By JANNY HU, San Francisco Chronicle

For a dear family friend, tending to a garden filled with Asian vegetables was a dynamic way of staying connected to home.

Winter melons were among her proudest crops, and for good reason: Every year, she'd have close to a dozen little green fuzz balls growing on vines or in patches, and many longer than a foot by the time they were picked.

Randy Hetrick had a problem.

As a special-ops squadron commander deploying on ships, submarines and safe houses, he needed a way to keep his team in world-class shape without having access to world-class gyms.

Something finally went wrong for Monta Ellis.