Soldier from New Jersey reenlists where home used to stand before Hurricane Sandy

GI re-enlists at N.J. home Sandy took away
By Dustin Racioppi
The Asbury Park Press
Posted : Saturday Mar 9, 2013

UNION BEACH, N.J. — A couple of days after Superstorm Sandy washed away their childhood home, Army Spc. Brock Vazquez and his stepbrother walked their old neighborhood pulling American flags they found in the debris and rubble.

They filled four plastic containers with about a dozen weather-beaten flags; their parents and siblings, meanwhile, had four plastic containers of their personal belongings left when the storm was done.

The family returned to their ground zero on Friday and unfurled a fresh new flag against a gun metal-gray sky. A harsh wind came off the Raritan Bay, which had risen up and violently taken their Brook Avenue home on Oct. 29. Snow fell onto the muddy hole where the house once was.

Both dressed in digital camouflage fatigues, Vazquez, 27, raised his right hand, and his stepbrother, Marine Sgt. Christopher Colgan, administered the oath.

"I, Brock Vazquez, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic ."

And with that, Vazquez, who is based in Newport News, Va., signed on for another four years in the Army. He could have signed his re-enlistment papers in an office in Virginia as he did two years ago. He could have signed them anywhere in the world, if he wanted.
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