MST1 Hubert Wells

Marine Science Technician 1st Class Hubert L. Wells IV, a level 2 tactical coxswain, is a qualified boarding officer and scuba diver. His boat crew played an integral role in the safe recovery of two plane crash victims in San Francisco Bay.

He helped inspect hulls of five cutters, saving the Coast Guard $11,000 in inspection fees and eliminating the need to put them in dry dock.

He has assisted underwater security sweeps for visits by dignitaries and also aided local law enforcement in recovering underwater evidence in a high-profile homicide case.

Wells placed third overall in the Coast Guard Triathlon. He raised $1,475 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society through its Team in Training program and recruited several shipmates to participate.

He also spent 50 hours refurbishing gardens and exhibits at the San Francisco Zoo, raising money for Jerry's Kids, and sorting and serving donated food.

He transferred June 4 to Coast Guard Sector Miami.

EM2 Charles Newton

He and wife Irisha have a 5-year-old son, Charles Javion, and newborn daughter, Cassidy

CLEVELAND — For Charles Newton, the Coast Guard recruitment commercial came at just the right time one night in June 2005. His tricked-out 2000 Dodge Intrepid with fancy rims and tinted windows had been stolen that day, and he was fed up with living with crime in Cleveland.

"I have to get out of here," Newton recalled thinking.

Newton called the Coast Guard recruiter the next day and went to boot camp in Cape May, N.J., two weeks later.

In just four years, Newton became a star aboard the crew of the icebreaking tug Neah Bay. For his dedication on board, and for leading efforts to volunteer for Greater Cleveland Habitat for Humanity and scheduling blood drives, he is the 2009 Navy Times Coast Guardsman of the Year.

Newton, 24, emerged from a rough childhood. Newton and his mother lived in fear of his disturbed older brother, who eventually was stabbed to death inside the house when he attacked another of Newton's siblings in 1993.

His brother's name is tattooed within a cross on his right arm.

"His thoughts weren't right, but in the long run, he's still my brother," he said.

Newton hung out with the wrong crowd in high school and barely graduated. But his life veered from its destructive path when he fathered a son at the age of 19.

"I started looking at the way I was going," Newton said. "Once I made that commitment [to change], I was determined."

Two-and-a-half years before joining the Coast Guard, he got a job teaching life skills to mentally challenged adults. He studied to be a nurse at Cuyahoga Community College, then changed his major to education.

"I liked helping people, but I wanted to help them at a younger age," Newton said.

Newton found himself switching paths again when his car got stolen.

After boot camp in September 2005, Newton went straight to electrician's mate "A" school.

Once on board Neah Bay, Newton took on as many collateral duties as he could. He took charge of the ship's inventory control program and reduced it by nearly a third, according to Lt. Jeff Barnum, the former executive officer of Neah Bay. Newton freed up storage space and was able to return $9,700 in unused spare parts.

Because of Newton's drive to learn more, he was able to stand in while a chief was on leave in January 2008.

"He really accelerated his development," said Lt. William Woityra, Neah Bay's commanding officer.

Newton's drive helped Neah Bay recover from a crippling steering casualty. Newton served as an adviser during the $750,000 main propulsion controller upgrade and worked six days a week for nearly two months to get the system ready.

In December, Newton canceled surgery for a deviated septum to finish his qualification to become engineering officer of the watch so he could substitute for an injured shipmate.

And when Newton learned last fall that his mentor, former Chief Electrician's Mate James Lampert, had leukemia, Newton organized a blood drive, Woityra said.

Newton also jump-started a volunteer project with Habitat for Humanity and got crew members to donate 325 hours last year. And he made time to mentor students at his former junior high school, Cleveland's Garrett Morgan School of Science.

On June 15, Newton transferred to Coast Guard Sector Boston, where he will provide electrical engineering support. Neah Bay had to farm out his many collateral duties to several people, Woityra said.

Before he left Cleveland, Newton contacted the Red Cross chapter in Boston to volunteer for disaster relief. He also said he hopes to finish college and eventually go to Officer Candidate School. Just as Newton's right arm bears reminders of his painful past, his left arm reflects a happier present: The names of his wife, Irisha, and 5-year-old, Charles Javion, are inked below the words, "Heaven Sent." The name of his daughter, Cassidy, will join them soon.

He wears his Coast Guard ring on his right hand with pride.

"I don't think there's any better job," Newton said.

AMT2 Jacob Marks

Aviation Maintenance Technician 2nd Class Jake Marks performed a tricky helicopter hoist, rescuing a hiker with a broken ankle near the Punta Gorda Lighthouse in a remote area of the California coast.

