Captain Sid Lorio

The day began like most others, it was overcast, grey, and miserable: typical English weather. Captain Sid Lorio was on base at the Royal Air Force Lakenheath station. His wife, Gloria, had walked up the street to the payphone hours earlier to call the school to see if she’d be substitute teaching that day, and he laughed to himself wondering when she’d last seen the sun. Had it been grey for the whole month? One of the nice things about flying was getting to break through the cloud cover to remind yourself that our yellow star was still up there above the grey English sky.

Today though, the sky was turning black as he began taxiing out in his F-4E Phantom II with his fellow wingmen in the 494^th Tactical Fighter Squadron. His flight was assigned to fly to Aviano, Italy and rebase for two weeks, which they were excited about, if only to escape the English weather. When it was their turn, Captain Lorio took off into the clouds with his wingman.

Flying through a storm is never ideal, let alone one that sprawled well beyond the Channel. Before breaking through the cloud cover over the Channel, there was a deafening boom. After the ringing left his ears, Sid found it was replaced with an unnerving silence. The usual humming and drumming of his plane’s instruments was gone. Captain Lorio hollered back to his weapons officer, Captain Robert “Bob” Allen, to make sure he was alright, and Bob confirmed what he feared. They were flying a dead plane. Of his electronics, only the DC powered radio still worked.

Once they were through the clouds, the flight leader called out for flight to spread out and look for damage. However, it wasn’t until after they had crossed the point of no return that Captain Lorio noticed something extending off the nose of his plane every few minutes before disappearing out of sight again. As it began to get bigger and bigger, he realized the radome of his Phantom’s nose was unspooling.

The Flight Leader came on again, “Sid, are you going to make it?” “No problem,” came the reply.

When Captain Lorio successfully touched down in Aviano, the mechanics came rushing over to his plane. They were apoplectic, as replacing a radome is excruciating, but Captain Lorio and Captain Allen were overjoyed.

Sid flew from 1974-1982. He flew for the United States’ Air Force, the National Guard, and Braniff International Airways. He had many more difficult landings, but none more so than the day he was told he was furloughed from Braniff Airlines. “It’s tough to be laid off from the job you trained your whole life for.” This, however, is what led to the creation of Lorio Wealth Management, and some of the greatest joy in his life. His greatest moments of joy in the business were when his new wing mates joined him. Gloria Lorio, his wife, joined Lorio Wealth Management full time in 1989. Steven Lorio, his eldest son, joined in 2007. David Lorio, his youngest son, joined in 2018.

Our firm has a history of continuous evolution to improve our client’s experience. There have been many more storms on our firm’s journey, such as the storm of 1994, the “Great Bond Market Massacre”, 2000-2002, the “Dot.com Bubble”, and the storm of 2008, the “Great Recession”, but for our office, none were worse than the storm of 1987, “the Tax Reform Act”. Each time there was danger, but by keeping calm and sticking to the flight plan, our clients, and our office, have pulled through and become stronger for it. Our office is stronger now than ever before. We have over 95 years of combined experience, 4 Certified Financial Planner™ Practitioners, 2 Accredited Investment Fiduciaries™, and numerous accolades, such as being named a 5 Star Wealth Manager 9 years in a row.

We invite you to come join us, tell us about your destination, and let us take you there while you enjoy the ride. Our goal, as ever, is to ensure you get there safely.