Bob Dolci's Comments at Officer Johnny Green's Memorial Services

3/21/07

Good morning, I'm Bob Dolci, the Chief of Protective Services, and more
importantly, a friend of Johnny's. Today, we have reason to be sad. Most
of us realize that Johnny wouldn't want us to be sad, so I\'m going to
try to share my thoughts with you without causing any of you to shed a
single tear. If you do shed a tear, then I will have failed Johnny and I
don\'t want to do that. Johnny would want me to make you smile, so I am
going to do my best to do just that.

Johnny and I joined Protective Services about the same time, about five
years ago. I think he was hired on in February of 2002, and I became
Chief a month or so later. The first time I recall meeting Johnny, he
was on post---I'm guessing that it was several months after I came on
board. Johnny must have been on grave or swing shift before that. Or,
maybe he had been off to NFLETA training. Anyway, I remember that it was
at the Ellis gate that I first interacted with the exuberant Security
Officer. It was probably 7:30-ish in the morning, and the cars were
backed up five or six deep. I noticed that he stopped each vehicle and
briefly chatted with the driver. Then he gave an odd-looking arm pump,
leg kick motion. Whoa, that was weird. You know what I'm talking about.

I must admit, I was a wee bit irritated that I wasn't going to get
through the gate at 7:30. Way back then, I made it a point to be at the
gate by 7:30, as I felt that as long as I was at the gate I was at work,
on duty. Several months later I realized that I was on duty 24/7 and it
didn't really matter if I was on post at 7:30. I only realized that
after I started getting calls in the middle of the night from our folks
in uniform. No, Johnny never called me in the middle of the night. But,
I wouldn't be surprised if I got a call from him tonight if I caused any
of you to shed one additional tear.

Anyway, I decided that when I got up to the gate I would let the
Security Officer know that I felt that his antics were a bit over the
top and that he shouldn't hold up traffic. When it was my turn I showed
him my badge and I was about to tell him that he needed to tone down his
routine when he smiled. He smiled and said, good to see you Mr. Dolci.
He knew me. He actually knew me. That was the first time a Security
Officer called me by name. I know what you're thinking. You're thinking
that he read my name off my badge---but he didn't look at my badge.
Besides, it wouldn't have mattered, because Johnny wasn't wearing his
glasses, and without them he couldn't read the name on my badge. How he
learned all of our names is a mystery to me. I bet he knew each and
every one of us.

After he shocked me by saying my name, I decided that it would be best
if I waited for a more opportune time to tell Johnny to modify his act.

I told myself that the next time I saw him I would ask him to cut back a
little on his antics. Weeks went by, then months. Occasionally, I found
myself going out of my way to go through the gate that he was staffing.
Of course it was with the intent of telling him that he needed to tone
things down. I could have done the cowardly thing and have someone do it
for me--- like Captain Pope---but that just wouldn't have been right and
I decided against it. The truth was that I enjoyed seeing Johnny and I
really began to appreciate his routine.

Every now and then, I would get an email or a phone call complaining
that Johnny was holding up traffic. I pretty much ignored the calls
other than to come up with some bogus line about a study we conducted.
If I used this line on any one of you that are out in the audience
today, please forgive me for lying to you. We never conducted a study.
The bogus story I came up with went something like this, "we conducted a
study that showed that Johnny on average added less than two minutes to
the time it took them to reach their destination." Their response would
be something like, oh, only two minutes, I guess that\'s okay.

Way back during the early years for Johnny and I in Protective Services,
my son Todd worked here. He and a co-worker, Ron Thompson, would make a
point of visiting with Johnny on post one or more times a day. At first
I thought they did it to mooch lemonade. I was surprised to hear that my
son, rather than thinking Johnny was corny, actually thought that Johnny
was great. He didn't use the word great. He probably said sick. Younger
folks know that sick means outrageous and outrageous is good. So, Johnny
was one sick and outrageous man.

As Chief of Protective Services, I decided to use my detective skills to
ascertain what the general consensus was on Johnny's chatting and arm
pumping. No need to tell you what we all know. Johnny was our goodwill
ambassador. He put Protective Services in a very positive light. Nearly
everybody that I spoke with loved him. Who do you think of when you
think of Protective Services? Johnny Green! Not Bob Dolci, not Kenny
Silverman---Johnny. It was always Johnny! Well, okay. That isn't totally
true. One other name was mentioned on occasion, and that was Officer
Juan Cortez. That's because he's probably given just about every one of
us a ticket at one time or another.

The most amazing thing about Johnny was his smile. His smile was
contagious. Just seeing Johnny's smile would put me in a better mood.
Johnny always had a big smile and a witty statement that he would make
when I drove up to his post. He would say something like, "Good to see
you Mr. Dolci! Now that the two of us are on the job, the Center is in
good hands." I would respond with something like, "between the two of us
we can handle just about any problem that comes along." Funny thing is,
I actually believed him. Now I know that Johnny probably used the same
line on others. It doesn\'t matter. I'm sure that he used it with the
Center Director. Probably the Deputy Director also. Heck, I wouldn't be
surprised if he used on President Bush. As you all know, President Bush
flies into Ames frequently. I can picture Johnny doing just that.

Lots of people can make others laugh. Johnny had the rare ability to
make people smile just by virtue of being present.

I'm willing to bet that every one of you has been touched at one time or
another by his smile.

This is true---I had a dream about Johnny the night before last. Johnny
was standing guard duty at the pearly white gates of heaven, and there
was a line of folks waiting to get in. God strolled up; I guess he had
head of line privileges, God showed Johnny his badge (HSPD-12 was
already in effect in heaven). If you don't know what that means, you
will know soon enough. At that point I was thinking that Johnny was in
trouble. I was sure that God was going to give him a hard time for
causing the line for getting into heaven to back up. To my surprise,
Johnny smiled and said, \"Lord it's good to see you, now that both of us
are on the job....\" Well, you get my point.

Johnny, a man with a magic smile. Thanks.