Marks has been a flight mechanic instructor, quality assurance inspector, duty shift supervisor and airman coordinator — all positions normally held by more senior petty officers, said his supervisor, Capt. Christopher Martino. Marks' expertise fixing helicopters has saved the Coast Guard thousands of dollars by allowing the helicopters to be fixed on station.

Marks helped with the air station's new airmen program, managing new airmen from the time they reported to Humboldt Bay to the time they departed for formal training in Elizabeth City, N.C.

Marks raised $21,500 for the unit's morale fund by coordinating the annual Halloween haunted house. He also organized and spoke at a Veterans Day luncheon and arranged an event for residents of a local homeless shelter.

Marks transferred in June to Air Station Port Angeles.

Tech Sgt. Lee Brewer

Originally from Greenwood Springs, Miss.

Every day, Tech. Sgt. Lee A. Brewer teaches medical personnel how to treat service members injured in war. Fellow instructor Master Sgt. Orville Goff said Brewer lives by "Nobody left behind" in his classroom.

"I have seen Tech. Sgt. Brewer on numerous occasions work with individuals who just could not understand the course," Goff said in nominating Brewer for Air Force Times' Service Member of the Year. "He was patient and understanding and refused to give up on the individual."

Brewer put his own teaching to practice while deployed to Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. He saved an injured soldier's life by inserting a chest tube to re-inflate his lung. He also performed an emergency intubation on an Afghan soldier suffering from traumatic injury from a bomb blast and gunshots.

Brewer's former supervisor, retired Master Sgt. John G. Melnick, said Brewer's experience as a former Army combat medic made him a great asset to the Air Force. He says many lives have been saved because of Brewer's "dedication to duty, service before self, attitude and outstanding medical skills."

Capt James Parris

Parris has participated in Habitat for Humanity and volunteered as a YMCA soccer coach.

Parris volunteered to serve a tour of duty in Gardez, Af­ghan­istan, in 2008. His flight commander, Lt. Col. Mark A. Antonacci, said Parris' performance throughout the mission was "incredible."

"Many of these significant tasks did not fall within the typical job description for an Emergency Medicine Physician Assistant," Antonacci said in nominating Parris for Air Force Times' Airman of the Year. "Capt. Parris has had a huge impact on his deployed unit and the host nation."

Parris is about to return from deployment to Afghanistan with the Provincial Reconstruction Team. In addition to providing medical care for service members and local civilians, he arranged staff and medical supplies for clinics, and contributed suggestions for the construction of $7.5 million hospital and a $4 million midwife training facility. He also participated in "Strong Foods," a program designed to improve nutrition in Afghan children.

A jack of all trades, Parris also is an Advanced Cardiac Life Support Instructor, a Counter-Insurgency Effects Group member and a Battalion Aid Station Medical Liaison.
At home, Parris is involved in community service at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.

SSgt Mercedes Crossland

Originally from New York City, she grew up in a tight-knit family with her Cuban mother, African American father and three sisters.

As a photographer, Staff Sgt. MercedesKimble Crossland is used to seeing life through a lens.

Still, a voluntary deployment to Iraq in 2007 gave the 38-year-old New York native a perspective like none she had ever had.

Crossland spent a year as a member of a weapons intelligence team, taking pictures of unexploded roadside bombs, or improvised explosive devices.

Her images, taken on 120 missions, were used to create a database of IEDs and led to the prosecution of nine suspected terrorists.

"I can honestly tell you I was scared for my life every day," said Crossland, who now works in public affairs at Aviano Air Base, Italy. But "I enjoyed what I did for our country."

For her embodiment of the Air Force, both on the job and off duty, Crossland is Air Force Times' 2009 Airman of the Year.

It's her regard for others that earns Crossland the respect of her peers, said Senior Airman Jennifer Flores, who nominated her former mentor for the honor.

"She's caring," Flores said. "She always wants to know about your well-being. … She says, 'Don't worry about me, but how are you doing?'"

Crossland showed her selflessness during her time at Altus Air Force Base, Okla., according to those with whom she worked.

Her supervisor at Altus, Honor Schulte-Usui, remembered the time Crossland came to the rescue of a new airman on base who was getting married. The young woman didn't have any friends or family nearby to give her a wedding so she and her fiancé re­signed themselves to a ceremony at the courthouse.

Crossland decided hastily exchanged "I do's" just wouldn't do and pulled together a celebration for the couple to remember. She took the bride-to-be to J.C. Penney's to buy a bridal gown, hit up the Super Wal-Mart for hors d'oeuvres and champagne, recruited Schulte-Usui to bake the wedding cake and offered her own home for the occasion.

