Psych Education NCO At USU Says “Family” Inspires Her to Serve

By Ian Neligh

Family inspired Tech Sgt. Karlena Perkins to join the Air Force and it is “family” that has continued to motivate her to serve with distinction for the past 14 years.

“I think it is the people who  have kept me in the Air Force this long,” Perkins says. “I also enjoy helping people accomplish both their personal and professional goals.”

Inspired by her father, Air Force Tech Sgt. Karlena Perkins chose to
join the military to offer her son the same life growing up that she
received. (Photo credit: Tom Balfour, USU)

Perkins, who serves as the Noncommissioned Officer in Charge of Psychiatry Education at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU), grew up as a member of a military family. Her father served in the Army, stationed everywhere from Germany to El Paso, Texas.  She enjoyed the military lifestyle and was especially inspired by her father’s career.  When it came time to decide what she should do with her life, Perkins, by then a single mother, determined she wanted her son to have an upbringing similar to her own.  

“I knew the type of life that my dad had given us and I thought that would be a good life to give to my son, so I decided to join the military,” Perkins says.

She admits the only branch she was familiar with was the Army and when she told her father about her decision to join he suggested the Air Force because he believed it would be more amenable for a single parent raising a child.

“And I was like ‘what’s the Air Force?’” Perkins jokes, adding that after doing some research, she felt it was the ideal choice for her. Perkins joined in 2008 and was sent to basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. 

 “I got off the plane and I was in San Antonio in the airport and they had us in a long hallway and (the basic training instructors) immediately started yelling, and I was like, ‘oh my goodness, what did I get myself into?’”

But, Perkins persevered and after basic training, she attended tech school on assignment at Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas, for health services management training.

“Tech school was nice because we had more freedoms, so life became kind of normal;  the life that I saw my dad living as I was growing up,” Perkins says.  “So that’s when I was like ‘oh, maybe I did do the right thing.’”

She was soon assigned to Joint Base San Antonio–Randolph, Texas, where she worked in patient travel as a Special Needs Identification Assignment Coordinator. 

“I really enjoyed doing patient travel and helping those who needed care, and coordinating care for those who needed treatment outside of the local area,” Perkins says. 

After five years, she received orders to Albuquerque, N.M., where she was assigned to Kirtland Air Force Base in the Resource Management Office.  Perkins says she grew the most during that phase of her career, both personally and professionally. She said her assignment showed her the importance of resilience and setting healthy boundaries, and it's where she met one of her lifelong mentors and "made some really good friendships." Her assignment there was interrupted, however, when she deployed to Honduras as a Joint Operation Medical Planner for six months, a role and location she thoroughly enjoyed.  

“We built partnerships with Honduras and other central American countries by conducting humanitarian assistance missions to provide dental and medical services within our area of operations,” Perkins says. “Honduras is a wonderful place to be. Anybody that can get stationed or deployed there should. I highly recommend it.”

After that deployment, Perkins was transferred to Scott Air Force Base, Ill. as a Flight Medicine Clinic office manager.  Each successive assignment helped shape Perkins’ abilities as an Air Force enlisted leader.  Today, Perkins works in USU’s Department of Psychiatry, directing administrative activities for the School of Medicine Psychiatry Clerkship. 

Air Force Tech Sgt. Karlena Perkins was the USU Service Member of the Year for 2021 and recently was the "mace bearer" during this year's 43rd annual university
commencement ceremony. (Photo credit: Tom Balfour, USU)

“Right now I kind of work as a liaison between the students, the clerkship as a whole and the different sites that we send them to,” she says.

Working with a good group of people – her second “family” – and being able to serve and provide her son with the life she had growing up has inspired Perkins to continue to keep serving in the military.  And if her recent accolades are any indication, she will have a very successful career.  

Perkins was named USU Service Member of the Year for 2021. “Getting selected as the Service Member of the Year – I was honored. There are so many great noncommissioned officers here,” Perkins says. 

The NCO also recently held the honored position of “mace bearer” during the 43rd annual USU commencement ceremony, leading the entire academic procession of more than 400 graduates, faculty and administrators into and out of the hallowed corridors of DAR Constitution Hall in front of a virtual and in-person audience of thousands.  

Perkins’ career trajectory once again took a step forward as she was recently selected for promotion to Master Sergeant, a rank awarded to fewer than 10 percent of those eligible.  

For Perkins, a promotion will bring new and greater responsibilities, likely a new assignment, and inevitably more new “family” to keep her inspired while she continues her Air Force service.