Sachem Alum Rides Across Country for Team Jesse

When the plane hit the first tower on Sept. 11, 2001, Kevin Mincio was a Vice President at Goldman Sachs in Manhattan. Ten years later he was in New York City on a vastly different path that started thanks to the terrorist attacks that shook the world.

Five months after the attacks he enlisted in the U.S. Army as a soldier, giving up the jewels of the financial world and a cushy job in the Big Apple. At 41-years old, Mincio, a 1989 graduate of Sachem High School, made a life altering decision to fight for his country.

“It was pretty challenging for me,” he told a group of students who packed the Little Theater last week at Sachem High School North, “to go from a VP at an investment back to a private in the army, from overall freedom and way of life.”

Mincio was deployed to Iraq for Operation Iraqi Freedom alongside close friend Jesse Williams, a young soldier from California. They met at Fort Lewis, as part of a scout platoon, in Washington state.

Life on active duty for Mincio ended in 2005, and he spent another five years in the reserves.

“I remember being really angry,” Mincio said, describing his time overseas. “I couldn’t wait to get out of there.”

He and Williams bonded, enjoying weddings, parties, family engagements and the birth of Williams’ daughter Amaya in May 2006. The following spring Williams deployed to Iraq and was killed in April 2007. It was a promise Mincio made to Williams, though, before he left that has kept the Long Island native burning with desire since he lost his friend.

“He called me and said ‘if anything happens to me I want you to be the beneficiary of life insurance and take care of my daughter,'” Mincio said. “Eleven months later he was killed by a sniper. I had this promise that I had to keep to my friend and it meant something.”

Mincio, alongside a support staff of friends and family, has started the Team Jesse Foundation, an organization meant to assist families of fallen soldiers by raising money through awareness and events.

Lacrosse tournaments, fundraisers and other functions can’t compare to Mincio’s cross-country bicycle ride, which started in California at Williams’ grave in June and ended at Ground Zero on Sunday, Sept. 11.

“This is not about me, not about Jesse,” said Mincio, who wears Williams’ dog tags around his neck today. “It’s about that promise between me and Jesse. It’s about a solider that saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself and when he died it was about keeping that commitment, it’s about staying true to your work. It’s about family and friends. It’s about community.”

Flanked by friends and family at Sachem North, Mincio fielded questions from students and spoke about the impact Sept. 11 had on his life. To his left sat Sachem alum Kevin Collins, who assisted with the bike ride by coordinating electronics and navigational systems. To his left was Matt Sauri, a friend who completed the ride with him and the CEO of Wimmer Solutions.

“Some people talk the walk, he runs the walk,” Sauri said. “You haven’t heard the last of this guy.”

“This is living history,” said Ken Costa, an assistant principal at Sachem North. “You’re going to run into people who inspire you. There is a lesson in everything we see and do.”

Mincio has proven to be the ultimate inspiration.