Face of Defense: Soldier Earns Degree 20 Years After High School

By Army Sgt. Marc Loi

319th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, May 8, 2012 – It had all the makings of the typical college graduation, but a few things were different.

Army Sgt. 1st Class Joshua Moon had earned the right to give a speech as an honor graduate, but when he began to thank the people who made his graduation possible, a fighter jet roared overhead, drowning out his voice as he stopped and wiped away a tear.

The graduation cap he tossed into the air to celebrate an academic milestone traveled only two feet, hitting the ceiling and falling to the floor. Loved ones who had gathered to help him celebrate were some 6,000 miles away and appeared only on Skype.

Such is a nontraditional graduation for a nontraditional student. Deployed here in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, the Army reservist with Army Acquisition Command graduated May 3 from Motlow State Community College in the middle of a war zone, nearly 20 years after his high school graduation.

“Life just got in the way,” said Moon, of Beech Grove, Tenn. “I did three years of active duty right out of high school and went back home and started working, just like anyone else. We got married and had a child right away, so education was put on the back burner. I just worked a normal job like everyone else to make ends meet and pay the bills.”

Two stints in Iraq and his latest here, along with a year and a half as a trainer at Fort Benning, Ga., also got in the way of Moon’s education. Getting educated was always a proposition that gnawed at him, he said, not only because he wanted to prove to others he could do it, but also to set the example for his children.

“We’re trying to set good examples for the kids – hopefully we’ll encourage them to attend college after high school,” he said. “There was [also] a sense of not fitting in. My good friends went straight to college and ended up having successful careers. In a way, I was envious of that, but I also wanted to prove to myself that I could do it, to overcome my own doubts.”

Although he was eligible for the Montgomery and Post 9/11 GI Bills -- the latter would have paid for his entire education plus monthly living allowances -- Moon transferred the benefits to his wife, who will earn her teaching degree later this month.

Left without his own benefits and thrust onto active duty, Moon used the tuition assistance program the military offers active duty soldiers. With help from military education counselors and a host of tests that allowed him to bypass some core classes, Moon finally got to work on his academic pursuits – something he first found difficult because of how long he’d been removed from academia.

“It was definitely a challenge at first,” he said. “Once I got the basics of it, everything was OK. My instructors said it’s also a lot easier for older students, because they have the drive and it’s what they want to do.”

With his associate of science degree complete, Moon now plans to attend a university once his deployment is over to finish his academic career. Although he will have had a family and career before finishing college, such a nonlinear progression doesn’t faze him, he said.

“It’s easy to get wrapped up around what society deems acceptable,” he said. “Growing up, I always had an idea of what I wanted. It was getting married, having kids and having a house. College finally came there in the middle somewhere.”

Although his commitment will benefit his family and his civilian career, education also will help Moon advance in his military career, he said.

“The Army is pushing education, and if you want better opportunities, you have to get an education,” he said.

This, added Moon, applies not only to younger soldiers just starting their military careers, but also to older ones looking to finish an education they intended to get, but never got the opportunity to do so.

“To the young guys, if you want to stay in and advance in your career, education is the way to go,” he said. “To the older guys, it’s never too late.”

Just soldiers get the opportunity each day to improve themselves in the military, Moon said, they also MUST do the same in academia when the chance presents itself.

“Seize the day,” he said. “Take control of your life and do the right thing.”

Texas National Guard members help set Afghan school children up for success

By Army National Guard Capt. Jacqueline Wren

Georgia National Guard

When Americans think of spring they might think of rain, flowers returning from months of hibernation or children getting antsy with the thrill of upcoming summer. In Afghanistan a different excitement stirs in the month of March, and that is of children welcoming the start of the school year.

The Georgia Army National Guard’s 648th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, Task Force Hydra, is active throughout Kabul working with Kabul’s political leaders, religious leaders and police to provide humanitarian assistance and funding for special projects. Two such projects are aimed at providing a better quality of life and employment for local Afghans.

This month the advancement of education was the focus of one of seven current projects that the team is overseeing.

On the first Sunday of classes, the TF Hydra civil affairs team, led by Army Lt. Col. Michael Hulsey along with Army Col. Andy Hall, TF Hydra commander, set out for a school with back-to-school gifts for the children.

