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Master Sergeant Roberto Oquendo Castro, a Hawthorne resident, will be honored at the borough's Memorial Day parade for serving in the New Jersey National Air Guard. Oquendo Castro also received a proclamation during the May 17 council meeting. Lindsey Kelleher/NorthJersey.com

Master Sergeant Roberto Castro, right, was honored during a recent Hawthorne Council meeting for his service in Iraq. He will be honored this Memorial Day at the Borough's annual parade.(Photo: Lindsey Kelleher/NorthJersey.com)

Master Sgt.Robert Oquendo Castro has been to Iraq.

Oquendo Castro has also been to Kuwait.

And Kyrgyzstanand Afghanistan.

Oquendo Castro was deployed a total of 11 times to Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, Egypt, Qatar, Kuwait and Iraq between 2000 and 2010 as part of the New Jersey National Air Guard, 108th Civil Engineer Squadron.

For his service, the Hawthorne resident will be honored at the borough's annual Memorial Day parade.

The parade will begin at 1:30 p.m. Mondayat the intersection of Rea and Lafayette avenues and will end at Hawthorne Borough Hall. A service will startat noon.

Oquendo Castro received a proclamation during the Hawthorne Borough Council meeting May 17. In return, he presented an American flag, a New Jersey flagand a Borough of Hawthorne flag,which had been displayed in Iraq for a week in April 2010, when he was stationed there. The flags will be mounted on borough property.

Master Sergeant Roberto Oquendo Castro, a Hawthorne resident, has a pin to show that he served in the New Jersey Air National Guard. He was deployed to Sather Air Base in Iraq. He was deployed 11 times between 2000 and 2010 in support to Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation New Dawn, and Operation Desert Storm.(Photo: Lindsey Kelleher/NorthJersey.com)

In an interview, Mayor Richard Goldberg recalled when he first met Oquendo Castro at Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida.

"We ate lunch and talked together," Goldberg recalled. "Then we flew back to New Jersey together."

That December, Oquendo Castro went back to the McGuire Air Force Base in Fort Dix, where he trained until he was deployed to the Sather Air Base in Iraq the following month.

In an interview, he recalled a tense moment whenthe Taliban threw an improvised explosive device into the base. Luckily, he said, servicemen locatedthe device and deactivated it before it could injureanyone.

"We were one of the last units to get out," when President Barack Obama closed the base and started to send the troops home, said Oquendo Castro.

While he was serving in Kyrgyzstan, a Taliban attack on his base was repelled by fighter planes.

"We saw the flash from the mountain coming at us. The mountain lit up like Christmas lights," he said.

The troop he was inresponded quickly, firing back from eight to 10 fighter planes.

"Since that day, they never shot as us again," he said.

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Oquendo Castro was born in Puerto Ricoand joined the Puerto Rico Air National Guard with the 140th Air Control Command in Punta Salinas, according to his proclamation. He was transferred to the New Jersey Air National Guard in 1991, andserved until he retired in September 2016.

Oquendo Castro now works forthe U.S. Postal Service.

The Borough of Hawthorne frequently honors military members and police officers with proclamations during council meetings. Some fallen service members havebeen honored with sections of streets named after them.

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Hawthorne honors Iraq War veteran - NorthJersey.com