Tammy Arnold spends her evenings in peace. She sews flowing, colorful quilts, and cares for her rescued cats and a cocker spaniel with special needs.
But for more than two decades, Arnold had turned up the intensity in her life quite a few notches. In 1991, at 32, Arnold decided to leave her accounting career and join the U.S. Air Force reserves.
“I joined because it’s something I always wanted to do, and I figured if I didn’t do it then, I never would,” Arnold said. “And it was a great decision.”
Throughout her 23-year Air Force career, six years of which were active duty, Arnold formed lifelong relationships, earned a bachelor’s degree, saw the world and grew in more ways than she could have imagined.
“I went from somebody who was not very disciplined, to somebody who is very disciplined,” she said.
Arnold had the choice of going to Chanute Air Force Base, Illinois and doing egress, or going to Lowry Air Force Base, Colorado to become a weapons loader. She chose Colorado.
Into the Wild Blue Yonder
When Arnold started basic training, the age difference between her and most of the other women in training was apparent. But she didn’t have trouble forming friendships.
“I had a lot of little sisters,” she said. “I was the one everybody turned to to ask questions.”
In 1997, Arnold married her husband, Larry Arnold. He wasn’t able to travel around the world with her, but he could always be counted on to anxiously await her return at the airport, sometimes with a bouquet in hand.
Throughout the years, Arnold traveled on missions and on tour to Spain, Italy, Germany, England, Portugal, France, Canada and all over the United States. Her tasks included working on electronic circuitry, loading armament, manpower appropriation, special operations and leadership duties.
One of Arnold’s most memorable assignments was a humanitarian mission in Hawaii, where her team treated 23,000 people in the span of 12 days. Her job was to tally up the patients and procedures for each site.
Arnold still keeps in touch with some of the women she met there, as well as many of the other mentors, friends and contacts she met during her military career.
“I have friends all over the world,” she said.
She also moved up to the rank of master sergeant in just nine years.
“It’s almost unheard of,” Arnold said. “I made it really fast.”
The average is usually 12 to 15 years.
But in 2001, some unexpected bad news put Arnold’s travels and progression on hold.
Nothing Can Stop Her
“The doctor called me on the telephone and told me I had breast cancer,” Arnold said. “It was terrifying.”
Following the diagnosis, Arnold had to take an entire year off of service. She went through treatment from November to May of that year.
Arnold said one of the most emotionally devastating parts of cancer was losing her hair. She decided to shave it instead of waiting for it to fall out.
“We went crying to the barber,” Larry Arnold said. “They shaved her head completely bald.”
But Arnold was a fighter at heart.
“It’s just a speed bump in life,” Arnold said. “You do what you have to do, and you press on. That’s one thing the military taught me — you soldier on.”
And she did ‘solider on’ throughout the following years, around the world, and all the way to a graduation ceremony in Atlanta, where she received her bachelor’s degree in information technology. She graduated in 2012.
“It was awesome,” she said. “We drove to Atlanta so I could walk. Most people that don’t live locally don’t go and walk.”
Ever to soar
In January 2015, after spending the last 11 years at MacDill Air Force Base, Arnold decided it was time to retire. She was satisfied with her accomplishments, such as her rank of master sergeant. She also wanted to care for her husband, who is having some health issues.
Now, Arnold works at Tancredo Law Firm in Plant City, as a technology specialist. She volunteers at South Florida Baptist Hospital and the Florida Strawberry Festival, where she has won ribbons for some of her quilts.
“I would not trade the experience I had in the military for anything,” Arnold said. “It was an opportunity to travel the world, go to school, grow as an individual. It’s just so rewarding to be able to guide people and help them. I got to help people get their professional military education, get promoted, go into supervisory roles — and you just can’t trade that for anything.”
Contact Catherine Sinclair at csinclair@plantcityobserver.com.