Jeffery Muckle
Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Jeffery T. Muckle, the leading petty officer of the medical department at Navy Operational Support Center Atlanta, was recognized in December as the reserve center’s full-time Sailor of the Year.
Mr.Muckle, a native of Chattanooga, enlisted in the active Navy in 2008 and served initially as a yeoman, performing administrative and clerical work. In 2012, he converted to the hospital corpsman rating and transferred to the Navy Reserve’s full-time support program, in which his previous experience has been helpful.
“The reserve side is all about customer service,” Mr. Muckle said. “If you don’t take on the idea, ‘I am a customer service representative,’ then you won’t get the job done as accurately and efficiently as you can.”
Members of his department attend to the medical and dental needs of 1,300 reservists assigned to nearly 30 units at NOSC Atlanta, maintaining their records and ensuring they are mobilization-ready.
NOSC Atlanta has been fortunate in having commanding officers who focus on people and who inspire their Sailors to work as a team, Muckle said.
“When you have good leadership from the top, it trickles down; it’s infectious,” he said.
In addition to carrying out his regular duties, Mr. Muckle serves as the command fitness leader for the reserve center.
He said he is considering attending independent duty corpsman school and hopes to advance to chief petty officer.
Mr. Muckle always looks ahead and thinks about what needs to be done next, said the leading chief petty officer of NOSC Atlanta’s medical department, Chief Hospital Corpsman Abdunnoor Karim.
“He’s what I would think of as the model standard of excellence all reserve Sailors should aspire to,” Karim said.