TIFTON — Curtis Akins took a major step away from home when he decided to join the U.S. Navy, but as he looks back on it today, he said he wouldn’t trade the experience for anything.

While the man is well-known for his involvement with the community through the Tifton-Tift County Chamber of Commerce and other area organizations, his initial calling was serving in the line of duty, to better himself and his family.

“I wanted to join the military to try to make a better living for myself,” Akins said. “I’m from a poor background, didn’t have much. … I was the oldest child, only son, and I just wanted to try to better my family and help them out. So, I joined the Navy.”

Akins signed up with the Navy in 1982 at only 19, where he immediately went in to train at boot camp.

Among the lessons drilled into him was the importance of teamwork. In following this teaching, he was determined to always be a reliable ally to his fellow soldiers, offering a helping hand whenever and wherever he could – something that has stuck with him to this day.

“I always volunteer while I was in the military, just giving back and helping out,” Akins said. “That’s instilled in me; being a team player and helping out where I can help.”

From there, he became a full-fledged Navy sailor, operating in communications as a third-class radioman.

Akins had never traveled on a plane, or even outside of Tifton, when he decided to join the Navy. But from that one step he’d taken, he had the whole world to explore.

And indeed, his time in the Navy took him all across the globe to places like Dubai, Italy, Jamaica and Israel.

His service wasn’t all smooth sailing, however. Only a year after enlisting, Akins would be caught in his first combat experience when the ship he was serving on, the USS Tattnall, was called away from its six-month deployment off the eastern coast of Africa to aid in the Lebanon War in 1983.

He recounted being terrified of the experience but proudly remembers how quickly he and his fellow sailors banded together once they had received the call to action.

Akins would next see conflict during the Gulf War, where he was a second-class petty officer serving on the USS Kittyhawk. This ascension in position would see him adopt a leadership role, with a platoon of sailors serving at his discretion. 

And in both this new responsibility and the role of instructor he would take once the war had ended, he carried the lesson of teamwork with him, always making sure to look out for his fellow soldiers and pass the importance of camaraderie on to them.

He retired from service in Hawaii in 2003, leaving the Navy a chief petty officer where he had a crew of about 2,000 sailors serving under him.

Reflecting on the experience today, Akins treasures his time spent in the Navy, asserting that it was a vital chapter in his story in making him the man he is today.

“I thank the Lord for allowing me to go through that transition with the military,” Akins said. “It changed my life for the better, got me closer to Him.”