Profile: Millie Sanchez

Photo By Cynthia McIntyre | Millie Sanchez, Labor-Employee Relations human resources specialist for Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow, Calif., goes a few rounds with a punching bag as a way to relieve stress. Although she loves to exercise at the base gym and go hiking with her yellow lab, Aslan, playing the guitar is her biggest passion.  

BARSTOW, CA, UNITED STATES

07.23.2015

Story by Cynthia McIntyre 

Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow

BARSTOW, Calif. - If you go into the base gym and see a dark-haired woman in boxing gloves whamming on a punching bag and plugged into an iPod, you might think she's keeping up a rhythm to a hard-rock beat. Well, the beat might be lively, but the lyrics are something else entirely.

"I listen mostly to Christian music," said Millie Sanchez, human resources specialist at Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow, Calif., laughing at the irony.

While boxing releases tension from her job, music transports her spirit. As a matter of fact, she's a music worship leader at Lenwood Community Church.

I love to exercise but playing music is my biggest passion, because I love to do it for the Lord. I just wanted to play one day and wanted to use a gift for Him, so that's what He gave me. I wouldn't say I'm the best, but I can carry a rhythm. I'm also a youth leader at the church, so I stay pretty busy.

Her immediate family is a 9-year-old yellow lab named Aslan.

He's a sweetheart. We go hiking, and he goes on trips with me. He's like my son.

Sanchez is also a native "true blue" Barstownian.

All my brothers and sisters are here. There are eight of us, and our family's just branched out - tons of nieces and nephews. I lack for nothing in terms of meaning.

So why the boxing gloves?

I've found it to be the best stress reliever. I'm a person who prefers to work out by myself. Some people like to go to a bar to unwind. This is my bar.

She shows a boxing counter that measures the number of punches based on the sound, and counts the number of rounds she does.

I usually do eight to 10 rounds, sometimes 12 if I have a lot of time. It takes about 45 minutes.

Does she do other workouts besides boxing?

"I do elliptical and running. Tuesdays and Thursdays are my boxing days because there is less activity in the gym with basketball games. Or else I'm getting clobbered with the ball or Marines are running into me."

Instead of wrapping her hands like professional boxers do, she uses baseball batting gloves under the kickboxing gloves to protect her knuckles from getting cut.

I picked up shortcuts from my dad (Ralph Sanchez). He was always "Whatever you can do to get it done."

What are her other interests?

I love NBA basketball. I am pretty versed in the game and have been a Los Angeles Lakers fan since I was a kid. I'm one of those crazy-screaming fans. Also, I do enjoy photography and find it very relaxing to take landscape portraits. In fact, one my photos (a desert sunset picture) was even featured in the Desert Dispatch last year.

What type of work does she do as human resources specialist in field of Labor-Employee Relations?

A plethora of things, from discipline to union activities to helping supervisors - guiding them on policies and procedures for civilian employees.

Sanchez began work in HRO as clerk in 1986, then worked in MCCS for a time, did a long stint as administrative officer for Defense Logistics Agency, and has been in her current position for 15 years. Her father, Ralph Sanchez, was a production planner for MCLB Barstow for 36 years and died last year at age 80. Other family members currently work on base.

She and co-worker Rose Vickers were presented with a Meritorious Civilian Service award by Brig. Gen. Edward D. Banta, commanding general of Marine Corps Installations West - Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, in December 2014. The award was for the reduction of lost man-hours, and for cost-cutting initiatives in worker compensation, saving around a half million dollars.

It's a team effort if you want to look at our labor-employee relations section. We just have a lot of good ladies that work in our office.

We were able to do good case management to return people to work. One, it helps our costs, and two, it gives employees an added value. You don't want employees to sit at home and think people forgot about them. We want to see them come back to the workforce.

One of the workers was on the compensation rolls for 12 years; another was gone for eight years. These men were in an industrial field and we put them in clerical positions. Those are the success stories we like to see. There's a sense of accomplishment for us.

What would she most like people to know about her?

This is kind of corny to some people, but I first value my relationship with the Lord. It speaks volumes to anybody if you can exude that without saying it, to be that Light, to be a good employee, a model employee. Everything else is secondary to that. If I'm doing that then I'm doing what I'm supposed to do.

• Date Taken: 07.23.2015
• Date Posted: 07.23.2015 19:10
• Story ID: 170965
• Location: BARSTOW, CA, US