Air Force Chief’s Resilience Conquers Breast Cancer

Published Oct. 23, 2015
By Kevin M. Hymel
Air Force Surgeon General Public Affairs

FALLS CHURCH, Va. -- Chief Master Sergeant Yolanda Jennings recalled that when doctors diagnosed her with breast cancer in September of 2008 she was not surprised, but she was scared.

"No one wants to hear that," Jennings, who now works at Maxwell Air Force Base's Air University, recalled. At age 37, she was below the at-risk age for cancer, but when she suspected she might have the disease after a self-diagnosis, her friends told her it was probably something else. "I kind of knew," she said.

Jennings, whose mother had died of multiple myeloma four years earlier, was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer, a rare and often aggressive form of breast cancer which tends to occur in younger women and African-American women, according to the Susan G. Komen organization. "It hits a lot of minorities," said Jennings, "and they don't survive."

The worst part for Jennings was the uncertainty about the future and the idea that she would never see her children. "I prayed a lot," she remembered.

Fortunately, her doctors caught the cancer early. She started her first round of chemotherapy on Halloween and benefitted from an accelerated program. She then went through 30 rounds of radiation, and completed her entire treatment seven months later, in April of 2009.

Through it all, she had the support of her husband and daughter. "She was my little nurse," said Jennings. Her fellow office workers at Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., also supported her as she went in every day. "I wanted to come to work,"she added. "I did not want to be 'oh woe-is-me'about it."

Working made her feel better. Her Thursday chemotherapy treatments would hit her the next day around 2 p.m. "I would tough it out until three on Fridays." Yet she did not miss any work once her chemotherapy port was placed. "I even did PT!" Her oncologist was so impressed with her condition, he told her, according to Jennings: "Whatever you're doing keep doing it."

Her wing commander was especially supportive. When her hair fell out and she had to wear an uncomfortable wig that itched, he told her to do whatever was comfortable. She took off the wig and he smiled and encouraged her to walk the office halls, pretending she didn't know she was bald. When people told her so, she would touch her head and scream, "Ahhh!" Of her time in the office she recalled, "I had fun with it."

Jennings' treatments did not limit her career either. When she learned of an open position with the Secretary of the Air Force, she wanted to apply. Even though her chemotherapy had ended, she was still receiving radiation treatments. Her wing commander told her that he would put her in for it. She flew to Washington, D.C., and interviewed with Air Force Secretary Michael B. Donley. She wore her wig, but Donley, whose wife was an oncological nurse, told her if she was uncomfortable to take it off. She did. "It was a great interview," said Jennings. On her flight back to Tinker she learned she had the job.

Now a cancer survivor of seven years, Jennings encouraged others, "If there's something you want to do, do it, because you are not promised tomorrow." She took her own advice when her job with Secretary Donley ended and she took a job on Air Force One. "I flew around the world with the president." When she realized there were not many African-American female chiefs in the Air Force, she studied for it and achieved the rank of Chief Master Sergeant. "I did what I needed to do," she said, "and now I'm at Maxwell [Air Force Base] at an amazing job." When people ask her about retirement she says,"I'm having too much fun."

Jennings finds inspiration in events with fellow survivors and friends. At a three-day, 50-mile cancer walk, her roommate at the time, who did not have cancer, told her, "If you can do this I can do this." At a cancer run in Washington D.C., Jennings and her fellow runners cheered on an older woman who wore a t-shirt that read,"I am a 36-year survivor."

Her advice to women who suspect they might have breast cancer was direct: "Get checked. If you feel something is wrong, ask for a mammogram. I had to ask." And if someone is diagnosed with breast cancer, she encouraged: "Don't give up," adding, "fight through it whatever it is." She goes to her Medical Evaluation Board every year. "The Air Force is not looking to put you out because you're sick, they're doing it to make sure you're fit."

Today, Chief Jennings appreciates how the Air Force helped her through her diagnosis and treatment. "I'm glad I was in the military," she said of the morale and health-care support she received. "I give them 110 percent."

For more women's health information visit: http://www.breastdiseasesatoz.org/