Our weekly series, Remembering our Veterans continues with the story of Presque Isle State Park  Operations Manager Matt Greene.

He served in the United States Air Force from 1993-97, adding to his family's military legacy. His grand parents served in the military including one grand father, who joined the merchant marines at the age of 15.

"seeing what they had done for their country and knowing that they had their families to support," said Greene. "That really lined up with me and made me think that was something that needed to happen too."

After basic training in San Antonio, Texas, then after a brief stay in Fort Dix New Jersey he got a big surprise for his next assignment.

"I said I would go back to Patterson, Ohio and they said 'nope, you're going to Japan,'" said Greene. "So, I went to the Air base in Japan, spent two years there, deployed to Saudi Arabia, I went to Korea a couple times , and then finishing up my time in Korea as a Air Base Ground Defense Instructor."  

He's a big backer of local veterans and can't get enough military information, past-or present.

"We had a guy come in here a couple years ago when we had event at TREC the one time, and he was in the Coast Guard, and I got to talking to him and he was in the Coast Guard in World War 2, " said Greene. "And he talked about how they were one of the few Coast Guard ships patrolling in Normandy during D-Day, and the thousands of men they picked up." 

When Greene served as an Air Base Ground instructor in Korea one individual, a Master Sergeant made a monumental impact on Greene.

"He was kind of one of the people during my military career that really gave me the frame work for how to be a good person, how to be a good man growing up," said Greene. "The difference between right and wrong and how to keep everyone on that path. If you screwed up you got smacked in the back of the neck." 

To Matt Greene and his family, thank you for your service.