"I am a romantic at heart," Crossland said. "I did it because I wanted her to have something she could remember for the rest of her life."

To Schulte-Usui and others who know Crossland, the wedding was another example of her ability to lead.

"She can inspire people to do whatever needs to be done," Schulte-Usui said. "She is an inspirational person in that if she's willing to do it and smile the whole time, it pulls you in … so that you're willing to give whatever you can give."

Crossland's mentoring of a young woman who was having trouble adjusting to life in the Air Force is particularly revealing of her character, Schulte-Usui said.

After months of poor performance, the airman faced being kicked out of the Air Force.

Crossland "said, 'No, let me work with her,'" Schulte-Usui recalled. "She took the girl under her wing." She accompanied the airman to counseling, found additional support and even brought the airman to her home and talked through the night with her.

The airman slowly showed progress; she was later named her squadron's airman of the quarter.

Crossland takes an interest in the lives of her airmen — especially young women — because she wants them to reap the benefits of military service that she has.

"What I wanted for them was to give them everything that I had gotten from the Air Force and let them go with it," she said.

Crossland didn't join the Air Force until she was 27. After high school, Crossland decided she wasn't ready for college. She had jobs as a receptionist and in day care before pulling the graveyard shift as a toll booth collector.

During the day, she went to college, earning her bachelor's degree in computer science in 4½ years. She decided to enlist to get help paying for her master's degree, and now has four credits to go.

The commitment to her own education. The concern for her fellow airmen. The dangerous, outside-the-wire duty in Iraq. They all exemplify the kind of airman and person Crossland is.

"I don't know a lot of people who would volunteer for a [yearlong tour] away from family, away from friends," Flores said. "Doing that says it all."

HM2 James Bowes

While deployed to Iraq, Bowes worked with his home church in Memphis to collect winter coats for more than 100 children in Habbaniyah.

At home, Bowes has donated more than 600 hours of his time to the Naval Sea Cadets Corps leadership program, said Cmdr. R.L. Kay, officer in charge of the Naval Branch Health Clinic. Bowes ran a uniform drive that saved the group $1,000.

And when this fifth-generation sailor broke his neck while body-surfing during a vacation in Hawaii, he took only a month off and returned to work with a neck brace so he could be a “good example” for the kids he mentored. He also passed the physical readiness test just five months after he was injured.

At work, Bowes’ efforts as leading petty officer of the preventive medicine department directly resulted in zero discrepancies during the command’s last inspector general inspection, according to Kay.

Also, Bowes’ department was recognized for its environmental program.

CECS (SCW/FMF) Lauro Garza, Sr.

He and wife Roxanne Starr have two grown children

FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas — Most of the time, Senior Chief Construction Electrician (SCW/FMF) Lauro A. Garza doesn’t know the veteran being laid to rest at the national cemetery here.

But that doesn’t matter, because when Garza puts his Box Stradivarius trumpet to his lips, the haunting notes of “Taps” fill the air in a final tribute, a tribute he believes is the least he can do for a comrade.

“In Spanish, they call it ‘alma,’ from the soul or the heart,” he said. “The bugler on the recording might be very good, but mine has feeling. This is one of the things I can do to give back to the service members.”

Garza, a 45-year-old Reserve Seabee and the 2009 Navy Times Sailor of the Year, volunteers regularly at the cemetery, often playing “Taps” at back-to-back services using the trumpet he has owned since high school. The Iraq veteran — now preparing to deploy again, this time to the Pacific — also is called upon whenever a sailor or Marine is scheduled to be buried at the cemetery. He has played “Taps” at more than 800 funerals, including more than 150 in the past year.

In addition, he coordinates requests for blank ammunition used during the funerals, and visits wounded sailors at nearby Brooke Army Medical Center, volunteering to bring them groceries or completing electrical work at their homes.

When he’s not in uniform, Garza is the federal regulatory compliance officer for CPS Energy in San Antonio, where he lives. Seven years ago, when Garza was the company’s human resources manager, he proposed a new benefits policy for deployed reserv­ists. The company adopted the policy, and employees now receive 30 days of full pay and six months of differential pay while they are deployed.

However, Garza, who is married to Roxanne Starr and has two grown children, downplays his contributions.

“When you’re a chief, you don’t tell people what you do, you just do it,” he said. “In a few years, this will be over, and it’ll be history. I never want to regret anything. This is not what I do. It’s who I am.”

