nita demato, serving as a major, she actually has a dual career. as a reservist she's also a professional educator and she's currently serving as a congressional fellow in the office of bob casy of pennsylvania focusing on the appropriations in budget for veterans and rebalancing services for future engagements but really what we're going to hear from her is an amazing story about the marine corps's activities in afghanistan and creating and promoting safe school environments for young girls and women. colonel barry newman is someone i met back in 2003. i at the time was chief officer for the city and county of san francisco serving in the administration of then-mayor willy brown. and general myat and i were talking about putting together a table top exercise and in came from some exercises from the marine corps and barry newman was a very energetic officer in the marine corps. he has gone over to afghanistan, i went over and saw him there, he was attached to the kabul police chief. i think he's going to have some interesting perspectives about wor

next up will be nita demato, she has a fascinating story. >> before i begin, i'm very happy i don't have to talk to you about my current position, which is with the 112th congress of the united states. i'm very pleased to talk to you about my year in afghanistan. i'd like to thank the san francisco fleet week association, lewis loeven, specifically, major general myat, always a mentor, former secretary of state schultz and mrs. schultz, mrs. perry, honored to be in your presence. the uss makin island, chief of the fairest city in the world, san francisco, and he esteemed professionals. this is nice, i'm going to move south of here and take you to afghanistan. as you know we have marines, soldiers, sailors in afghanistan currently, but i'm going to bring you to when i was there during 2010 and 2011 after the president decided to surge the forces. first marine decision, first marine expeditionary force forward entered southwest afghanistan during 2009. we arrived in 2010 so it was a bit more stable. and we went straight to helman and nimruz province. very complex dynamic environment that w