Face of Defense: Passion for Cooking Drives Marine’s Service

By Marine Corps Cpl. Mark Garcia

Regional Command Southwest

COMBAT OUTPOST FIDDLERS GREEN, Afghanistan, Oct. 2, 2012 – When Staff Sgt. Juan Contreras first joined the Marine Corps, he had no idea where that journey would lead him.

Contreras, a senior advisor with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force Headquarters Group’s food service contact team, originally came into the Marine Corps as an administration clerk.

“I decided to join the Marine Corps as an administration clerk during my first enlistment,” said Contreras, from Santa Ana, Calif. “Sixty days prior to getting out of the Marine Corps, I was sent to go do mess duty. During that time, the chief mess cook got me to start helping out with cooking, and I picked it up quick. Then two weeks before I was supposed to get out, I submitted a package to switch jobs, and I got approved to be an actual food service guy. I don’t regret that decision at all, either. I’ve really enjoyed my time in food service.”

Contreras enlisted in the Marine Corps at 18. Nineteen years later, he’s serving on his fifth combat deployment. Contreras has also been a part of three humanitarian assistance missions while attached to a Marine expeditionary unit.

“Every deployment I’ve gone on is based off of what my grandfather, who was prior military, told me,” he said. “He used to say that all veterans’ cemeteries are full of honorable and courageous people, not cowards,” Contreras said. “So that’s the reason I always go where I go. That’s what makes me come out here.”

During his previous deployments, Contreras was with infantry units or with a regimental combat team. During this three-month deployment, his last before he retires next year, Contreras travels from one base to another, ensuring Marines are getting the proper nutrition.

“I look at this deployment as a gift, to be able to go to all these bases and see what direction the job is going since I came into it,” Contreras said. “When I go to these bases, I sit down and look at all the orders the Marine who is cooking has. I make sure he’s ordering each thing Marines rate while they’re out here.

“I conduct sanitation classes, preventive maintenance of the equipment that they actually use to cook and inventories of everything they have,” he continued. “So I just go from place to place making sure they have everything they need to be set up for success.”

For Contreras, food service has the ability to change the attitudes at an entire base.

“Food service is the morale booster out at these [forward operating bases], because if you have bad food, people are going to have bad attitudes,” Contreras said. “So having a good cook with a good attitude creates a big difference. One thing that I try to do is boost the morale up when I come out to these places.”

Contreras’ love of cooking doesn’t stop with the Marine Corps. Once retired, he said, he plans on receiving an education in business management and opening a restaurant.

“Three years after my retirement, I plan on opening my own seafood restaurant around the San Diego area,” Contreras said. “Ten or 15 years down the road, I see myself opening up another one or two restaurants. I’d like to have a least two restaurants with the same name and same menu.”

Contreras credits his drive and his love for cooking to family members.

“I got my hard work ethic from my dad, and I got all the discipline from my grandfather,” Contreras said. “I inherited the cooking skills from my mom. Everything just comes natural for me. I know all the armed forces recipe cards off the top of my head. If there’s a product with 50 ingredients in it, I can tell you right away if you’re missing one thing or if anything’s wrong with it.”

“He has a lot of knowledge. He’s a great staff noncommissioned officer, and you’ll really learn a lot from him,” said Marine Corps Sgt. Tony Pressley, also with the food service contact team. “Just being able to work with him has been a great experience. He’s done a lot throughout the years, and he knows what he’s doing. He’s someone who has kind of helped mould me the way I am today, so it’s been a great experience.”

Face of Defense: Marine, Seabee Reunite After Decade

By Marine Corps Cpl. Timothy Lenzo

Regional Command Southwest

FORWARD OPERATING BASE JACKSON, Afghanistan, Oct. 1, 2012 – The sound of power tools and commands come from the battalion aid station here, startling a few Marines walking by. Two corpsmen stand out from the crowd of sailors inside the building as they work on a remodeling project.

More than a decade after their paths first crossed in Operation Iraqi Freedom, the former Marine and Seabee are united as corpsmen with 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment. The two service members started their military careers in different fields. One trained to be a Marine, the other a Navy Seabee, but now they work together here.

