Page 73 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2025 - Online Magazine

navy | 1978-1982

by Barbara Jensen

threw away anything not on the list of at that hospital and rediscovered her
approved items. They were given their passion for helping others.
underwear and one pair of pajamas,
and the rest was locked away until Carla had hoped to stay in the military,
graduation. They got to bed about 2:00 but life circumstances demanded that
a.m., were awakened at 4:00, issued she leave after four years. She worked
clothing, and training began. for a healthcare organization for a
number of years. As her parents aged,
Boot camp life was fast and tough, and she returned to Texas to care for them,
they were pushed to their limits every and then in 2017, returned to Lubbock
minute of every day. Once a week she where she has been handling Accounts
was allowed to call home on a “time Receivable for Carillon Senior Living.
phone” which turned off after a certain Carla will be retiring from Carillon this
number of minutes whether she was year and returning to Bremerton to be
done talking or not. That allowed near her daughter.
all recruits equal time to make their
ften, when we think of Navy calls. Christmas at boot camp gave Looking back over her years in the
veterans, we think of men, her a short reprieve, as local families Navy, Carla said she “loved the
Obut as of 2020, nearly 70,000 “adopted” them for the day, and they camaraderie, as well as discovering her
women are on active duty in the Navy. enjoyed the opportunity to call their individual identity, and learning to live
One does wonder though how a young own families without the line going independently from her family.” Boot
man or woman from land-locked West dead. camp and advanced training taught
Texas decides on a naval career. Maybe her younger self to be disciplined and
Carla Cherry can tell us. After boot camp, Carla went to Great to be thankful for what she had. She
Lakes, IL for Hospital Corpsman developed organizational skills—how
Carla was born and raised in Lubbock. training. It was a four-month-long to keep things structured and running
The youngest of four girls, she rigorous learning experience where smoothly. She found fulfillment in
graduated from Coronado High School they were taught triage, medication, helping others in the medical field,
and started working at Methodist suturing, and many other aspects of and she loved the opportunity of
Hospital as a nursing assistant. That medical care beyond typical nursing doing something for her country. Her
experience introduced her to a love of or medical assistant skills. Normally, service to her country and at Carillon is
helping others. trainees in this field would use oranges evidence of the caliber of person she is,
to practice giving shots or drawing and she will be missed. Before she leaves,
In November 1978, Carla joined the blood, but in Corpsman Training, they I need to ask her, “Why, the Navy?”
US Navy. At the time, choices for used each other, so it was important to
women in the service were pretty quickly learn to do it right.
much limited to clerical or medical
fields, so she chose hospital work. After training, Carla was sent to a new
Boot camp in Orlando, FL, was an Navy hospital in Bremerton, WA. The
abrupt and challenging introduction hospital was away from the Navy base
to the military way of life. She and and served current and retired military
other recruits arrived at the camp after in the area. Because it was away from
midnight and were taken into a room the base, they had their own little
with their luggage, where the “drill community of enlisted and officers,
sergeants” opened their bags and right on the water. She spent four years

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