Strategic officer has family legacy of service | Military Scene

1st Lt. Hena Jenkins’ family members has a heritage of serving in the armed forces, with her American side courting all the way again to the Civil War and her Pakistani facet courting back to at minimum the 1800s with the British armed forces.

Jenkins introduced her rich armed forces lineage and tenacity to the Room and Missile Defense Command in January working in G-8 as an Alabama National Guard economic administration analyst, a single of the state guard’s 3 monetary officers.

She is on Title 10 U.S.C. orders, which means she at this time serves on federal active-duty navy standing. She experienced been doing work as a 2nd lieutenant, economic analyst, for SMDC, but was promoted to 1st lieutenant, money management analyst, in March.

Jenkins claimed that she selected finance from the military services occupational specialties she was offered because it was the one with which she was most common.

“I just desired to be in an atmosphere the place I knew I could best provide the Military,” she reported.

Jenkins’ obligations consist of pulling the position of resources report each and every morning, distributing money sent from the Army to the operations and corporations beneath SMDC (e.g. Place and Missile Defense Middle of Excellence, Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Exam Site, etc.), and compares the investing to the week prior to keep track of how considerably money is being put in.

Jenkins joined the Alabama Nationwide Guard in 2011, while she was in higher education. It was action in the ideal course for her at the time, she claimed.

“I was on a route that was not the ideal route,” Jenkins claimed. “I experienced created a large amount of terrible selections and I was not on the route to achievement, so I reported to myself, ‘You know what? Why really don’t I just try out ROTC?’ since my brother and my sister experienced gone as a result of ROTC.”

“It’s just variety of what you do in my relatives. You possibly go to get the job done or you join the Army,” Jenkins mentioned.

She served as a human assets professional until finally receiving out in 2012 when she gave beginning to her son, Samuel. In 2016, she reenlisted as an ROTC cadet and was commissioned in 2019 right after giving birth to her daughter, Asa.

“Being in the National Guard created increase up. It created me genuinely discover self-self-discipline and accountability for myself. There had been a large amount of things I experienced under no circumstances accomplished right before, like mopping a floor and cleaning a rest room! It is seriously humbling. It goes to show that nobody’s improved than any person else,” Jenkins stated.

Jenkins mentioned she enjoys currently being at SMDC, declaring it has an easygoing environment.

“I imagine it’s a truly good expert group filled with men and women who set men and women 1st,” she said. “It’s like a extremely tightknit household.”

Jenkins also spoke positively about her boss Lawrence Anyanwu, the useful resource management integration chief at G-8.

“He is super humble and tremendous down to earth,” Jenkins said.

Col. Michael Mai, SMDC deputy chief of personnel, G-8, asked Jenkins to appear work at SMDC.

“When Col. Mai called me up and questioned me, I was truthful. I said, ‘Look, I don’t have a whole lot of finance encounter other than the school house, but I’m a tricky employee and I learn easily. I feel like I have a actually positive outlook and I’m a issue solver,” Jenkins said.

“I’m performing as challenging as I can and finding out my craft,” she claimed, stating finance just clicks for her.

Jenkins reflected on her journey to her latest placement and what an accomplishment it is.

“I generally downplay it, but I did work really hard to get below, and I get the job done difficult to be a part model to my children,” she said. “I confronted a great deal of adversity and often moved on to immediately satisfying my subsequent objective devoid of taking the time to accept my accomplishments. So, I am striving to enjoy the achievements when they appear and live in the instant.”