Darulaman, a community within Kabul, is home to a school that is responsible for educating more than 3,000 students in grades one through 12. This school is the site of one of the seven current humanitarian projects that TF Hydra is currently overseeing. This particular project is to build a privacy wall for the school that will provide protection for girls attending the school.

“In Afghanistan, boundary walls equal security and privacy, which afford a conducive learning environment for this community’s youth” Hulsey said about the project that broke ground this week and is scheduled to be complete within 45 days.

Along with checking in on the progress of the privacy wall, the teams brought more than 400 bags of school supplies collected by Operation Outreach, a Soldier-run humanitarian organization, for the school’s head master to share with the students.

Hall had an opportunity to speak with children in the classrooms and shared with them that his wife teaches school back home and that he will consider them all friends after that day.

When speaking to the classes of female students, he introduced Lt. Col. Robyn Blader, a member of TF Hydra’s staff judge advocate team. Blader shared with the girls the importance of education in her own life.

An eighth grade female student, Gulnaz, who spoke English, shared with Blader that she wants to go on to college and study literature. She also said that it was nice to have Soldier visiting them.

“This was one of the best missions I’ve been on,” Blader said. “These kids are learning 15 different subjects in a bare classroom with only a black board and can only attend three hours a day. It’s nice to be able to help them.”

Hall agreed.

“Very near and dear to our heart is the education of children,” said Hall before departing. “I know you share the same thoughts and that creates an educational bond for us.”

Afghanistan: National Guard Soldiers give school supplies, hope to Afghan children

By Army Sgt. Tamika Dillard
International Security Assistance Force

KAPISA PROVINCE, Afghanistan – More than 600 children received a surprise here Dec. 3 when Kentucky Army National Guard Soldiers showed up at their school with more than 50 boxes full of school supplies.

“After visiting three of the local schools, I e-mailed several friends of mine in the Kentucky school system,” said Army National Guard Sgt. Heather Carrier, a Kentucky Army National Guard Soldier. “Not even a day later a personal friend sent me a message to inform me she would make it this year’s National Guard Youth Symposium community project.”

Notebooks, pens, tablets, crayons and English textbooks were donated in an effort to provide a better education for the future of Afghan youth. Donations were made by many local businesses and delivered to the sixth annual National Guard Youth Symposium in Louisville, Ky., earlier this year.

“When you visit the schools here you can point out the differences in the students,” Carrier said. “You see a student sitting in the front of the class with a couple of pens and a notebook and then you see the child sitting in the back of the classroom with a sheet or two of loose paper that was borrowed from another student. It just wasn’t right in my eyes.”

Carrier wasn’t the only Soldier who wanted to make a difference and show support for the Afghan education system.

“I hated going to the local schools and seeing the children without the basic school supplies,” said Army Sgt. Jerred Stevens. “After my last school visit, I made a phone call to my mom and told her about the youth program here.”

Stevens said his mom immediately began to put the word out to schools in her district about starting a donation for the schools in Afghanistan.

“My mom is an elementary school teacher at Brodhead Elementary,” Stevens said. “The students in her classroom helped with the supply drive and it took off from there. Before we knew it donations were coming in from students, parents and businesses throughout Rockcastle County, Ky.”

Once all the supplies were gathered, the question that lingered on Carrier and Stevens’ minds was, “How will we get all these boxes to Afghanistan?”

Between the two of them, they had more than 600 boxes waiting to be transported from Kentucky to Afghanistan.

Stevens said the solution proved to be quite easy once he made the right contacts.

“I contacted my training [noncommissioned officer in charge], Staff Sgt. Heath Sailor, in my unit,” he said. “Staff Sgt. Sailor told me to have my mom drop the packages off at the Richmond Armory in Richmond, Ky. From their Staff Sgt. Sailors took the packages to where the packages from the symposium were located at the Kentucky Air National Guard base in Louisville.”

The packages arrived on Thanksgiving Day at Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan.

“When I heard the packages had arrived I was so excited,” Carrier said as she laughs about it. “I didn’t think it would make it here as fast as it did. I thought we would be handing it off to the next unit for delivery, but I am happy it didn’t work out like that.”

To the Afghan teachers and students, the joy that the Soldiers brought to them means so much.

