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Hard work earns commission for Edwards staff sergeant

  • Published
  • By 1st Lt. Amaro Mascarenhas
  • 412th Medical Group
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  

An Airman with the 412th Medical Group was recently selected to commission as a second lieutenant in the Medical Service Corps. 

 

Staff Sgt. DeAnn Lopez, currently serving as the group practice manager for the 412th MDG, is expected to commission and attend Commissioned Officer Training at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, sometime early in 2017. Following OTS, Lopez will proceed to her new duty station.

 

During her enlisted career, Lopez fulfilled duties as a health services management apprentice, a labor and delivery technician, noncommissioned officer in charge of resource management, and command support staff. She also earned a bachelor’s in Healthcare Management from Bellevue University February 29, 2016. She said she enjoys working in healthcare and wants to influence change to better herself, colleagues and patients.

 

Lopez said her motivation to become a commissioned officer came from her family and from her desire to show that hard work pays off. 

"I love being enlisted,” Lopez said. “But if there is more out there, why not reach for it?" 

 

Lopez, an Idaho native, encourages all Airmen to pursue their life goals.

 

"Never stay stagnant, on or off duty,” she said. “Seek the mentorship, not only from the officers in their field, but from senior enlisted Airmen as well. You cannot commission on hard work alone. Every person who succeeded in a goal did so with help from family, mentors, friends and peers."

 

Officers in the Medical Service Corps are healthcare administrators who serve at 63 Military Treatment Facilities in the continental United States and at 12 MTFs overseas. There are approximately 1,000 Medical Service Corps officers Air Force-wide. A Medical Service Corps officer could potentially serve in resource management, readiness, information systems, health plans management, logistics, as group practice manager, or at an aeromedical evacuation squadron.