“When I joined the Navy, I had a degree in construction, so that’s what the Navy wanted me to do,” said Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class David Cergol. “At the time, the Seabees were undermanned, so it was more important for me to help them.”

Cergol, from Pittsburg, started working construction when he was 14. After 10 years in the civilian world, he decided he wanted a change, but found himself again working construction for the Navy.

“The Seabees are a great group of people, but I ultimately joined because I wanted to be on the front lines and be with the Marines,” he said.

Unlike Cergol, Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Jordan Fitzgerald started his military career with the Marines. He served with 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, and was part of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The corpsmen’s paths first crossed during the initial push into Iraq. Fitzgerald served in the infantry and fought on the front lines. Meanwhile Cergol, working as a builder with the Seabees, followed behind the infantry, helping with security.

“We were both able to talk about the towns we went through, and the forward operating bases being set up,” Cergol said. “He was more the tip of the spear, and I was more behind, doing logistics.”

After their first enlistment, the two service members decided to sever ties with their old units. Fitzgerald, from Yucca Valley, Calif., considered joining the Navy SEALs before deciding on a different future.

“Being a grunt, I had a pretty good idea of what corpsmen did,” he said. “I knew corpsmen went with Marines, and I’m not the guy who likes ship life. Also I enjoy helping people, and knew I’d be helping Marines.”

While Fitzgerald looked at other jobs first, Cergol knew from the start he wanted to be a corpsman. He helped as a Seabee because that’s where the Navy needed him, but he jumped at the chance to start his career in the medical field.

“I enjoy the medical side,” he said. “I wanted to be with the Marines, and I wanted to make more of a difference and ultimately save lives.”

The two use their prior jobs as tools for their current jobs. Cergol became certified to operate the heavy equipment around the forward operating base. He regularly helps by driving forklifts and constructing new fixtures. “I’m able to draw on my experience with the Seabees to strengthen security and improve overall living conditions,” he said. “When I was in Iraq, one of the bases we stayed at had little to no security. We were able to get together and build up the walls and better secure our buildings.”

During that deployment, a suicide bomber attacked the base. “The additional walls definitely paid off,” Cergol said. “The walls ended up protecting us.”

Cergol and Fitzgerald recently took on a construction job inside the battalion aid station here.

“Being a prior Seabee makes him more versatile,” Fitzgerald said of Cergol. “Right now we are remodeling the BAS to better suit our needs, and his experience as a builder definitely helps.”

Cergol said his experience as a Seabee helps him in tangible ways, while Fitzgerald’s experience as a Marine is more abstract. “He’s very disciplined,” he said. “You can tell he used to be a Marine. He still has that rigid discipline about him.”

Fitzgerald’s past also gives him an immediate connection with the Marines he cares for. “I think it gives me instant credibility,” he said. “After all, I’ve done more deployments than the majority of them.”

He also has learned a great deal of leadership from the Marines, he added, and this skill helps him teach the corpsmen under him.

“I think the Marine Corps teaches small-unit leadership better than the other branches,” he said. “The Marine Corps taught me how to manage situations really well.”

Though their focus is the health of the Marines and sailors, service members might see Cergol operating a forklift or Fitzgerald correcting his corpsmen on the proper wear of the uniform. The two moved on from the early part of their military careers, but have found they use their original military skills every day.

Face of Defense: Marine Recalls Camp Bastion Attack

By Marine Corps Sgt. James Mercure

Regional Command Southwest

AFGHANISTAN, Sept. 27, 2012 – “There was blood down my leg after I got shot,” recalled Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Ethan Burk, who was present during the Sept. 14 insurgent night attack on Camp Bastion here in Helmand province.

Burk, a hazardous materials management coordinator with Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 16, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing (Forward), was on his way to work when he heard the first rocket-propelled grenade explode behind him.

Avoiding the giant fireball from the explosion, he had driven straight into an ambush of heavily armed insurgents firing at his four-wheeled tractor, which had no armor to stop the barrage of bullets striking all around him.