Garza is the consummate Seabee, Command Master Chief (SCW/SS) Larry Heikkila wrote in his statement nominating Garza for Sailor of the Year.

“He is gregarious, intelligent, has a heart for others and is willing to take the hardest job to see if he can accomplish the mission,” Heikkila wrote, noting his volunteerism and extensive work organizing the area’s annual Seabee Ball. “He is almost tireless, but always has time to sit down to mentor a sailor.”

A personal beginning

Garza, assigned to 9th Naval Construction Regiment in Fort Worth, Texas, started playing the trumpet in the Boy Scouts when he was 11 and began bugling in 1992 when he joined the Navy.

The first funeral he played was for his paternal grandfather, an Army Air Corps veteran who died when Garza was 16.

“It’s a privilege … to do this,” Garza said. “I always pray before I play.”

In March 2003, Garza was mobilized for duty in Iraq. At the last minute, his unit did not deploy but spent four months at Port Hueneme and Fort Hunter-Liggett, both in California.

When he returned to San Antonio, Garza learned that a fellow senior chief and Seabee, Bob Westover, had been wounded and was recuperating at Brooke.

“So, I went and knocked on his door,” Garza said.“It’s our town. We try to make people at least feel like we’ve got them covered.”

One of the things Garza did was make sure Westover had a steady supply of milk to help him regain the weight he had lost.

“I’m the guy who can get him milk and stuff,” Garza said about Westover. “He’s the real hero.”

Garza, along with six other Navy chiefs who live in the area, continues to visit wounded troops at Brooke. The chiefs, known as the Alamo Chiefs, bring donations to the Fisher House and help wounded service members who need electrical or other types of work done at their homes.

In June 2005, Garza was mobilized again. This time, his unit deployed, and he served in Iraq’s Anbar province from September 2005 to March 2006.

“We’ve been tested now, under fire,” he said.

This summer, Garza and his fellow sailors will deploy to the Pacific, he said, adding that some day he would like to play “Taps” for a service member being interred at Arlington National Cemetery.

When he retires in a few years, Garza said he hopes to start a chiefs’ club to serve area veterans with everything from finding a job to doing work on their houses.

He just needs to finalize the business plan and secure funding, Garza said.

“It’s all about those people who are [buried at the cemetery] and those who will come after us,” he said. “It’s all about service. There’s no higher calling than to serve your country."

HM1 Winette Cox

Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Winette A. Cox trained 792 volunteers to be sailors as a recruit division commander. Of that number, 63 were meritoriously ad­vanced partly because of her leadership skills, said Capt. John W. Peterson, commanding officer of Navy Recruit Training Command.

Chief Aviation Electronics Technician (AW) Jovan Gates, one of Cox’s colleagues, recalled getting frustrated with a recruit who was having a hard time folding uniforms. Cox calmly pulled the recruit aside and had him try to pick up coins. After watching him struggle, Cox referred him to medical, where he was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy. “She is intuitive, sharp and compassionate,” Gates said.

Cox played a key role in the recruit convalescent program, which had a 95 percent graduation rate. Cox also helped raise more than $300 for nearby Green Bay Elementary School, while spearheading several projects at Saint James High School in Highwood, Ill. She also frequently served as a judge during local junior ROTC drill competitions.

GySgt James Baskin

Originally from Alexandria, Va., Baskin and his wife, Irene, live in West Covina, Calif. Baskin has three children of his own: Devontae, 19; Alexis, 10; and Brianna, 4. His wife has a 4-year-old son, Alexander.

Tough economic times made it difficult for many to donate to the 2008 Toys for Tots campaign, but thanks to Gunnery Sgt. James Baskin, Los Angeles area children never knew the difference.

Baskin developed and implemented a plan that enabled his unit to collect “more toys than originally thought possible,” earning him the nickname “Gunny Clause,” wrote his supervisor, 1st Sgt. Jorge O. Chavarin. Because of his efforts, Baskin also was recognized by the County and City of Los Angeles, as well as numerous community organizations.

As the company motor transportation chief, Baskin ensures that approximately 100 tactical vehicles consistently maintain above a 96 percent combat readiness rate. He also serves as the Combat Fitness Test Instructor and made sure the regiment’s inspector/instructor Marines — dispersed over six sites and three states — were qualified and in compliance before the deadline.

Baskin also serves as the assistant family readiness officer and battalion safety manager. “[Gunnery Sgt.] Baskin continues to uphold the three pillars that provide the foundation for Marine ethos: honor, courage and commitment. In fact, in my 21 years of faithful service, I have never met a gunnery sergeant of his caliber,” Chavarin wrote.