Greenleaf, war reserve chief for U.S. Marine Corps Forces Pacific logistics, devotes a large amount of his off-duty time to being the head wrestling coach for Marine Corps Base Hawaii’s Marine Corps Community Services youth wrestling team.Although his coaching ambitions are centered on nurturing the athletic talents of his three children, Greenleaf said, coaching also gives him the opportunity to be there for the children of his fellow service members.“A lot of these kids have parents who are either deployed or getting ready to deploy,” he said. “If I can, I’d like to fill the gap and provide them with a strong male mentor figure. My children have gone through the same thing, so this is my way of catching up.” Greenleaf began his coaching career in 1993 while stationed at Blount Island Command in Jacksonville, Fla., when he became head coach for his oldest son’s Little League baseball team. “The main reason I started coaching was because my [oldest] son was deaf, and I had to be at every practice and game to translate for him,” Greenleaf said. “So I figured if I’m going to be there anyway, why not coach?” In addition to coaching children, Greenleaf, who says he’s always had a passion for physical fitness, began to coach his unit’s tackle football team. “I just knew how to organize a practice,” Greenleaf said. “I took a lot of the methodologies we use in the Marine Corps and applied it to my coaching style –- warm-ups, drilling, practicing situation-based strategies -- and I really enjoyed it.” As a father, Greenleaf said, he could relate to the concerns of his young athletes’ parents, a trait that has allowed him to teach the necessary discipline for sports and also maintain a good relationship with the parents. “A parent wants a child to be cared for in a certain way, and I always keep that in mind when I’m coaching,” he said. “But when you’re teaching someone discipline, it sometimes takes a little tough love, which is fine as long as I let the parents know what’s going on.” In 1998, he transferred to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he continued his coaching career as the base’s flag football coach and dabbled as a youth sports referee. “For me, it’s been another form of mentoring,” Greenleaf said. “The more that I defined myself as a coach, the better I got at refining my coaching style. It’s about getting down to the basics -- working on quickness, agility, strength and conditioning.” In 1999, Greenleaf returned to Jacksonville, where he focused on his eldest son’s participation in football and wrestling. “My son attended a deaf school, and his coaches were also deaf,” Greenleaf said. “They had interpreters at their local games, but when the team traveled, my wife and I came along to help out as interpreters. We supported all kinds of programs that way.” In 2003, Greenleaf was stationed at Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay, where his daughter began to show interest in athletics. “She walked up to me one day when I was getting ready to go on a run and asked, ‘Daddy, can I come with you?’” Greenleaf said. “I told her, ‘Be careful what you ask for, daughter.’ From that point on, she was my running partner for three years.” Although he wasn’t coaching any teams then, Greenleaf began training his daughter, who was 10 years old at the time, to run five- and 10-kilometer races until she asked to join a Little League baseball team. “My dad’s great,” his daughter said. “He used to go outside with me for two or three hours just helping me work on my pitching or my catching. That’s just how he is. If you want to be a baseball player or a football player or a wrestler, he just wants you to succeed, and if you’re willing to put in the work, he’ll help you.” With his oldest and youngest children heavily engaged in sports, Greenleaf began working with his second son, who also is deaf, by taking him to the gym. He eventually convinced him to join a youth wrestling program. In 2007, the Greenleafs were stationed in Washington, D.C., at the Marine Barracks at 8th and I streets, where he said the coaching got out of control. “I was coaching youth baseball, and then my daughter switched to softball,” Greenleaf said. “I was also coaching the Marine Corps Institute flag football, basketball and softball teams.” Earlier this year, Greenleaf returned to Hawaii, where he assumed his current duties and began coaching youth wrestling. Although most of the Greenleaf children are adults now, sports remain a family event. Greenleaf’s daughter and second son practice judo and are involved in the youth wrestling program. His second son took fourth place in the 215-pound weight class at the 2011 Hawaii High School Athletic Association’s wrestling championships while wrestling for Pearl City High School. “My oldest son is married with a baby now, and he’s a coach on the [youth wrestling] team,” Greenleaf said. “[My second son also is] a coach, my daughter is on my team, and my wife sits on the bleachers and is in general support. When you involve your family and invest your time in your kids, it makes it all worthwhile.” With a team of more than 30 wrestlers from ages 5 through 17, Greenleaf has his hands full, but continues to do more than he has to by offering additional one-on-one coaching time with his wrestlers and continuing to train his older wrestlers during the off-season. “I want them to learn mental and physical discipline,” he said. “Wrestling helps to build their self-esteem. Not only are they doing grueling two-hour workouts, but they have to get out there and perform in front of people. I feel that the more you put them in those kinds of positions, other things in life won’t feel so daunting.” April 20, 2011: By Marine Corps Cpl. Juan D. Alfonso- Marine Forces Pacific  Redistributed by www.SupportOurTroops.org

