Robin Lee Corley’s Chickasaw heritage was cemented at an early age as she absorbed the subtle lessons of strength she saw in her grandmother and her grandmother’s three sisters. Corley said their example helped lay the foundation for her eventual 39-year career working with the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD).
“I remember all of those women being very strong, not bossy or in a negative way, just really strong,” Corley said. “Their camaraderie never wavered. We spent a lot of time in Durant and Bokchito (Oklahoma) as part of that family cohesion and togetherness. That’s where I learned the matrilineal part of the heritage.”
Corley is set to retire from the DOD Sept. 30 of this year.
Corley’s extensive career serving her country makes her a fitting tribute to the relevance of observing Native American Heritage Month. The November celebration recognizes and honors the history, culture and traditions of First Americans, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians, and their contributions to the United States.
In 1986, the Oklahoma State University chemical engineering graduate’s employment prospects were not promising. Oil prices had plummeted and with them went the typical career opportunities in her chosen field.
It turned out there was one place to find employment, and it was at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City.
“I was very lucky I had a job. Because of the oil bust, no one in my graduating class was getting a job. Typically, when you graduate from Oklahoma State in engineering you go to a refinery or a fertilizer plant. I stumbled into aviation,” Corley said.
It turned into an occupational love affair that would last for nearly four decades.
“I love to talk about airplanes. I love aviation,” she said.
The desk in her last assignment at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Oak Harbor, Washington, gave her a bird’s-eye view of its flight line where she could watch flight operations.
“Airplanes were taxiing probably 40 feet from my window,” she said. “That was just a great gig. I was very lucky.
Her stint working for the Air Force lasted 16 years, after which she applied for a job in 2002 with the U.S. Navy while still at Tinker Air Force Base.
“From 2002 to 2009, I worked the E-6 Mercury (a communications relay and strategic command post aircraft) at Tinker,” she said.
“In 2009, I got married to a Navy Chief, and we moved to Whidbey Island. We supported all Growler (electronic attack aircraft) squadrons at Whidbey Naval Air Station. Again, I feel like the luckiest person in the world. I got the only airplane engineering position on what is a very tiny naval air station. I ran its engineering group.”
Corley said her team’s responsibility was to design the repairs, repair the corrosion and bring the aircraft back up to air worthiness standards.
“We did not have the luxury of time,” she said. “It was a very stressful job.”
Added to those responsibilities was periodic maintenance in which planes were disassembled and checked for deterioration. This work included excess Super Hornet jets from other Navy locations requiring overhaul.
“We would work on up to 50 airplanes a year just on periodic maintenance, designing repairs for those needing work. Often there was corrosion, excessive service wear, hail damage, bird strikes, anything that could keep an airplane structure from flying. We were responsible for returning it to service.”
Two days before Thanksgiving 2023, Corley was sent to Kaneohe Bay in Hawaii after a Navy P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft plunged off its runway in inclement weather. Her job was to not only help salvage the jet but to preserve the bay’s clean water.
“The airplane was sitting in approximately 30 feet of water on coral bed, full of fuel and hydraulic fluid in a very pristine environment. I worked for 17 days with a contractor, divers and a salvage team, and they pulled that plane out of the water. That’s something not everyone can say they’ve done – pull an airplane out of the water. It was an accomplishment, and I was a small part of it,” she said.
“My great-grandmother, Cora Jones, whose maiden name was Archerd, attended Bloomfield Academy and is on the Dawes Roll. I have a lot of things around my house to remind me of her. A huge painting she did is in my dining room.
“She would do all kinds of threadwork. I have pillowcases she embellished with very fine work. When I was 5, I got this little doll trunk, and she sewed me little doll outfits and made me matching outfits sewing on a Singer Featherweight sewing machine.”
An aunt originally gained possession of the sewing machine and gifted it to Corley.
“When my granddaughter turned 5, I pulled out the Featherweight and made my granddaughter matching doll clothes and outfits and gave them to her in the same little trunk. I feel like it is important to not let my granddaughter forget her ancestry and to make her aware of her First American culture.
“I worked in a man’s world and think my great-grandmother would find it kind of amazing from the perspective of her own era that a female could achieve the career I enjoyed. I don’t think I would have been as successful without the backdrop of those female relationships.”
Corley credits the Chickasaw Nation with helping her two sons achieve academic success. Her oldest, Cmdr. Kenneth Stearns, earned his Doctor of Pharmacy and is currently working with the Chemawa Indian Clinic, Salem, Oregon, under the auspices of the Indian Health Service.
Her other son, Korey Stearns, is a mechanical engineer working in Sallisaw, Oklahoma.
She said music is an important part of her life. She started playing the violin when she was 5 and currently plays with the Skagit Symphony in Skagit Valley, Washington, just east of Whidbey Island.
Her admiration for Chickasaw Nation Governor Bill Anoatubby runs deep.
“I always brag about Governor Anoatubby,” she said. “I think we are so lucky to have him. He is magical. I attended a Chickasaw event in Vancouver, Washington, and had a chance to meet the man himself. I think he should be President of the United States.”
Among the highlights of retirement Corley said is not having to rise as early as her career demanded.
“I no longer have to get up at four in the morning,” she said.
Corley also sees retirement as an opportunity to invest more time diving deeper into her Chickasaw heritage.
“I’m also going to continue my Rosetta Stone Chickasaw language and learn to make beaded collars from the recently released YouTube tutorial from the Chickasaw Nation Culture and Humanities channel,” she said.