“I could see the muzzle flashes from the corner of the compound,” said Burk, a Milford, Texas native. “That’s when I realized they were all aiming at me. I felt something hit my arm, but I thought I had just banged it on something. Then I rolled out of the [tractor] and ducked. When I reached for my rifle they started shooting at me again, and that’s when I realized they had a lot more firepower than I did because they were firing too fast for just regular AK-47s.”

Maneuvering behind a barrier, Burk could only see and judge the insurgents’ movements in the darkness by their muzzle flashes. So he pressed on, trying to use the flight line’s light to see where the insurgents had holed up so he could get the drop on them.

After moving to a covered position, one of his friends and the only other Marine in the area, Lance Cpl. Kevin Sommers, a cryogenics technician, jumped over a barrier and almost landed on top of Burk. The two Marines waited for the insurgents to try and flank them. When they didn’t, the pair climbed over concrete barriers to get better firing points at the enemy.

“Once we realized they weren’t coming after us, we jumped over the T-walls and cleared out the area behind the barriers. At that point the British [quick reaction force] showed up, and the [helicopters] were shooting from their main guns at the insurgents fighting position right overhead,” Burk said. “We flagged the soldiers down with a light and yelled ‘Marines, Marines, Marines’ to let them know the situation. The guy in charge of the British QRF told us to go get my arm checked out because he saw the blood on my uniform.”

After Burk and Sommers checked in for accountability, Burk went to a corpsman and found out he had been shot in the elbow by one of the insurgent’s machine gun rounds.

“After I had it X-rayed, they found two pieces of the bullet still lodged in my arm and they had to surgically remove it,” Burk explained. “After the whole ordeal, they asked if I wanted to go home because I was injured, and I told them I just got here, why would I want to go home?”

Face of Defense: Soldier Overcomes Injuries to Continue Serving

By Army Spc. Alisha Gredzlik

115th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment

LOGAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan, Sept. 24, 2012 – For Army Sgt. Matthew Maddox, 9/11 brings memories of his fifth-grade music class, where he first heard the news that would begin his path toward the Army.

Eleven years after those attacks, Maddox is serving his second tour in Afghanistan. But his journey has not been easy.

Maddox joined the Army when he was 17, and left for training just a month after graduating from high school.

“I had my mind made up,” he said. “This was what I had wanted to do since the fifth grade -- since 9/11.”

After basic training, Maddox was assigned to Vicenza, Italy, at the headquarters of the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team. In late 2009, he deployed to Afghanistan. After six months, he headed home to California on mid-tour leave, never suspecting that he would not return to finish his tour. On May 26, 2010, at his home in Wallace, Calif., Maddox was run over by a grading tractor.

“I broke my left tibia, left femur, pelvis, tailbone, right orbital eye socket and suffered nerve damage to my right leg,” Maddox said. “I couldn’t walk for three months.”

He spent the next 18 months recuperating in California on “hospital status,” still in the Army, but at home working on a full recovery. Yet it was nowhere near the end of his military career.

On Jan. 3, 2011, Maddox reported back to Italy for a medical evaluation board. Instead of leaving the Army, he fought to extend his service and deploy again with the unit. After 18 months of rehabilitation and fighting for a spot in the fires platoon, Maddox finds himself on his second deployment to Afghanistan with the 173rd to settle what he calls unfinished business.

“I wanted to come back and finish a whole deployment. That was my personal goal. I wanted to finish what I started,” he said.

Now serving as a fire support specialist in Afghanistan, Maddox tracks the status of the 173rd’s artillery and mortar systems and their fire missions across two provinces. As a newly promoted sergeant with four soldiers working for him, he has to ensure their success as well as his own.

His enlistment will come to a close at the end of this deployment, but Maddox said he still sees a future with the military and plans to retire with the Army.

“When I get home I am joining the California National Guard, and I am going to apply for the California Highway Patrol to follow in my father’s footsteps,” he said.

Having rebuilt himself from the ground up, Maddox retains a positive attitude that he passes along to other soldiers.

“If you take pride in what you do and feel like there is more for you to accomplish, then it is worth it,” he said. “It is an experience everyone should endure. I have no regrets.”