'A chance to save some lives'

Local engineer helps soldiers in Iraq.

Date published: 2/20/2007

Thomas D’Agostino worked as an engineer in private industry for four years before taking a pay cut and leaving his native Pennsylvania for a job with the Army at Fort Belvoir.

He’s spent the last four months working with a team of engineers at Camp Victory near Baghdad to develop gadgets in the field that keep soldiers safer.

“I came into the government because I felt I’m never going to be a doctor so I’m not going to save a life, but maybe I can do something this way that will save a life,” said D’Agostino, 30, a Spotsylvania resident.

“I’m actually supporting a lot of the great things the Army’s trying to do for the soldiers. I get to make a difference in a bigger way, to some degree. And I’ve enjoyed it so far.”

His team has worked on 15 different projects since November, addressing soldiers’ concerns about everything from their uniforms to their humvees.

His group relies on expertise from another 30,000 engineers “in the rear,” back in the United States.

D’Agostino is slated to come home in early March, after which he and wife, Nicole, are planning to take their first vacation in three years to Jamaica. She also works for the Army at Fort Belvoir.

“We toil through that commute together. An hour and 20 minutes one way in the morning. An hour and 20 minutes back,” he said. “God bless her she’s been doing it by herself. So I know she’s been under a lot of stress.”

It’s been emotionally difficult being away from his family, D’Agostino said. But he’s also been grateful for the opportunity to serve.

“Two years of working with the Army on projects and stuff, I finally was able to volunteer to come over here,” he said. “Now I know, or I feel I know, that what I’m doing has a chance to save some lives. So I feel good about it.”

—Edie Gross

AUDIO: In his own words Thomas D'Agostino talks about his team's mission in Iraq D'Agostino discusses a specific project his engineering team developed D'Agostino addresses the troops' response to that project: Clip 1 | Clip 2 D'Agostino discusses what it's like to be in Iraq vs. what he expected. D'Agostino talks about being apart from his wife, Nicole. D'Agostino describes a typical day in Iraq. Clip 1 | Clip 2 D'Agostino and his "down time" D'Agostino on the soldiers he works with