Knowing his experience on a similar deployment would be an asset, Air Force Capt. David Simons Jr., the squadron’s chief of operations, volunteered to serve on active-duty orders to ensure the logistics of the squadron's deployment preparation ran smoothly.Embedded with Army units at six locations, the deployed engineers have an opportunity to directly affect troops’ living conditions and improve the quality of life for Afghans in nearby villages, the captain said. "I've been very impressed and proud of these airmen and their determination," said Simons, who returned from a deployment to Afghanistan in the fall. "I can see it in their eyes. They want to go over there and make a difference. "Because of what we do and our skill sets, we can affect people's lives in ways that go on and on for generations," he added. As the father of three young girls, Simons said, he felt most connected with the youngest generation of Afghans, the children he would see playing in the streets as his convoy drove through villages. He said it was heartbreaking to know the children's only source of water was from ditches, rivers and shallow wells that were contaminated with high counts of cholera bacteria from fecal matter and urine, and frequently tainted with improperly disposed engine oil. When Simons and his team would drill wells for the forward operating bases, they sometimes were able to divert a portion of the clean water to local villages. Some of the airmen who are now deployed will have the opportunity to build wells like these directly inside the Afghan villages, he said. "Thirty years from now, it will be my children's responsibility to work with these children on a global scale," the captain said. "We have the opportunity to make the children's lives better. This will help them grow up healthy and educated, making it easier for the next generation of Americans." During his deployment, Simons and his team built seven new forward operating bases and combat outposts and helped to bring up to standard the infrastructure of countless outposts by installing wells, plumbing, electricity, roads and bridges. Many forward operating bases, he said, were built using expedient methods, usually converting old Russian bases, he said. "They weren't done with thoughts of waste, sanitary sewer issues and water," he explained. The 452nd Civil Engineer Squadron combat engineers who are now deployed are responsible for similar projects in some of the same remote, and often hostile, regions of Afghanistan. "It's always a high ops tempo," Simons said. "You always have to be thinking four or five steps ahead, especially when it comes to what the enemy is doing and how are you going to stay safe. Then, you're still expected to go out and do your job, which, along with holding a weapon and walking around a city, includes doing such things as plumbing, electrical, [heating, ventilation and air conditioning], and surveying." Simons estimated that he spent 75 percent of his deployment outside the wire, and his team frequently encountered small-arms fire, improvised explosive devices, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades. Sometimes, he said, when there wasn't enough daylight to return to a forward operating base after a day's work, the team would set up watches and sleep under the stars. "We're taking ordinary airmen … and putting them in extraordinary situations, expecting them to fight and still do their job," he said about the engineers who are now deployed. "They're going to excel at this." Simons helped the engineers before their deployment by showing them photos and videos of his deployment and talking with them about what to expect. "Almost all of them had never deployed before, and many of them were apprehensive," he said. "Once they knew more about what to expect, they were excited to be able to help the fight." (Air Force Staff Sgt. Kimberly Hickey of the 934th Airlift Wing contributed to this story) April 19, 2011: By Megan Just- 452nd Air Mobility Wing

