Master Sergeant Tanna Lee Carter serves part-time in the Alaska Air National Guard and is the first Alaska Native woman to serve as an aircrew member and Boom Operator/Inflight Refueling Technician on the KC-135 Air Refueling aircraft in the 168th Air Refueling Wing at Eielson Air Force Base.
Carter is from Minto and is the daughter of Ron Carter of Nenana and the late Hanna Titus Carter of Minto. Her grandparents are the late Annie and Charlie Titus Sr. of Minto and Betty Weedon and the late Don Carter of Indiana. She resides in Fairbanks with her husband Chad Hammond and their 4 kids: Bailey, Alex, Jordan, and Peyton.
Carter has deployed several times to the Middle East to provide air refueling to U.S. and Coalition aircraft in support of missions Inherent Resolve, Operation Freedom Sentinel, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Operation New Dawn. She has flown on missions for Operation Noble Eagle in support of the war on terrorism, humanitarian missions to transport doctors, nurses, engineers, and dentists to support countries in need, and has flown on medevac missions to transport wounded soldiers out of Afghanistan.
Carter has over 2500 flying hours which includes 286 hours of combat flying time over Afghanistan and Iraq. She has earned many awards throughout her career such as the Air Medal, Air Force Achievement Medal, Combat Readiness Medal, Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, Armed Forces Service Medal, National Defense Service Medal, and many others.
Carter received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Alaska, serves as a board member for her village corporation Seth-De-Ya-Ah, is the vice president of Minto Development Corporation, and is employed at Tanana Chiefs Conference as the Executive Coordinator. Carter plans on retiring from the Alaska Air National Guard in 2019 after 23 years of service.