YOUNGSTOWN AIR RESERVE STATION, Ohio —
David Greenwood was born at Clark Air Pressure Base within the Philippines, previously a U.S. Air Pressure set up. Whereas pregnant with him, his mom met a U.S. Air Pressure member whom she would later marry. Greenwood would develop to name that man his dad, and their relationship would ultimately contribute to his determination to enlist within the U.S. Air Pressure.
Greenwood was raised in Santo Nino village, a really impoverished space close to Angeles Metropolis, Philippines. He has some scattered recollections of his time within the Philippines, a few of which mix with photographs he’s seen and tales his household has shared. He remembers the huts that many individuals lived in, chasing chickens to corral them again into their household rooster coop, the style of Filipino meals and asking folks across the village for sweet along with his older sister. One in all his earliest main experiences occurred within the wake of the Mount Pinatubo volcano eruption. They heard a big explosion and needed to evacuate their city. Greenwood’s mom carried him and led his sister on a miles-long trek to a close-by metropolis for security.
After his mother and father married, the household relocated to Cocoa Seaside, Florida, in 1993, the primary of many locations within the U.S. the place he’d stay.
He’d see his dad in his Air Pressure uniform, and though his dad didn’t push him towards the army, he impressed him to pursue his personal army profession. Greenwood wasn’t positive what he wished to do after highschool, however after a 12 months, he determined to enlist.
Now, Workers Sgt. David Greenwood is a member of the 926th Safety Pressure Squadron at Nellis Air Pressure Base, Nevada, however is briefly assigned to the 910th Safety Forces Squadron at Youngstown Air Reserve Station, Ohio, as a member of the cadre workforce that facilitates the Built-in Protection Management Course.
IDLC is a two-week course designed to supply Reserve Defenders with intensely targeted hands-on coaching to attain and preserve fight readiness. The course started in Spring, 2021.
Greenwood’s residence unit took the course in February 2022 throughout a very brutal portion of the northeast Ohio winter.
Throughout that two weeks, Greenwood and his fellow Defenders realized fundamentals and superior ways of the safety forces profession area. They obtained hands-on expertise with fight casualty care, lead tactical squad actions, land navigation, close-quarters battle drills, space safety operations, static protection and extra.
The climate throughout their course noticed college students digging defensive fortified positions in sub-zero wind chills, enduring downpours of rain on high of twelve inches of slowly melting snow whereas navigating the woodlands at Camp James A. Garfield Joint Navy Coaching Middle and planning and executing an assault on an enemy place in intermittently heavy snowfall.
“It was a unique expertise, the entire snow facet. In fact, I’m from Vegas so we don’t actually anticipate an excessive amount of snow,” stated Greenwood. “I type of took cost as a pupil, so I led my workforce and wished to turn out to be a pacesetter. It’s IDLC, they’re attempting to advertise leaders. It actually introduced out the management in me, doing all these items that we didn’t actually do in tech college. Even on my active-duty aspect, we didn’t actually contact on land navigation or an excessive amount of CQB.”
All through that difficult course, IDLC cadre took discover of Greenwood’s efforts. Because the course concluded, management requested him to contemplate coming again to carry out a stint as a cadre member, educating new college students from throughout the command the identical expertise he’d developed and honed in the course of the course, whereas providing the advantage of his distinctive expertise and background.
IDLC is open to all AFRC safety forces squadrons and attracts a various pool of scholars. Variety among the many cadre affords the scholars numerous expertise and views, enhancing their coaching expertise.
“The workforce right here, they’re all from completely different elements of the nation, and even the world,” stated Greenwood.
He says it’s nice to see how the workforce comes collectively and makes use of their particular person life experiences to kind a powerful collective expertise for his or her college students. Completely different cultures usually have completely different approaches to educating and studying, and since the coed pool is numerous, range among the many cadre helps guarantee every pupil can get the utmost outcomes from IDLC. As the one Asian-American on the cadre proper now, Greenwood sees his function as useful, particularly when Asian-American college students take part.
“You train all these new Airmen, employees sergeants or non-commissioned officers. You train them a variety of issues, after which really seeing them do it within the area, it’s superior.”
Including to their capabilities, most of the IDLC instructors have legislation enforcement careers outdoors of the Air Pressure as properly. Greenwood is a legislation enforcement officer with the Legislation Vegas Metropolitan Police Division the place he has served for 2 and a half years. He says his roles as an Air Pressure Reserve safety forces Airman and a Las Vegas police officer are completely different in some main methods, however coaching overlaps assist improve his skillsets in each careers.
Greenwood remains to be in contact with lots of his members of the family within the Philippines. He hasn’t been again to go to since his household moved to Florida, however hopes to journey there quickly, hopefully after his stint with IDLC, which is scheduled to wrap up in September of this 12 months. Within the meantime, he hopes to deliver a little bit of his birthplace to northeast Ohio by cooking a Filipino meal for his Wingmen on the IDLC cadre workforce.
The cadre hail from a number of Air Pressure Reserve models and serve within the teacher capability for various lengths of time. Whereas collectively, they’re united within the singular focus of guaranteeing that Reserve Defenders are combat-ready with a well-honed ability set. The course is intense, demanding a heavy dedication from its instructors, however pupil suggestions has been optimistic. The consensus of the cadre is that instructing IDLC is a really optimistic expertise, and maybe a shared meal of Greenwood’s Filipino delicacies will make that consensus even stronger.
