Inspired by love: Lakenheath staff sergeant, Queens native, says life?s events have made her a better Airman

Staff Sgt. Sparkle Reid, a services journeyman, is deployed as the non-appropriated funds custodian for the 380th Expeditionary Force Support Squadron at a non-disclosed base in Southwest Asia. Here, she is pictured looking at a painted mural of the Airman's Creed by the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing headquarters on Feb. 25, 2010. Sergeant Reed lost her uncle, Louie A. Williams, when the World Trade Center towers came down on Sept. 11, 2001. He worked on the 66th floor of the North Tower for the New York Port Authority as a paralegal. On Feb. 27, 2009, Sergeant Reid lost her father, Charles T. Reid, after complications from surgery. She credits both her uncle and her father as her inspiration for serving. Sergeant Reid is deployed from from the 48th Force Support Squadron at RAF Lakenheath, England, and her hometown is Queens, N.Y. (U.S. Air Force Photo/Master Sgt. Scott T. Sturkol/Released)