22nd MOS member earns spotlight performer

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Abigail Klein
  • 22nd Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
MCCONNELL AIR FORCE BASE, Kan. --  Staff Sgt. Melanie Barney, 22nd Maintenance Operations Squadron maintenance scheduler, has been in the Air Force for six years. She has been at McConnell for two years with her husband Staff Sgt. Keith Barney, 22nd MOS Maintenance Qualification Training Program instructor, and daughter Makayla, 2. Sergeant Barney's hobbies include playing with her daughter and seeing the new things she learns everyday, photography, shopping and painting.

Who is the most positive influence in your life and why?
My mom is by far the most positive influence in my life. She has been through so much being a military wife, practically raising four children on her own. Now with all of us grown, she has been having many health problems, but she never stops smiling. My mother is the type of person that will put the weight of the world on her shoulders to keep everyone else around her happy. Her strength and devotion to our family has given me the best example of the type of person I want to be.

What would you like to accomplish during your Air Force career?
I would love to finish my degree during my career. I'm still working on my Community College of the Air Force degree, and will hopefully have that out of the way soon!

Where is the most interesting place you have traveled and why do you feel that way?
Honestly, the most interesting place I have ever been to is my husband's hometown of Billings, Okla. Growing up in Hawaii there was so much to see, so it was almost an out of this world experience to go to such a small town. Everyone there knows everything about everyone in the town; it's like something you would see in a movie.

What is your favorite book/ movie and why?
My favorite book is "Icy Sparks" by Gwyn Hyman Rubio. It's a story about a young girl with Tourette's syndrome in the 1950s, before anyone knew what the disease was. The girl had to overcome the ignorance that people showed toward her and accept herself. Being a parent, I wonder if someone is going to tease my child and how she will react to it. I hope that if she's ever faced with that, she will know that no matter what anyone says it doesn't change who she is.

If you have the opportunity to meet anyone in the world, who would it be and why?
If I had the opportunity to meet anyone in the world, it would be Mike Holmes. I think his TV show "Holmes on Homes" is so fascinating. He can look at something and say exactly what is wrong with it and how to fix it. His attention to detail is quite impressive. The effort that he puts into fixing people's homes really shows how much he actually cares about the people he's doing it for.