“I am so happy for these school supplies and the help from the soldiers,” said Nagahia, a 10th grade student at Nasaji Gulbahar Girls School. “This is a great relationship between us and America for now and into the future. It is great the Soldiers care about our education and have come to help my people rebuild my country.”

To the Soldiers of the Kentucky National Guard, it was priceless to see the children so excited about receiving supplies for schools.

“Seeing them light up when you give them a pack of pencils or notebook just lights up my heart,” Carrier said. “They take these items as if you just gave them a PlayStation 3 or an Xbox 360. They are so grateful and appreciative.”

ISAF Chief Lends Support to Afghan High School

You think you know what happens on the front lines in Afghanistan?  Check out these books written by the heroes who were there.

By Natela Cutter

Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center

KABUL, Afghanistan, Sept. 23, 2011 – Marine Corps Gen. John R. Allen, the commanding general of International Security Assistance Force, visited an art exhibit featuring the work of gifted Afghan students near here last week.

The exhibit was partly organized by Marefat High School, located west of Kabul, whose students had their artwork published in a book of Afghan proverbs through a project funded by a U.S. Embassy grant.

“You can really see the soul of the country in these pictures,” Allen said at the exhibit.

To show support for the education of Afghan children, Allen wrote a $1,700 personal check to fund 10 annual student scholarships. In response, the children and the high school’s principal, Aziz Royesh, presented Allen with a large painting.

“Some of this work reminds me of the places I have been,” said the general, as he examined the painting of Kuchi nomads in Afghanistan.

Allen’s attention had been drawn to the high school’s fundraiser by Navy Capt. Edward Zellem, an Afghanistan Pakistan Hands program member and director of the ISAF Presidential Information Coordination Center detachment at the presidential palace here.

Zellem started to collect Dari proverbs while learning the language as a part of the program that was initiated in 2009 by Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“Proverbs are a very important part of the Afghan culture,” said Zellem, who had worked with Marefat High School students to illustrate the book of 151 Dari proverbs that were collected and translated over the past 18 months.

The book’s initial publishing run and distribution is funded by a U.S. Embassy grant, with the first 40,000 complimentary copies distributed throughout Afghanistan as a “gift from the American people.”

To support Marefat High School, which enrolled 2,600 boys and girls this year, Zellem provided the school with a copyright license to republish and sell the book for profit in Afghanistan, with proceeds going to assist students with their annual tuition.

“This school is progressive and independent thought is strongly encouraged,” Zellem said. Marefat High School, he said, was founded in 1994 in Pakistan by Afghan refugees, but after 9/11 it was moved to Kabul.

The school teaches its young female students to think of themselves as individuals who will have future working careers. In 2008, the school was attacked by mullahs because of its progressive curriculum.

“I want to be a journalist,” said Jahira Jakari, a 15-year-old girl who sold several of her paintings at the exhibition.

The ongoing relationship with Marefat High School is a direct result of the Afghanistan Pakistan Hands program, which aims to build trust with the military and local populations and to speed the transition of responsibilities to Afghan forces.

Zellem’s job is to provide and coordinate timely and accurate information on strategic-level events to Afghan President Hamid Karzai and to facilitate understanding between the Presidential Palace and ISAF leadership.

Before departing the event, Allen patted Zellem on the shoulder and said, “You are not leaving until I finish my tour.”

Allen’s painting is displayed in the halls of ISAF headquarters here.

International Students Learn About Anti-terrorism, Piracy

By Steve Vanderwerff, Naval Education and Training Command Public Affairs

PENSACOLA, Fla. (NNS) -- International students enrolled in Naval Education and Training Security Assistance Field Activity International Training Center's (NITC) International Anti-Terrorism and Piracy (IATP) course visited Pensacola's Gulf Power to understand security measures at potential terrorist targets Aug. 11.

Nineteen students from the Bahamas, Algeria, South Korea, Lebanon, Lesotho, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, South Africa and Yemen are taking the four-week course to provide them with information on the latest developments in anti-terrorism and piracy initiatives, and equip them with the skills to help develop their national and command programs addressing these issues.

"The course is designed to be a participatory learning experience that actively engages the students throughout. They'll benefit not only from the course presentations and materials, but the input of fellow students who come to the course from countries around the world," said NITC Officer in Charge Cmdr. Chris Heaney. "It's the sixth IATP course taught since the course was first offered in 2009."

