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By U.S. Strategic Command Public Affairs U.S. Strategic Command
Staff Sgt. Samantha MacKinnon, noncommissioned officer in charge of indications and warnings for U.S. Strategic Command’s intelligence directorate, hails from Saranac, Mich., and has 6 years of military service.
Q: How does your job support USSTRATCOM and our missions?
A: I manage a program that monitors threats and provides leadership with the information needed to make informed decisions.
Q: What do you find most rewarding about your work at USSTRATCOM?
A: The opportunity to learn something new every day is the most rewarding thing about working at USSTRATCOM. I’m learning about our country’s greatest adversaries in a way that nobody else outside of USSTRATCOM gets to.
Q: What has been a challenge for you regarding your work at USSTRATCOM and how have you overcome that challenge?
A: One challenge for me when I first came to USSTRATCOM was all the new information I had to learn. Luckily, my teammates have all been incredibly helpful and informative.
Q: What has been your most memorable experience in the military?
A: My most memorable experience in the military thus far has been watching a Falcon 9 first-stage rocket booster return and land on a barge while I was stationed at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
Q: What is the one piece of information or advice about working at USSTRATCOM that you'd pass on to new members of the USSTRATCOM team?
A: Working at USSTRATCOM can be demanding, so I recommend having a strong work ethic. If you come in every day and rise to the challenge, you will learn, you will improve, and people will notice. What you put into your work is what you will get out of it.