Green says farewell to NAS Jax after rewarding tour

"This is really a hard place to let go of. It's been a wonderful tour and one of the best jobs in the Navy. The people here are outstanding, the mission gives everyone a sense of pride and fulfillment and the base is really starting to expand. It's a really exciting time in the base's history. I'm going to miss the chief's mess and the professionalism of everyone here," said Green, sadly.

"But it's time for me to go and I'm excited about my upcoming IA tour. I volunteered for it and look forward to heading to Afghanistan and working with the all the other services."

As the senior enlisted Navy member there, Green will be responsible for the well-being of about 1,000 Sailors and will ensure Navy policies are enforced in a non-Navy environment. "I'm looking forward to the challenge," Green said. "After this tour, I'm not sure what will happen, I'll just have to wait and see."

Green came to NAS Jacksonville in February 2005 after a tour as command master chief on board USS Philippine Sea (CG 58) at NS Mayport. "I wanted to stay on sea duty but there weren't any jobs available so the detailer told me he was going to put me in for NAS Jax job. I didn't even know it was available or that I was qualified for it. After an interview with the former commanding officer, Capt. Chip Dobson, I received a call and told I was selected for the job. It was pretty overwhelming especially when I saw how big this base is," explained Green.

During his tour here, Green says some of his biggest challenges were to figure out how to interact with all the tenant commands here. "I needed to determine where my swim lane was so to speak. I had to learn what I was responsible for and not responsible for and what I could influence. By working directly with the skipper and executive officer in formulating policies, it can be challenging because if you don't socialize those policies correctly and put them in front of the tenant commands in the right light, it can have a lot of repercussions. I had to understand where the boundaries were and balance that between the tenant commands and our NAS Jax team," he stated.

"You have to figure out how to keep everyone moving forward, even with the unpopular decisions. Fortunately, it has gone extremely well because we have such a great team, both within the command and all the tenants here and everyone has the base's best interests at heart," continued Green.

"The military/civilian team here works great together. It truly is one team, one fight. All you have to do is sit at a department head meeting to see that. The corporate knowledge of the civilian employees here is incredible," he added.

"Military members come and go on our normal rotations, but the civilians have been working in and running their respective areas for a long time. They do a phenomenal job and have nothing but success for the command at the forefront of their thoughts. Everyone works together for the betterment