The course features expert military and civilian guest speakers, numerous case studies, interactive student exercises and field trips. Between lectures the students are given the opportunity to learn more about the United States and the American way of life by taking field trips to New Orleans, regional historical sites and monuments and out-of-classroom activities that focus on IATP subjects, such as visiting United States Coast Guard activities related to Homeland Security, and a Naval Air Station Pensacola harbor tour with Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) officers to learn about port security.

"It was a good experience to see how they manage security using various technologies as the first lines of defense against threats. They also use cooperation between the Navy and Coast Guard, as well as outside contractors to protect against not only potential terrorists, but thieves or other outside influences as well," said Capt. Cezary Cierzan of the Republic of Poland Navy. "It's not done in Poland where private companies work together with the government and the military for security. It was very beneficial to see all the structure and how this issue of security is addressed here in the United States."

According to Heaney, the training enables the successful execution of the Navy's maritime strategy.

"This course is meant for all international officers and civilian equivalents detailed to government positions. However, the content is most applicable to individuals who will return to their respective countries and have direct influence in the areas of anti-terrorism and anti-piracy operations within their service, their country and their region of the world," Heaney said.

The students were funded by the International Military Education and Training (IMET) program. IMET is a State Department security assistance program, managed by the Defense Department's Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), to provide professional military training and education to U.S. allies.

Last year, IMET provided training to more than 7,000 students from 130 countries.

"That is building a lot of influence," said Kay Judkins, DSCA's program policy manager. "And that is really what this program is all about: influencing minds and hearts. It's about cooperation, forming relationships and building partnership capacity."

Naval Education and Training Security Assistance Field Activity (NETSAFA) coordinates training with the Navy's learning sites, private institutions, and other training providers, depending on a client nation's training needs. More than 6,500 international students from 155 nations attend training annually at various professional military education institutions, warfare community schools, technical centers, and various training sites in support of Foreign Military Sales (FMS) weapons acquisitions. It also manages the NITC aboard Naval Air Station (NAS) Pensacola, Fla. The school's preparatory training introduces international students to the U.S. Navy's approach to training.

Prior to becoming known as NITC, it was the International Preparatory School, established in 1985 to meet the needs of Royal Saudi Naval Forces students by providing them additional academic and physical training to enhance their success in the rigorous U.S. Navy flight program.

In 1991, NITC transitioned to the International Technical Training Preparatory School to help prepare all international students to meet the learning demands placed on them in various U.S. Navy technical training courses.

Since then, the school has evolved to include training in numerous military disciplines, both operational and administrative, and has met the needs of more than 45 countries. The school is capable of tailoring programs to meet each client country's needs.

Afghan Security Forces Grow in Numbers, Quality

By Cheryl Pellerin

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, May 23, 2011 – The number and quality of recruits to the Afghan national security force are growing, a senior official in the training effort said here today.

Jack Kem, deputy to the commander of NATO Training Mission Afghanistan and Combined Security Transition Command Afghanistan, briefed Pentagon reporters about his duties in the Afghan capital of Kabul, where he is responsible for the NATO training mission’s literacy, gender, integrity building and rule of law programs.

“The size of the Afghan National Army has increased from 97,000 in November 2009 to over 164,000 today,” Kem said, and will grow to 171,600 by summer’s end. The Afghan National Police has grown from just under 95,000 in November 2009 to 126,000 today, and will reach 134,000 by fall.

Taken together, Kem said, this is an increase of 98,000 recruits in 18 months that has been accompanied by a dramatic increase in quality.

The literacy rate for incoming soldiers and police officers is about 14 percent, Kem said, “meaning that 86 percent of our recruits are unable to read and write at the third-grade level. This has been an enormous challenge.” What began as a voluntary literacy program with less than 13,000 enrolled has become mandatory for basic army and police training, he said, and programs around the country are teaching basic literacy and numeracy.

“Today, we have over 81,000 Afghan [soldiers and police] in mandatory literacy classes, and we have graduated another 92,000 in different literacy classes since November 2009,” Kem said.

“We know that we will improve the literacy rate in Afghanistan in the Afghanistan national security forces to over 50 percent by January 2012,” he added.

The goal, Kem said, is to have full functional literacy in the army and police, defined as third-grade-level literacy.

Kem noted that the prospect of learning to read and write has been a huge draw for Afghans to join the army and the police.

