Monmouth County Acting Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni has been called up for duty with the U.S. Navy Reserve and will ship out to Afghanistan later this year for a nine-month tour of duty. A s many American men and women who are serving overseas with the armed forces are looking forward to coming home, Monmouth County Acting Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni will be shipping out in a few months to do his part for his country.
Gramiccioni, 41, a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy Reserve, has received orders to deploy to Afghanistan. He will return to active duty in August for training and ship out in September for a ninemonth tour of duty.
Gramiccioni said he will train at Fort Jackson, Columbia, S.C., and then ship out to Afghanistan, where he will serve as officer in charge of detainee operations. He will also work with the Afghan government to help establish a more Westernized criminal justice system.
He said the U.S. military will assist in the transition of power to the Afghan government.
Although the United States is winding down its presence in Afghanistan, “We still have roles in an advisory capacity to assist the government,” he explained.
Gramiccioni said he received word of his upcoming deployment while he was driving with his wife to a conference at his daughter’s school.
“When you are in the Navy, you always know there is a chance you will go, but you are never really prepared for it,” Gramiccioni said. “My commanding officer called me and after a long pause he said, ‘Son, there is no easy way to tell you this. You’re shipping out.’ ”
Gramiccioni said his first thoughts were for his family.
“I felt my heart racing and began to think about leaving my family, and how my wife would be carrying all the responsibility while I was away,” he said. “People always think about the service member who is going away, but it’s the spouses who are left behind who have the tougher job.”
Gramiccioni said he grew up in a military family and was familiar with the life. His father was a career soldier and a colonel in the U.S. Army who served in Special Forces/Delta Force in Vietnam and through the 1980s.
“We lived all over,” he said, noting stops in Virginia, Kansas, Florida, Germany and Italy. “He was very operational. I like to think that growing up in a military family has made me a better person and that it has prepared me for what I am about to go through.”
Gramiccioni was commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps in January 1997. He left active duty in June 2002, affiliated with the Navy Reserve, and currently is commissioned as a lieutenant commander.
He said that when the reality of his deployment began to sink in, he realized what he will be missing while he is away from home.
“The hardest thing was the fact that I would not be at my daughter’s first daddydaughter dance next year,” he said, adding that school administrators will allow him and his daughter to attend this year’s dance.
Gramiccioni was appointed Monmouth County’s acting prosecutor in July 2012. He said he has not had any word as to whether he may be appointed prosecutor before he leaves for Afghanistan.
“That decision is up to the governor when he feels it is appropriate,” he said, adding that he loves his job. “And when, and if, he makes the appointment, I will be thrilled and happy. If he doesn’t, I consider myself lucky to have this job as long as I have.”
In Gramiccioni’s absence, First Assistant Prosecutor Richard E. Incremona will run the day-to-day operations of the office, but Incremona and the rest of the front office will be in regular communication with Gramiccioni about office operations, according to Charles Webster, the public information officer for the prosecutor’s office.