JAMES CITY COUNTY — On Friday, May 31, 1st Lt. Zachary Galli was laid to rest, but his family and loved ones will have to wait for answers — and closure — if any is to be had.
The 2018 graduate of Lafayette High School, who joined the Army after graduating in 2022 from the University of Virginia where he was part of the university’s ROTC program, died in a training accident at the Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC) at Fort Johnson in Louisiana on May 11.
“It is with an extremely heavy heart that I inform you of the passing of 1st Lt. Zachary Galli,” said Col. Brennan Fitzgerald, commander 71st EOD when addressing the accident. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the friends and family of the Galli family, the 749th EOD Co., and the greater EOD community.”
A U.S. Army Soldier assigned to the 749th Ordnance Company, 242nd Explosive Ordnance Battalion (EOD), 71st EOD Group located at Fort Carson, Colorado, the 23-year-old was serving as an explosive ordnance disposal officer.
According to a preliminary loss report, he was participating in defensive operations in an urban environment when he fell down a simulated elevator shaft 43 feet from the roof to the basement.
Answers are elusive while the accident remains under investigation.
Celebrating Zachary
Zachary Galli’s parents, Michael and Gail, stress the importance of highlighting Zachary’s story to honor him — in celebration of his life.
Zachary Dart Galli was born on Sept. 8, 2000, in Norfolk, one of three Galli children. The family moved to Williamsburg just before he entered kindergarten, and he attended Greenwood Christian Academy and Williamsburg Christian Academy before completing his high school years at Lafayette High School.
At Lafayette, he served as vice president of his senior class, was a member of the Varsity Soccer team, Math Honor Society, National Honor Society, Kendama Club and Key Club. He was also involved in club soccer and volunteered monthly at the One Child Center for Autism. Galli’s military awards include the Army Service Ribbon, National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, and the Basic EOD Badge.
But more than for his successes, he was known for his caring nature.
“He was an extremely caring person, he cared for his friends,” explained Michael, “But not only just with friends, people in general. He volunteered a lot. He loved volunteering. He loved getting involved with the homeless, needy kids, anything that required volunteerism, he loved doing. He could walk up and talk to anybody.”
Friends told stories of how he could walk up to a homeless person sitting on the sidewalk, sit down with them and start talking as if they had known each other for a while.
“He was a joiner in the sense that he loved participating in things,” he added, “But his leadership characteristics, or qualities, just jumped out at people and he would get people to follow him.”
His mother, Gail, said she and another mother recently marveled about how Zachary was part of two tight, but distinctly different friend groups, yet seemed to keep up with each of them despite his busy schedule.
“I was walking with one of the moms two nights ago and we were talking about how Zach would talk to each person every day,” she said. “She said to me, ‘I really think every one of those boys thought that they were Zach’s best friend.'”
That is a trait he carried with him when he joined the military. At EOD school at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, he earned the informal title of “Unicorn” by passing all 45 required tests on the very first try.
“He always wanted to be the best at whatever he was doing,” Gail explained. “For him, being the best was him being the best, and everyone else being the best also. He would ask me to pray for him on certain tests, and he passed every one of them the first time. And some people would fail a test, and he would say, pray for this person, they’re retesting. He always wanted everyone to do just as good as he was doing.”
Faith was an important aspect of Galli’s character. He was active in his church — Williamsburg Community Chapel — while he was growing up. In college, in addition to a social fraternity, he was a member of a Christian fraternity. He would join bible studies wherever his journey took him.
“By no means was he a saint, but he was actively engaged,” said Michael. “He had very, very stable, strong roots embedded in his faith.”
Joining the military
Michael noted they were not a military family, but they always supported the troops. Over time, Zachary’s interests in the medical field (he would go on to graduate from college with a degree in Kinesiology) ultimately brought him into contact with the military.
