By all accounts, Robin B. Akin, a U.S. army brigadier general stationed in South Korea, has had a successful military career, spanning 30 years.

From a small town in Tennessee, Akin, now in her third tour of duty to South Korea, has gone all over the world, fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan and leading rescue missions in earthquake-ravaged Haiti. She has also served in Germany, Italy and Japan.

But such an extensive career isn’t so out of place in her family.

Akin has been the assistant chief of staff for logistics at United States Forces Korea (USFK) and also deputy assistant chief of staff for logistics at South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command (CFC) since July last year. Her father-in-law, retired Maj. Gen. George H. Akin, had also been the CFC’s deputy assistant chief of staff for logistics; he was the fifth in the position, and she is the 23rd.

“At one time, there were four army colonels on active duty and my father-in-law was a major general (in the extended Akin family),” Brig. Gen. Akin told Yonhap News Agency in an interview last Wednesday. “So that’s definitely a team of teams. More importantly, we, for the time I’ve had the name Akin, have always come together for each other anytime there was a ceremony.”

Akin said her father-in-law told her stories about South Korea when he served here, and said she is happy to have “the great opportunity to walk in his footsteps.”

“Some of the issues we had 25 years ago are still issues today in logistics,” Akin said. “Many times, when I get out and see different people, I meet people that knew my father-in-law. He was a great man. More importantly, it’s a great family.”

Her husband, George Akin, retired last August as an army colonel, having served for 27 years. Brig. Gen. Akin said all military members of her family “have served the best we can and we continue to serve that way.

”Our military family probably should receive an award from the president of the United States,“ she said. ”We’ve served for reasons that many people don’t. When you have a husband and a wife and a father-in-law all serving at the same time, and two brothers-in-law are serving side-by-side in the time of combat, it takes a lot to stay in the military and continue to groom and nurture families at the same time.“

She met her future husband while they were serving in Fort Carson, Colorado. After George Akin introduced her to his father, the senior Akin, according to the brigadier general, ”went quickly to human resources, pulled up my name and validated everything I’ve done in the military to prove that I didn’t do anything bad.“

”He did a background check on me, so to speak,“ she said with a smile.

She said it took her ”years to figure out all the Akin family traditions and idiosyncrasies,“ but one instance stood out for her.

Within six weeks after she gave birth to her son, Akin had to report back to Iraq for Desert Storm. One of her sisters-in-law, who had three children of her own and was married to a major, offered to take both Akin’s young son and daughter to a small home in Kansas.

“(Their family) took my kids, not knowing if I was going to come home or not,” Akin said. “They took very big care of my kids, so much so that they call them their second and third daughter and son. Seeing that really proved to me that the Akins were always going to be there.”

The Akin family is steeped in military tradition, but the brigadier general’s mother, having lost her husband in Vietnam, at first didn’t want her daughter to join the military.

“She didn’t want to have anything to do with it,” the general recalled. “But before she passed away, she was very proud of me getting promoted to colonel.”

Akin attended the University of Tennessee. She recalls her early days on campus as being “almost overwhelming,” even to someone from the same state.

She had at first set her sights on becoming a lawyer. But after spending a year at what she called “the No. 1 partying school in the nation,” Akin decided to sign up for the Reserved Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program.

“I joined the ROTC program in my sophomore year because it grounded me into organization and allowed me to be myself, and also work within a disciplined environment,” she said. “If it hadn’t been for the ROTC program and mentors that guided me through that, I probably wouldn’t even have graduated from college.”

Looking back on the past three decades, Akin admitted she’s had “a great military career,” despite her share of ups and downs.

“The last 10 years have been very difficult on every soldier,” Akin said. “To be a general officer when we’ve been in war for 10 years is even more amazing. I am just proud to serve.” 

(Yonhap News)