Taft student surprised as brother returns from long deployment

by BRIAN NADIG

Taft High School U.S. Naval Junior ROTC cadet Jorrel Luistro got a surprise during Monday morning drills when he did an about-face.

Standing at attention behind him was his brother John Luistro, who just returned from a 10-month deployment on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Middle East. The brothers immediately hugged each other and became teary-eyed.

John, a 2014 graduate of Taft, is in town for two weeks before heading to a naval base in Virginia. He is a yeoman third class, handling correspondence and other administrative work on the carrier, which has thousands of crew members.

Jorrel, a sophomore, said that he had not seen his brother since March and was completely surprised when he turned around during drills.

There were some tense moments during the deployment, which originally was scheduled for six months, given the recent state of U.S.-Iran relations. “The plan was to show a presence and keep the peace,” John said.

At one time he went four consecutive months without going ashore.

“That’s a long time,” said Taft ROTC chief Bill McGuire, who is the program’s head instructor. He added that the fact that members did not have Internet access for part of the time meant that they had to help themselves entertained the “old school” way — with cards and books.