“My wife’s in the medical field, and we were talking with a lot of people and they were like, you gotta join the military if you want to do that. I think that kind of sparked something in him,” Michael said. “I think he liked the structure of it, I think that was engaging to him as he spoke to some military personnel while he was still in high school, and he just came in the house one day and said, ‘I applied for the Army ROTC scholarship.’ And he did that completely on his own.”
It was something he loved to do, Michael said, commenting to his family that he couldn’t believe he was paid to do it. Beyond fulfilling his obligation, he had goals to return to school and get into sports medicine.
Additionally, he had future plans with his girlfriend back home, Haley Claflin, and he had launched a business with one of his longtime friends.
“They were moving forward. They were going to start buying houses to rent. Right before Zachary left he had been with a realtor in Colorado Springs, and he had told his friend, when I get back, we’re going to jump on one of these — he was looking forward to fixing it up and renting it,” Gail said.
The Incident
“Officially, we can tell you nothing because we’ve been told nothing,” said Gail.
“The military, their stance is, they’re not going to tell us anything until their investigation is done, which they say could take up to two months,” added Michael. “However, we have found numerous reports from other news agencies, and we have heard through channels.”
What they have been able to piece together is that Zachary and his unit were doing night-time operations with night vision goggles, clearing a building when he fell down the simulated elevator shaft which they believe could not have been properly secured.
“But that is not from them (the military),” stressed Gail.
“It’s from articles and reports — military comms, Stars and Stripes (the military newspaper), other commentary,” explained Michael.
Gail said it was a reporter who pointed them to a military website that gives out preliminary reports, more information about the incident than they had been told. “They (the military) have told us, they can’t tell us anything.”
“In the sense, I get an investigation has to occur,” said Michael. “They want the information to be accurate. We understand that. But it did shock us when we found out a couple of days ago that a report from the 15th had been issued … that was more detailed than what we have been informed. All we have ever been informed, including the day of, when they notified us, was he fell. That was all the information that was conveyed to us and nothing else. Everything else that we’ve heard has been via articles and other sources.”
Understandably, it has left Zachary’s parents with mixed feelings.
“I still love the military. I love the soldiers on the ground who are putting their lives out there. And he loved it, so I loved it for him, and he was so proud,” Gail said. “I’m really angry with the upper-level people, the people that will probably never have the courage to face us. The people who will hide behind national security, because they are the cowards and the soldiers on the ground are the heroes.”
“I support our troops. I support the military. The outreach of Zach’s fellow military personnel — the enlisted men — several reached out to us via text and just sent us some incredible, incredible texts in support, only knowing Zach for a very short time,” added Michael. “The type of stuff we’ve seen every day … they picked up on on his qualities — his characteristics — in a very short window of time.”
“The report — the findings — that is going to be interesting, to see how that reads. Somebody failed. In a major way,” he continued. “This was a training exercise. I’m extremely angered over this piece of it, because it was a training exercise. He excelled in everything they did. My observation is, they failed him. Training is supposed to be about safety, education, learning. Safety first and foremost in a training exercise. Something was not done right.”
Michael does not know if there will ever be accountability for the death of his son.
“If his legacy can be saving somebody else from that same situation, I try to find value and reason in that, but it doesn’t change what happened. This is 100% a failure on the military side of protecting their own during training,” he explains. “But I respect the troops, everything they do for the country.”
Regardless, accountability would be a small reward for a life that had so much in front of it.
“It’s extremely disappointing to us. Upsetting. It’s extremely painful when you start thinking about our son, his future, his future plans,” said Michael. “He had a very steady girlfriend — their future plans — everything ripped from us.”
“There is the sorrowful time, but I feel the anger mixing in with it right now,” he added. “I do understand they’ve got to complete their investigation, but to not provide what seemingly other people have garnered, that’s frustrating. That’s frustrating. And that’s what we’re having to deal with right now.”
A visitation was held Thursday, May 23 and the funeral was held on Friday, May 24 at Williamsburg Community Chapel, followed by an interment with full military honors at Williamsburg Memorial Park.
