CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE ADDER, Iraq, - Spc. Doug Lane, an intelligence analyst with the Georgia National Guard's Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 110th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 224th Sustainment Brigade, 103rd Sustainment Command (Expeditionary), didn't quit his day job when he deployed earlier this year to Iraq.
An intelligence analyst by night, Lane spends his days here at the education center teaching college algebra to service members for the University of Maryland.
Holding a bachelor of science degree in mathematics from the University of South Florida and a master's degree in administration, Lane has worked for 20 years as an educator.
"I love working with Soldiers and helping students," said Lane. "I'm really in my element when I'm teaching."
Besides teaching his scheduled classes, Lane spends much of his free time at the education center offering extra tutoring for students. He also teaches an online course for Strayer University.
Some of Lane's students at the education center are fellow Soldiers from his own company. Spc. Alexandria Dean, a transportation coordination manager with the HHC, 110th CSSB, and a Valdosta, Ga., native, is taking her first college course with Lane.
When she heard that he was going to be her professor, she said she was a little apprehensive.
"He seemed boring and drawn out," said Dean, but her opinion has since changed. "He's a really good teacher. His stories are funny and he's smart. He likes to communicate a lot."
Dean said she is "not good with math," but that Lane's examples and some of the shortcuts he teaches make the class easier for her to understand. She added that she has had to ask fewer questions than she had to with other math teachers she has had.
Though his teaching career spans two decades, Lane has also been a lifelong student. In addition to his degrees in education, he earned a masters of divinity in counseling from Liberty University, which he plans to put to good use by becoming a chaplain candidate upon redeployment.
He already offers counseling at his home church in Madison, Ga., known as The Gathering. He is also pursuing a doctorate degree from the University of Mississippi.
While working toward his doctorate, Lane will focus his research on the negative results of the restrictions today's educators face. He hopes to help reverse what he sees as some of the most damaging changes to education.