Bountiful Marine returns home for Christmas

Photo courtesy of Cyndi Winfield

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Msgr. Rudolph Daz (left) gives a final blessing to Daniel and Cheryl Winfield (center) as Ashley Winfield, 2, looks on. Gary and Sandy Stark stand in for Andrew and his wife as godparents. The Marines are relocating Andrew to Florida. Brandon Winfield, 5 months, is introduced as a new member of the Catholic Church.

BOUNTIFUL - Sergeant Daniel Winfield and his family came home for the holidays. Daniel has been in the United States Marine Corps for the past six years. The Winfields also came home to have their son, Brandon, 5 months old, baptized.

"We wanted him to be baptized by Msgr. Rudolph Daz, pastor of Saint Olaf Parish. We have been parishioners there for the past 18 years, and this is home for us. It meant a lot to us to have friends and family attend the baptism," said Daniel.

Daniel enlisted in the Marines Nov. 17, 2003. He went to boot camp in San Diego, then graduated from the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, Calif., where he learned Korean. He is a Korean linguist, and works as an intelligence analyst.

Daniel and Cheryl were married as soon as Daniel got out of boot camp, and have been married six years. They met through a friend while Daniel was in the three-month Delayed Entry program one goes through when entering the Marines through a recruiter. In the Delayed Entry program a Marine is prepared mentally and physically for boot camp.

Daniel is currently stationed at Fort Meade, Md., where he has been for the past year.

Daniel has served two tours in Iraq. "It was really hard having to be away from my family when I went to Iraq, especially the first time. I was gone from February to September in 2007. I came home for five months and was sent back on my second tour from February to September in 2008," said Daniel.

"The only thing that helped was working 12 to 16 hours a day while I was gone. At the end of the day I would call my family and make sure everything was fine at home," he said. "We would talk about an hour, and just hearing my wife's voice was always comforting. My daughter, Ashley, 2, was born one week after I was deployed to Iraq the first time. But the second time, I would talk to Ashley on the phone every now and then when she thought she had something to say. That was always fun to hear. I would read books and record them on a digital recorder and send them home."

"We did that so she would recognize his voice and not be afraid of him," said Cheryl. "He was gone for seven months, and to a child that is an eternity."

"I would always get care packages from Cheryl or from my Mom," said Daniel. "There were actually a lot of anonymous care packages that would arrive, and they were nice, too. It was great to have that support."

"I had all my family here and I had Ashley to care for," said Cheryl. "I moved in with my in-laws and got to know them a lot better. My family lives close by as well. Having family around made it easier to be apart from Daniel."

Daniel said being in the service is something he does for his country, but now that he has a family, it is for his family first. An example is when his brother, Andrew, was in Iraq in 2007, before he arrived. Daniel felt the work he did could have potentially helped keep Andrew and other Marines safe.

Andrew Winfield, 24, followed in his older brother's footsteps and joined the Marines after he graduated from high school. Both Daniel, 27, and Andrew earned their Eagle Scout awards and as a result, entered the Marines as E2 (private first class) instead of an E1 (private).

"It is definitely the goal of the Marines to keep America safe," said Daniel. "I am not stationed in Iraq now keeping the Marines safe, I am working here in America trying to keep the bad elements outside of this country."

Daniel has three years left on his current contract or tour. He is going to apply to become an officer, and if that happens, he will stay in the Marines for 20 years before he retires.