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From Airman to Mommy

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Jenay Randolph
  • 6th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs
MACDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  It's 5:15 A.M. , my alarm goes off and I roll out of bed and begin to put on the U.S. Air Force uniform and prepare for work at 7:30 A.M. Some may be wondering why so early, well not only do I have to prepare myself for duty, but I have to get my two children ready for their day and yes I do it alone.

My Air Force career is different than some, but similar to many.

I wake every morning and put on the uniform like every other Airman. I am held to the same expectations to include deployments, temporary duty assignments, permanent change of station, after hour duty, physical fitness and short notice tasking. I also perform my everyday duties and uphold the core values of integrity, service before self and excellence in all we do.

The only difference is that when I hang up that uniform at the end of the duty day I turn around and put on another uniform, that of a single mother of two children under the age of two.

I have a 17-month-old son, Jaylen, and a four-month-old daughter, Jordyn. With them I am expected to fulfill all the duties of a mother to include cooking, cleaning, bath time, play time, bed time, school and spending quality time. At times it seems like there are not enough hours in a day, but somehow I always seem to make a way to accomplish everything needed to succeed in both uniforms.

The number one question I am asked is how do you do it all by yourself, it has to be hard.

My answer is how can I not do it, I'm the sole provider for my kids and to see the smiles on their faces everyday makes the hard work worth it.

Don't get me wrong, there are hard times such as preparing to leave them for deployment, TDY, packing up our lives and moving all around the world, trusting my military family to take care of my children when I have those after hour duties, and most of all not being able to spend the amount of time with them that I want.

However, being a single, active-duty mother is my life and I wear both uniforms with pride, character, and excellence.

At the end of the day this is my life and I consider myself blessed to be a part of the one percent that gets to fight for our country and I couldn't imagine my life any other way.