Where in the World is Gary Picariello, Associated Content Writer?

Gary Picariello is a prolific and talented writer here at Associated Content. I noticed I've not been receiving many notifications in the past few months concerning articles published by Gary. What's happened to my best author-buddy? Both Gary and "The Barefoot" have been fairly scarce in the "published" column in recent weeks. At first I figured it was just the busy Christmas-New Years Holiday season, and maybe a vacation in between. Without new columns, I've been able to go back and re-read some older editions. One other silver lining behind this cloud is finding a variety of NEW authors to fill the gap. BUT HEY!!! February begins tomorrow and my mailbox is still empty of the much-anticipated alerts. I'm starting to have huge withdrawal symptoms! Where, oh where can he be?

People might wonder WHY I'm looking for these particular authors...but as I've read up on a variety of topics, I noticed that both Gary and The Barefoot are "Favorites" for many of our Associated Content producers. Hopefully, some of you other readers share my concern. The last I heard from Gary, he was just over a battle with the flu. Both Gary and The Barefoot write whenever I message them, and they are positively dedicated when it comes to the area of comments on the content of a variety of producers. In this article, I'd like to flesh out some biographical data on Gary, so the rest of you can get to know him better, or at least understand why I am such an enthusiastic fan of Gary Picariello.

I originally met Gary back in the mid-1980's, when we were both assigned to the same Air Force location--San Vito dei Normanni Air Station (SVAS), Italy. It's a relatively defunct NATO base in the heel of the Italian boot, located in between the port city of Brindisi and a small town called San Vito dei Normanni. The base was started up with a mobile unit in the very early 1960's; however, there were thousands of people assigned there during my tenure. Gary was VERY recognizable in that he was one of our (relatively) famous television personalities on SVAS. We both were there to witness the drawdown and overall closure of the base facilities, as well as the more positive times when all the buildings and operational equipment were being upgraded and refurbished. I'm pretty sure he was a young airman my first tour, and imagine my surprise when I came back in the 1990's and Gary still was there on the evening news to greet me!

During the first tour, one of the funniest things related to Gary happened in my own office. There's a relatively well-known individual within the international intelligence community named Mr. Ken Silva. Back in 1986-88, Ken was a fairly young junior non-commissioned officer, with whom I consider myself privileged to have known, and we worked together in the same office. During the latter part of his tour at San Vito, Ken Silva was specially promoted to technical sergeant by a general, under the Stripes to Exceptional Performers program (STEP). He didn't have to pass any of the required tests or anything, the general came all the way from San Antonio, Texas to hand Ken a his stripes at our obscure base in southern Italy! Even more incredible, there's international recognition via the Ardisana Award for Mr. Silva. Ken beat out every single person in the intelligence community and earned that coveted prize one year, while we were all in Italy. What's my point? Well, one of the funniest thngs about Ken Silva included his right-on-target imitations of various people. And the person he could mimic best was our very own Gary Picariello.

On the air station, and within a reasonable proximity of nearby communities, you could watch Southern European Broadcasting (SEB) and Gary did the news, sports, and also these exceptionally intriguing cultural/travel spotlights on area attractions. Watching Gary on TV, his enthusiasm grew, and suddenly his dark eyebrow would start creeping up the forehead. Sometimes, I would swear it met his hairline! Gary had an extremely distinctive and memorable on-screen personality, which is why he was so beloved by us viewers. When it came to sports, he often exclaimed, "MA-HAN oh MAN," going on to describe whatever sports film clip he was reviewing. I'm not the world's biggest sports fanatic, but for 5 years I lived to watch Gary describe the various play-by-plays for baseball, basketball, soccer ... whatever topic he was willing to talk about, I'd listen. His enthusiasm was infectious!

So as Ken Silva neared the end of his time in Italy, he did some crazy stuff. And the best of all was his imitation of Gary Picariello. You could tell that Ken shared the same enthusiasm for Gary's antics on SEB-TV. He'd come in and entertain three offices full of military personnel, both on and off duty. He could pitch his voice and inflection so that you hardly knew whether it was Ken Silva or Gary Picariello. And the thing with the eyebrow, Ken had that particular mannerism down to a tee! He'd save up a few nuggets of facts, or change things to apply to whatever was going on at our workcenter, and off to the races he'd go. I can remember laughing so hard that I would end up crying! Let me assure you, this was all very positive and complimentary. Gary was well-admired by all of us in the Mission Management, Analysis, and Programs Upgrade offices. We worked in a relatively crowded tin building, while our operations area was upgraded. No windows existed (because of security requirements) and we skirted around a jumble of offices and computers...not a single cubicle or any privacy was had back then. We ended up making our own fun and Gary was the highlight of many of my happiest memories both on and off duty!

I wish that you fans could have seen some of Gary's broadcasts, they were WONDERFUL!! Gary was married to a beautiful young Italian woman, local to the area. Well, heck, they are still happily married today, with a young daughter emerging into womanhood. Gary must have loved Italy, because he's still back there in Brindisi. Of course he had the inside track to all the local attractions and became fluent with the Italian language early on. One of the problems with overseas assignments is that many American servicemembers feel out of place and are hesitant to venture far from the base.

He may have been doing it all along, but when I came back my second tour, I noticed the superb documentary type features he would produce, covering the local area attractions. By my second tour, my husband and I had seen almost everything in the area. We lived far from the base, and took every chance we could to visit the "foreign" cities. (Actually WE were the foreigners, but you know what I mean!) Even so, it was terrific to listen to Gary and watch those films of area attractions. Our Italian was fairly limited by comparison to Gary's, and often we visited places we enjoyed, but did not know the associated historical and cultural significance. I remember back at that time, in the early 1990's, I thought those shows probably inspired many of the "dorm rats" and various personnel on base to venture out and enjoy what southern Italy had to offer. Many of the folks who worked for me would talk about what they'd seen on SEB the previous evening, and not a few did go out and visit those locales that Gary highlighted for his American audience.

In closing, I'd like to mention that Gary is as exciting in person as he is in text or on the TV screen. I remember meeting him at a military ceremony. I believe the base personnel were recognizing those airmen who had progressed to NCO status or it was a graduation ceremony from the local professional military education class. Gary ended up at the end of the table where I was sitting, and I was just thrilled. He may not have been Brad Pitt, but I admired him more than anyone I'd ever met! He probably thought I was a little crazy, but I introduced myself. I just had to tell him the story of Ken Silva and the eyebrow imitations from previous years. He seemed to get a laugh out of the story, especially after I assured him it was a great compliment. He remembered both Ken Silva and I, which I found amazing. Imagine the people he met over the many years in broadcasting, and he remembered little ole me! Anyhow, he's very upbeat and enthusiastic in person as well as on the small screen.

I hope that I gave you a little bit of an interesting personal background on my favorite author. The whole reason I started writing on Associated Content was due to Gary's prompting and his excellent role model status. I don't have the training nor experience of Gary Picariello, but when I write, I do try to include some of his signature enthusiasm. Hopefully, he will soon be recovered from the flu, inspired, and we can ALL enjoy more of his articles. I'd like to say a public thank-you to Gary (and the Barefoot and many other writers here) for the hours and hours of enjoyable reading! Big Salute to you Gary Picariello!