for a photo during one of their two visits together in Iraq. Arthur DiLonardo works as a computer consultant for the U.S. Army and has been stationed in Iraq three times for his job. Beth comes home in November. When U.S. Army intelligence analyst Sgt. Beth DiLonardo is in Iraq, she does her best to stay safe, but she spends more time worrying about her dad, Arthur. He was in Iraq before she was. "I know he is smart and safe, but it still worries me more than anything," said Sgt. DiLonardo, a Brick native and Brick Township High School graduate. "I carry a weapon and am trained for things. He doesn't have anything like that, but I know the people he travels with are trained well or better than me, so that helps a little." Arthur DiLonardo, 54, a Brick resident, is a networking hardware logistic specialist with J.B. Management. The firm is contracted with the U.S. Army out of Fort Monmouth in Eatontown. Unlike most parents of servicemen and women who wait anxiously for their children to e-mail them from half a world away, DiLonardo has twice had the opportunity to take a few hours of his 16- to 21-hour work day and spend it with his daughter eating ice cream in a war zone. The first time the DiLonardos crossed paths was in Kuwait, Beth said. "He was heading out, I was coming in, and we had a few days to hang out and share stories," she said. Beth was stationed at Fort Carson in Colorado when she was notified she would be deployed to Iraq. Around the same time, Arthur, who has been working with the U.S. Army for more than 10 years, learned he might be sent to work in Iraq as well. "My dad and I started joking about who would be there first," Beth said. "It ended up he made it there first." Arthur is finishing up his third Army contract in Iraq. His first trip lasted about four months, beginning in December 2004. His second trip, in October 2005, lasted three months. "That's when I bumped into Beth the first time," he said. He was able to coordinate a trip to see Beth because she uses the same equipment Arthur trains soldiers on. "Is that coincidental or what?" he said. "I got to go down to see my girl before she goes into the battle zone." "We hung out and had a great time," he said. The second reunion was in Iraq, about 50 miles north of Baghdad, but was much shorter. Arthur and Beth could only hang out for the day, she said. "I waited for him on the helopad and watched his chopper come in," she said. "We ran up to each other giving big hugs and realized we were getting beat with all the sand and dust from the helicopter. We spent time comparing war stories and laughing up a storm." Although the setting was unique, the conversation Arthur and Beth shared during their visit together could have been had at home. "We talked about work every once in a while, but Beth works in the intelligence field, and so do I, so we didn't talk a lot in detail, so that wasn't the bulk of what we talked about," Arthur said. "Just normal everyday dad talk - how's your day going, what are you up to, how's the place where you live, how's the food. We talk about things going on at home. She asks how her cat is." Beth joined the Army 3 1/2 years ago after attending Monmouth University for two years. She quit to join the Army at the Toms River recruiting office. She told her father after she had already joined. "I remember calling my dad and telling him to come over because I had something I had to tell him," Beth recalled in an e-mail from Kuwait last week. "He knew there was no talking me out of it because I had made up my mind. I hit my dad with a double whammy that day because I was leaving college to join." "I wasn't shocked at all," Arthur recalled. "It was in February 2003, right after 9/11 she had a real call to duty. I knew she was going to war. I worked with the Army for about 10 or 11 years, so I'm really familiar with what they do, their training, and I felt confident that she would get the training she would need to do her job and come home safe." Her job as an intelligence analyst doesn't put her in harm's way often, Arthur said. "She doesn't engage troops," he said. "She's not on the road a lot. She's pretty much stationary in the compound. It makes her quite a bit safer than if she was traveling around like her father does." Danger is something Arthur lives with every day while doing his job. "I travel around the country quite a bit," he said. "My job takes me to a number of camps either by ground convoy or by helicopter. That's what I do to get out to where the troops are." "You think about it [the danger], but you put it into the back of your mind," he said. "You could get hit by a car crossing Brick Boulevard. You put things out of your mind in the day to day. It's always there. You hear a big explosion two or three miles away and know it was a huge improvised device. It shakes the trailer you live in. You have a job to do just like these soldiers do." Although Arthur's trust in Beth's Army training is sincere, when he begins talking about Beth leaving the Middle East and returning to the United States, it's apparent that he's glad she's coming home in November. "When she pulled up to go to Kuwait, I sighed a sigh of relief," he said. "I don't have to worry about her anymore being over here. When she gets back to the U.S., I'll be even more relieved. ... It's still a battle zone. It's still dangerous over here. You read the headlines. I'm glad she's coming home. I'll be at the airport to wave to her." Arthur is expected to return to his girlfriend Donna in Brick by New Year's Eve, he said. "We'll see each other in January, and then who knows after that?" Arthur said. "Wherever the Army sends her and wherever they send me. If they told me I had to come back here again, I'd pack my duffel bags in a second. It's exciting. It's dangerous work 21 hours a day seven days a week. I worked 180 days in a row. I don't get any time off. It's good work doing a good job for a lot of good people."