“Literacy has a huge impact on the professionalization of the army and the police, addresses issues of corruption and will have an economic impact on the country in the years to come,” he said.

Corruption is being addressed in several other ways, he added, including developing codes of ethics for the army and the police and establishing an anti-corruption phone line that’s always manned and whose investigators are from an independent agency.

Putting blue dye in army and police fuel reduces incidents of stealing, Kem said, and using a lottery system adds transparency to handing out army assignments and prevents the best ones from being sold to the highest bidder.

Another step involves “having accountability of all the vehicles, weapons and radio systems that didn't have full accountability in the past,” he said, noting that a physical inventory is now complete for all vehicles issued in Afghanistan over the past 10 years.

Special efforts are in force, Kem said, to deal with problems of recruiting Pashtuns from the five southern provinces and avoiding violence to Americans by members of the Afghan army and police force. For the problem of attacks on Americans, he said, “we've instituted an eight-step approach for all the new recruits coming in.”

The vetting process includes matching the recruit and his identification card, requiring two letters of recommendation from village elders, performing a physical exam, doing a records check through intelligence sources, and using biometric measures, such as fingerprinting.

“It will never be foolproof,” Kem acknowledged. “It's not foolproof in the United States; it won't be foolproof in Afghanistan. But it's an area that we look at very closely, … and it is something that I think the Afghans take very seriously as well, because they want to be good partners.”

To ethnically balance the Afghan National Police, Kem said, the percentage of Pashtuns, Tajiks, Hazaras and other ethnic groups must be monitored.

“We balance every one of the battalions,” he added, and because of problems recruiting Pashtuns from the southern provinces, a special recruiting program has been instituted with the Afghans. The numbers of southern Pashtuns has risen slowly, Kem said, “but they're not where they need to be.”

“We're trying to get at least 4 percent of the recruits from the five southern provinces that are Pashtuns,” he added, “and aiming for getting about 6 to 8 percent in the next couple years.”

Work remains to be done between now and Dec. 31, 2014, when the transition of lead security responsibility in all 34 provinces to Afghan forces is scheduled to be complete, Kem said.

“In my personal professional judgment,” he added, “we will have the Afghans ready to assume that responsibility.”

Young Afghan pros help Iowa ADT enhance agricultural efforts

By Air Force Capt. Peter Shinn

734th Agribusiness Development Team

KUNAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan (3/24/11) - The Iowa National Guard’s 734th Agribusiness Development Team began an internship program for young Afghan agricultural professionals here as the year began.

Now, members of the ADT and the interns themselves say the program is paying big dividends for all concerned, including Afghan farmers.

The Iowa ADT’s internship program is modelled after a similar initiative the Kansas ADT implemented in Laghman Province, according to Army Maj. Dwayne Eden.

Eden, who is in charge of the Iowa ADT internship program, had high praise for the two Afghan professionals working with the ADT.

“It is working out excellent,” Eden said. “They both come from Nangarhar University, and they know agriculture and the Afghan way, and they can speak with the local farmers.”

The young Afghan agricultural professionals, Said Obaidullah and Abdul Wali, both have undergraduate degrees in agriculture from Nangahar University. Both are 24 years old, and both have similar motivations for working with the Iowa ADT.

“I like working in agriculture because it is important to the development of Afghanistan,” Wali said. “This is the main point: when the country develops its agricultural land, this country becomes more developed.”

Obaidullah added that he takes satisfaction from improving the farming practices of everyday Afghans who depend on agriculture for their livelihoods.

“We train the farmer, we show the farmer how to grow more, how to use the scientific approaches or the new technology that we use in our demonstration farms, which is where we train the farmers,” Obaidullah said. “It’s very good for us and very good for them.”

Wali and Obaidullah have worked on each of the ADT’s seven demonstration farms across Kunar Province but have spent the most time at the demonstration farm in the Chowkay District.

Army 1st Lt. Scott Shirk is the ADT’s project manager for Chowkay. He described the internship program as “one of the best things we’ve done” and said it was mutually beneficial for all concerned.

“It’s a win-win for both the ADT and the interns,” Shirk said. “The ADT has gotten more work accomplished utilizing the interns that are able to go out every day where we’re not, so that’s a win for us.