Seated quietly at the table, U.S. Army Lt. Col. Larry Daley listened to his interpreter translate the fruits of his team’s labors.Daley says his job as senior U.S. advisor for the operational coordination center here is the future of the coalition presence in Afghanistan. The Preston, Minn., native, who is attached to the 4th Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, Task Force Patriot, has worked since November to foster better cooperation among the Afghan security forces components in Wardak province and to improve their ability to handle security. Daley’s position in Wardak came about by order of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who established the a system of operational coordination centers in Afghanistan’s provinces. Originally, the centers coordinated efforts related to elections and natural disasters, but they worked too well to stay within such narrow parameters, Daley said. “It has evolved into a way that all of the entities of the Afghan national security forces can be integrated for operations and have a unity of effort in securing the population,” said Army Lt. Col. Michael Kelley of Newnan, Ga., the coalition’s regional operational coordination center commander for southern Afghanistan and senior advisor. The coalition presence in the centers is in an advisory capacity, Kelley said, helping the Afghan security forces work together and share information, he said. Brig. Gen. Muhammad Daood, an Afghan army officer who serves as regional operational coordination center commander for the south, said he is encouraged by the growth of cooperation among Afghan forces in his area. “I hope one day we’ll be able to provide security in the whole province,” he said through an interpreter. To get there means a lot of drinking for Daley. “A lot of late-night chai sessions is how you get it done,” he said. Chai, or tea, is a means of overcoming a problem that sometimes shows up in organizations: a lack of communication. The various branches of Afghan forces have not been sharing the data they collect in Wardak, Daley said, noting that that the U.S. military was no different before the 1980s. Before congressional action forced jointness on the services, he explained, each U.S. service had its own set of data and did not necessarily share it with the others. Daley said drinking tea, a ubiquitous custom in Afghanistan, helps him to develop personal relationships. By establishing friendships and respect among the representatives of the Afghan security forces branches, he added, he is able to improve cooperation. “Maybe the organizations don’t really care for each other a whole lot, but if, as individuals, we can get along, we can make things work,” Daley said. “It’s something you’ve got to work at every day. If you’re not working at it every day, you’re probably going backwards.” Daley recently began teaching Afghan personnel how to analyze data and ask what is causing those statistics. The result, he said, was a desire on the part of some Afghans to learn more. “We’re getting there,” he said. “It’s just taking time to make them sit down and think through very complex problems.” April 14, 2011: By Army Spc. Adam L. Mathis- 17th Public Affairs Detachment

 

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More than a decade later, on July 6, 1999, he swore the oath a second time.Although the circumstances behind each oath were radically different, both carried great pride and a sense of achievement, said Butler, a St. Louis native. “My first enlistment was the result of a Marine Corps recruiter calling for my friend, and me picking up the phone. It was completely by chance,” Butler said. “The second time I enlisted, it was because the company I was working for shut down, and I missed the military way of life.” Working as a cook throughout his first enlistment, Butler was unable to re-enlist at the end of his contract and left the Corps as a corporal. He moved to Missouri, where he worked at a manufacturing and exporting factory. When the factory closed its doors in 1999, he re-enlisted in the Corps. The Marine Corps he returned to had undergone major changes since the late 1980s, but Butler, now a staff sergeant, said his love of camaraderie in the military has not changed. “The Corps is still near and dear to my heart, no matter how much it has changed,” said Butler, who now serves as a construction wireman at Marine Corps Base Camp Smedley D. Butler on Okinawa, a prefecture of Japan. “No challenge I have faced since my return has been too overwhelming to face. I just adapt and overcome,” Butler said. Butler’s comrades are glad he’s back. “Staff Sergeant Butler is a mainstay in his junior Marines’ lives, because he has the ‘Marines are family’ mind set everyone needs when things get rough,” said Marine Corps Sgt. Benjamin Martin, a telephone surveyor who has known Butler since 2002. “He’s the Marine that gives you the safety brief and instills in you the pride in watching out for the Marine to the left and right of you. I couldn’t ask for a better staff noncommissioned officer.” Butler said things have changed since his initial enlistment. “We fought hard and played hard back in the day, but the day-to-day battle is much harder now than it was back then,” he explained. “I’m so glad the tools I acquired in the past help me to relate to and teach the new generation of Marines today.” Butler plans to retire in five years and said he hopes to pick up promotion to gunnery sergeant before that time comes. For young Marines who struggle with or experience regret over their decision to join, Butler shared some words of advice. “Boot camp may not be a dreamboat, but to travel, see the world and embrace so many different cultures can be inspiring,” Butler said. “People look up to who we are and what we do for the world. Many of them only dream of living the life we live. We live it every day.” April 13, 2011: By Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Jovane M. Holland- Marine Corps Bases Japan

 

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