Dragon medic with unique history promoted to captain

Lt. Col. (Dr.) Joseph Pocreva, left, and Dean Kalinauskas pin new rank on Capt. Zackery Kalinauskas’ epaulets March 2 during a promotion ceremony outside the Emergency Department. Dr. Pocreva is commander of the 81st Medical Operations Squadron’s Emergency Services Flight. Captain Kalinauskas is a Biloxi native born in the former Howard Memorial Hospital on Bayview Avenue, which is visible just north of the 81st Medical Group Hospital. His grandfather, who served in the Navy, had moved to Biloxi in the 1940s from Waterbury, Conn., where his family had emigrated to from Lithuania. His grandparents are buried in the “Old French Cemetery” just outside Keesler. His mother is deceased and his father Dean lives in Pass Christian where he had moved from Biloxi’s “Point” after losing everything during Hurricane Katrina. Captain Kalinauskas served 11 years as an enlisted member of the Army, subsequently enlisting in the Air Force Reserve before earning a nursing degree and being commissioned as an Air Force officer in February 2007. He has been a “Dragon Medic” since April 2007 and leaves Keesler in July for a new assignment at Royal Air Force Lakenheath, United Kingdom. (Photo by Steve Pivnick).