A family affair: Air Force is a way of life for McMillan clan.

In his poem "Road Less Traveled," Robert Frost wrote, "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference."

For one Air Force chief master sergeant at the Air Reserve Personnel Center in Denver, the road less traveled has become one well traveled by her family.

Chief Master Sgt. Karen McMillan, superintendent of medical operations and standards, is an individual mobilization augmentee from Redding, Calif., attached to ARPC's 9019th Air Reserve Squadron. Her duties help ensure the readiness of more than 14,000 IMAs.

While she is using her knowledge and experience to ensure part of her Air Force family is ready when duty calls, she has also ensured that the Air Force remains a part of her real family for the foreseeable future.

Chief McMillan, the daughter of a 24-year Air Force veteran, the late retired Master Sgt. Charles Martin Jr., decided early on that she wanted to live her life in the military.

"I had always wanted to be in the military because of our family's travels and the good friends we met along the way," the chief said.

At first she didn't follow in her father's footsteps but her brother's. Chief McMillan's older brother, Robert J. Martin, was an Airborne Ranger in the Army.

"He was very persuasive and (had) lots of good stories," she said. "I enlisted in the Army Reserve. I couldn't resist the $2,000 bonus they were offering at the time."

After spending four years in the Army Reserve, she decided to follow her father's path. Chief McMillan joined the Air National Guard, where she stayed for eight years. During that time, she transformed from Air Force "brat" to Air Force member who was ready to raise some "brats" of her own.

She met Airman Richard McMillan through a mutual friend while on lifeguard duty at the Castle Air Force Base, Calif., pool in May 1979. The two hit it off and were married 23 months later.

"Our first base together was in Greece," she said. "He was on a remote communications site, and I lived downtown so we could be together."

The couple moved back to California for an assignment at March AFB. After being in the Air Force six years, Airman McMillan decided to get out and get a college degree. He graduated from Fresno State, where he also was a member of the school's Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps.

He came back on active duty for another 18 years and retired as a lieutenant colonel. During his second stay in the Air Force, the family of five traveled from Blytheville AFB, Ark. (later Eaker Air Force Base), to Castle AFB, to Seymour Johnson AFB, N.C., to Hickam AFB, Hawaii, to Fort Richardson, Alaska, before finally ending up at Travis AFB, Calif., where the colonel retired.

"We always had great assignments, friends and jobs," Chief McMillan said. "There was always a positive influence on our military life from the people we met in both our careers." The assignments, friends and jobs did more than have a positive influence on the couple's military careers. They had a major influence on their three children.

Youngest son Charles recently graduated from Air Force basic military training at Lackland AFB, Texas. Charles' older brother, Airman First Class Richard McMillan Jr., is a KC-10 boom operator with the 9th Air Refueling Squadron, Travis AFB. He recently returned from a deployment to the United Arab Emirates.

"Most kids never move out of the same town until they go away to college," Richard said. "I went to three different high schools: Radford High in Hawaii, Chugiak in Eagle River, Alaska, and Dixon High in Dixon, Calif."

Although the Air Force attempts to avoid permanent change-of-station moves during a school year, Richard said his dad was transferred twice in the middle of a school year. But the youngster didn't mind the inconvenience of relocating, asking, "How many kids can say they lived and traveled to California, Hawaii and Alaska for free?"

While the McMillan boys followed the enlisted ways of their mother, the couple's daughter, Kristen Loyd, chose the commissioned path of her father. She is a second lieutenant with the 62nd Services Squadron at McChord AFB, Wash. Lieutenant Loyd attended ROTC at Sacramento State University and was a student at the University of California Davis.

While attending ROTC, Lieutenant Loyd met her future husband, 1st Lt. Nathan Loyd, 62nd Communications Squadron at McChord, whose father retired from the Marine Corps as an E-6. They were married March 22, 2003, at Travis AFB. The Loyds are now part of the Air Force family and can follow in the footsteps of the McMillans and be parents of their own Air Force family.

"Both (of my) parents had a significant effect on my entrance into the Air Force," Kristen said. "As a child, I loved moving around, meeting new people and being among other military folks. I did not want to lose the feeling of family that the Air Force provides, so I applied for an AFROTC scholarship."

She said the people she met in ROTC were the same type of people she grew up with during her family's military adventures.

"Military brats have to be many things, among these are flexible and open-minded," the lieutenant said. She said Air Force members and their families move around a lot and experience many different types of societies and cultures. "Being quick to make friends becomes second nature."

Lieutenant Loyd said the people she met in ROTC, although not necessarily from a military background, had the same sort of accepting, easygoing way about them.

Like her parents, the lieutenant said she still stays in contact with many of the people she met in ROTC.

"My parents have many friends that they have kept in contact with over the years, and I hope it will be the same for me," she said.

Staying friends over the years has had its benefits for this Air Force family. When son Richard received his Air Force wings, his mother and father could not attend the ceremony. However, another member of their Air Force family--Lt. Col. Edgar LaBenne--stepped in to fill the void and pinned on Richard's wings. Colonel LaBenne was stationed with the McMillans at their first base.

"It is a very small Air Force," Chief McMillan said. When she and her husband started their lives together, Chief McMillan said she had no idea her two families would be so intertwined. When she was promoted to chief master sergeant May 1, 2004, she wished her parents were alive to celebrate her achievement.

Although her parents are gone, Chief McMillan's extensive Air Force family stands with her shoulder to shoulder in celebration and love.

"Being in the Air Force is a unique bond to share; it is one that makes you more than colleagues; you become family," Kristen said.

(Sergeant Mims is assigned to the ARPC public affairs office in Denver.)