Greenwood’s Chris Cascio calls his decision to leave college and join the U.S. Navy the best choice he’s ever made.
But there were plenty of times during the early part of his four-year military tenure that he questioned the move.
After two years at the University of Mississippi, the 1988 Pillow Academy graduate just wasn’t sure what he wanted to do with his life. He wound up joining the Navy in 1990, but he had no clue he would wind up serving in Operation Desert Storm — a war waged by coalition forces, led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.
Once his basic training was complete, Cascio soon joined the USS Thomas Gates, an Aegis guided-missile cruiser in the Red Sea.
It’s a story Cascio has told often — and one he’ll never forget.
“My dad dropped me off in Memphis in my Navy uniform. I flew to Philadelphia and then jumped a military plane to Egypt. Soon after that, a helicopter flew me right onto my ship in the middle of the Red Sea during a war,” he said. “Here I am trying to get my sea legs under me, when a guy walks up and says, ‘Welcome to Desert Storm.’ Then I am thinking, ‘What the hell have I gotten myself into?’
“It was kind of a freaky deal, because six months before this I was a college student with not much to worry about.”
Cascio spent about two months on the ship during the Gulf War as a damage controlman and flight deck crewman. The mission of the USS Gates was to protect aircraft carriers operating in the region.
He completed his time in the Navy in 1994, returned to Ole Miss on the GI Bill and later graduated from Mississippi College.
“The Navy was a great experience for me. I saw the world, made some great friends, grew up and became a man. I wouldn’t change a thing,” said Cascio, 44, who is the operations manager for MMC Materials in Madison.
Cascio also owns the legendary Cotton Row Club, located on Ramcat Alley in downtown Greenwood. He says it is thought to be the second-oldest building in the city.
A former stable and blacksmith shop, the Cotton Row Club became, around the 1940s, a place where cotton factors and other businessmen congregated in the afternoons after the markets closed.
But in 2009, the Cotton Row Club shut down, and that was something that didn’t sit well with Cascio, who had inherited a sentimentality for the city’s most famous watering hole. His grandfather Faison “Chooky” Smith was one of the “originals,” since he worked across the alley at Star Cotton, Cascio said.
Cascio wanted to find a way to keep the club open, so he leased the building from Bubba Buford and opened back up for those willing to pay annual dues to keep the club going.
Then a year later, when it appeared there was a large enough membership to make things work, Cascio purchased the building from Buford. He has since made some improvements to the 800-square-foot room where members gather after work to socialize and enjoy a cocktail.
“I can remember coming in here with my granddad when I was 10,” Cascio said. “I have some history here, so it was more than just keeping The Row going for the regulars.”
Contact Bill Burrus at 581-7237 or bburrus@gwcommonwealth.com.