“And it’s a win for the interns. The interns are learning from us, we’re learning from them. And then also it’s a win for the local Afghan farmers, who are able to increase their knowledge from the training that we’re conducting.”

Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Don Kuehl also works closely with Obaidullah and Wali. Kuehl, the ADT’s project manager for the Sarkani District, pointed to the internship program’s larger strategic implications.

“One of the things I like about working with our interns is the fact that when they’re out in the country they are a positive reinforcement for the ADT with the local population, the district governmental officials and the provincial governmental officials as they put a ‘best face’ on what the United States government is attempting to do for the Afghan citizen here,” said Kuehl.

Kuehl, Shirk and Eden each expressed feelings of respect and personal affection for Obaidullah and Wali. The two young Afghan professionals admitted they had not expected the integrity of the ADT members.

“Just the sincerity, the maturity of the ADT was a very big surprise for me,” Obaidullah said.

Wali was even more direct in stating how his opinion about U.S. forces in Afghanistan had changed since he began working with the ADT.

“Before I came to work with the ADT and American people, I thought, they’re very much liars; they’re not honest,” Wali said. “When I came here, I was very much surprised to find that these are very honest men, not liars at all.”

The opinion of young Afghan men like Obaidullah and Wali is especially important, Kuehl emphasized.

“The future of Afghanistan is actually in these young men’s hands right now,” said Kuehl. “If this country is to succeed, it’s going to be because of young men like Said and Abdul.”

Face of Defense: Soldier Invests in Education

By Army Staff Sgt. Todd Pouliot

Task Force Falcon

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, March 15, 2011 – At age 19, a Montego Bay, Jamaica, native left his homeland for New York City in search of expanded opportunities.

But after a few years he became dissatisfied with the direction his life was taking.

“Seeing [how much money] I made, I looked around the office and saw older workers doing the same thing I was doing,” Army Spc. Ricaud Brown said. “That’s when I knew I needed to go to college.”

Brown has earned a master’s degree in business administration and secured a position with a financial firm upon completion of his Army obligation in a few months. Several of Brown’s fellow soldiers, inspired by his accomplishments, have pursued their own higher-education goals.

“At first I wanted to get a degree in business management,” Brown recalled. “I took an investment class, and I was learning about the stock market. That’s when I decided to change my major to finance.”

A few months after graduating from the State University of New York with a Bachelor of Science degree in finance in 2006, Brown joined the Army to pay off student loans. He has worked as a human resources specialist with the 10th Mountain Division’s 10th Combat Aviation Brigade, Task Force Falcon, since 2007, having stayed at Fort Drum, N.Y., for his whole enlistment, except when he’s been deployed.

Not satisfied with his bachelor’s degree, Brown began working toward his master’s degree in business administration. He took six classes while serving in Iraq.

“Those were the toughest times in my life,” he said. “I was working so many hours.”

But his leaders, he added, saw to it that he completed what he’d started. Brown said their desire to see him succeed and reach his goals pushed him through those difficult times, noting that Army Staff Sgt. Linda Kremblas made sure he had time to study.

“She would stay on me like a mom,” he said. “She would say, ‘Get your work done in six hours. You’ll have the remaining six hours to study.’”

Army Sgt. Vernon Redd, another Task Force Falcon human resources noncommissioned officer, also was committed to Brown reaching his educational goals.

“It was important for me for two reasons: for himself, and for opening the door for other soldiers,” Redd said. “There were six to seven soldiers who had no previous interest who are furthering their education now.”

Brown earned his MBA through Columbia College between his Iraqi deployment and his current deployment to Afghanistan. In a few months, his Army obligation will be up, and he will be leaving Afghanistan to return to civilian life. He has a job lined up as portfolio manager with an investment firm in Miami, he said, and he intends to continue his education.

“I’m going to pursue my doctorate in finance in September with the GI Bill,” he said. “My future goal is to get a senior-level management position in an investment firm. I might want to teach at a college in the future. I’m driven to learn everything I can and earn a lot of money as well.”

In the meantime, Brown said, he always is interested in teaching others how to invest their money.

“I hate seeing soldiers have all these opportunities and not take advantage of it,” he said. “I convinced a fellow soldier to pursue a business degree; he just got into the No. 1 business school in Florida. I just received an e-mail from him thanking me for pushing him.”