Marine Captain/mother breaking barriers in military career

MARINE CORPS LOGISTICS BASE-ALBANY — Going from food service specialist to a logistics officer and company commander, Capt. Jennifer Adams has grown substantially in her time as a U.S. Marine.

And she’s not done growing yet.

Adams started off in 2005 as an enlisted Marine working in a food service specialist billet. In 2017, at that time a staff sergeant, she began the transition as a commissioned officer and later earned the military occupational specialty of logistics officer.

“I have been on the logistics track my entire career,” she said. “I have served in units among the three major subordinate commands in the Marine Corps, including 2nd Marine Division, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing and 1st Marine Logistics Group, and have been serving in logistical roles to the point where I am comfortable with change and complexity.”

Adams is now with Marine Corps Logistics Base-Albany’s Logistics Support Division. She is the arms, ammunition and explosives officer, giving her responsibility of making sure the base and tenant commands have the weapons and ammunition they need for various ranges, weapons systems testing and real-world scenarios.

Her job requires her to work with training and operations, public safety, supply, armory and ammunition personnel closely.

“Tied to this role is accountability, ensuring inventories are being completed and standards are being met and upheld,” Adams said. “We support the base and tenant commands, which ultimately impacts the warfighters all over the globe.”

Adams’ hometown is Silver Spring, Md., a city of roughly 80,000 people that is a northern residential suburb of Washington, D.C. Her career as a Marine ran concurrently with a journey into motherhood, now having a 16-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter.

“Education, structure, discipline and comradery are the main motivators for me joining the Marine Corps,” she said. “The top one would be the structure piece; I like how the Marine Corps is organized and provides structure as a professional in arms.”

She achieved associate’s and bachelor’s degrees in business administration and is currently working on obtaining a master’s degree in entrepreneurship. Thanks to the help of active-duty military benefits providing access to programs in advancing service members in their education, she was able to achieve her educational goals.

“I am still seizing the opportunity to use tuition assistance to help with the cost of education,” Adams said. “Education is a huge benefit the Department of Defense and Marine Corps bring, and I encourage all to fully take advantage of it.”

While raising a family, managing to take college classes on her own time and balancing her military career, she had to progress toward her personal and professional goals little by little.

“I was taking classes during deployments and through training exercises,” Adams said. “I knew I needed a four-year degree to be a commissioned officer.”

Her first duty station after basic training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, S.C., was Marine Wing Support Squadron-171 located at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan.

There was an office for the University of Maryland Global Campus located at the MCAS Iwakuni education center.

This was the door she put her foot in to get her education started.

“I thought it was fitting there was a college at the education center that I recognized,” Adams said. “The University of Maryland is a 20-minute drive from home.”

She could not get the four-year degree overseas through UMUC Asia as the school only offered two-year degree programs at the time. She eventually received it after returning stateside.

“I took one college course at a time, but I got it done,” Adams said. “I walked the stage in 2017 in College Park while I was serving as a staff sergeant in Quantico, Va.”

She is now on her second tour since receiving her commission, currently on a set of three-year orders. She’s been in the AA&E officer role the whole tour, with her second year also overseeing 100 Marines while serving as the commander of Headquarters Company, MCLB-Albany.

Adams has done an exercise on the Korean Peninsula and served at MCRD San Diego and Camp Pendleton, Calif. In Iraq, while still a food specialist, she served Marines outside of the wire at the forward operating base at Mudyasis during a 2008 deployment.

Adams applied for and attended Officer Candidate School while stationed in Quantico. After graduating OCS and The Basic School, she went on to Logistics Operations School in Camp Johnson, N.C., to earn her current military occupational specialty. She went from there to 2nd Assault Amphibian Battalion, 2nd Marine Division at Camp Lejeune, N.C., before reporting to MCLB-Albany.

“I’ve been to the Middle East, Japan, East and West Coast,” she said. “The experience has been invaluable. I got worldly experience early and it opened my eyes to other cultures.

“I particularly fell in love with the Japanese culture, food and people.”

Comradery is big deal for a Marine. Growth, and even survival, often depend on it.

“Teamwork is a big piece of it,” Adams said. “You train hard together, learn and build upon on your craft with a team, learn communication skills and adapt as a team in austere environments for combat. You learn about yourself and how to push yourself. Through the hardest experiences you get closer to your brothers and sisters on your left and right.

“You fight and train as a team, and you learn a lot from those who are smarter, stronger and those who have experience. The longer you spend with them, the more you learn what it means to be a leader, and just how important it is to be ready when disaster strikes.”

Adams’ motivation for embarking on a military career comes from within her family, specifically her grandfather. He served in the Air Force, previously in the Army Air Corps before the Air Force’s official establishment as an independent branch in 1947.

He was a prisoner of war during World War II.

“He was the reason I chose the military. I respected him,” Adams said. “The Marines were the sharpest of the military branches; I looked up to the Marines.”

She looked at multiple career options and was unfulfilled. Until she walked into a Marine Corps recruiting office.

“I have definitely changed and grown up since I was an 18-year-old,” Adams said. “Initially, I was only planning to be in for four years, but I kept going.”

She wears her Marine hat during duty hours and replaces it with her “Mom” hat at home. Like any Marine officer, it is not something she can achieve alone.

“There are many talented men and women who make it far in their military careers with children. I believe they need a support team to be able to do that successfully,” Adams said.

Training with the best in the world has granted Adams high-quality, training and lifesaving skills.

“Being a Marine has provided me opportunities such as being able to lead hundreds of people at such a young age, being responsible for millions of dollars worth of gear and equipment and being able to lead multiple convoys,” she said. “There is a feeling of satisfaction when you lead a team that executes a plan you have developed that gets the mission accomplished.”

Adams had the chance to instruct as a faculty advisor for 12 months at a resident Corporal’s Course located at Camp Del Mar while holding the rank of sergeant in 2011 as a part of the Staff Non-Commisionned Officer Academy at Camp Pendleton. She also ran the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C. in 2016.

The typical military career often requires fast transitions, improving on the foundations left behind and dipping into new things in the process. It opens the door for self-improvement as you mature.

“As you get better, you see how you can improve on things,” Adams said.

Adams said she is planning to do one more tour after she leaves MCLB-Albany. She’ll be getting her master’s degree and building on her leadership abilities in the meantime.

“I am excited to see what is next, as the future is unknown,” Adams said. “I strive to be in a billet of increased responsibility.

“The Marine Corps is so broad. When you understand what is happening globally, you realize it is much bigger than you. I’m looking forward to having a successful tour after leaving Albany.”

Special Photo: MCLB-Albany