KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany - Staff Sgt. Tiara Jenkins has bowled a 279 game five times in her career.
For those unfamiliar with how scoring works in bowling, a 279 game is achieved by throwing 11 strikes with a spare in the ninth frame. Too much math? Quite simply, this single spare, also referred to as a half-strike, is all that separates a 279 game from a perfect 300 game.
Jenkins has certainly come a long way in a short time since walking into her first bowling alley five years ago at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, where she attended the Army's Occupational Assistance Therapy Training Program.
Buried in medical books day and night studying anatomy, physiology, psychology, pediatrics, geriatrics and ergonomics - to name just a few - Jenkins recalls the day when one of her instructors advised students to find a hobby.
"I thought, 'Why do I need a hobby? Who has time for that?'" said Jenkins, now a certified occupational therapy assistant with the Miesau, Germany-based 254th Medical Detachment, Combat Operational and Stress Control. The answer, she'd come to find out, was right there in those last two words: stress control.
"I picked bowling. What's a better way to relieve stress than by throwing a heavy ball down a lane? The bowling alley was right down the street from my class. I could zip there at lunch, zip back, no issues."
With bowling filling the hobby void, Jenkins had found the right formula for successfully completing the 33-week medical program.
The only issue: She didn't anticipate falling in love with the sport.
"Within that first year, I was hooked," said Jenkins, a native of Baltimore, Maryland. "If I had any free time, I would be in the bowling alley."
A year later, Jenkins joined her first bowling league while stationed at Fort Gordon in Augusta, Georgia, and quickly advanced from a "130-something" average to a "180-something" average, she said.
The thought of representing the Army Women's Bowling Team at the Armed Forces Bowling Championship never crossed her mind until she arrived in Kaiserslautern, Germany, to work for the 254th Medical Detachment COSC in 2011.
Over the next couple of years, Jenkins won one bowling tournament after another. She picked up various individual and team titles while playing for two Bundesliga squads based out of Mainz and Saarbruecken. The Bundesliga is Germany's highest sports league.
"I got to travel all over Germany to do that, which was awesome," she said.
She regularly won the weekly league tournaments held at the Vogelweh Bowling Center, her home court. In 2012, she represented the U.S. Army Garrison Rheinland-Pfalz Bowling Team at the U.S. Army Europe-level tournament in Grafenwoehr, Germany. That year, the garrison team, which is comprised of four men and four women, took the Commander's Cup, the tournament's top award. Jenkins and her playing partner at the time snagged the women's doubles title. Jenkins also bowled a 279 - that nearly-perfect game - to take third place overall at the tournament.
She spent the first half of 2013 in Afghanistan, returning with her unit after a nine-month deployment ready to pick up the bowling ball again. Her application to try out for the Army Women's Bowling Team was accepted for the 2014 trial camp at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington. The trial camp took place in May. There were eight bowlers trying out for four spots.
"By the end of the first day, I was at the bottom," said Jenkins. "I was struggling, making silly mistakes, just mentally beating myself up."
During the next two days of camp, she found her focus, adjusted her mechanics, and earned a nod from coaches to compete at the Armed Forces-level tournament the following week. The tournament matched the top bowlers from Army, Navy and Air Force. The Marines did not send a team. In the end, Jenkins and her three teammates prevailed.
"We hadn't taken gold in years. It's been a long time coming," she said.
Despite all the honors she has earned over her short five-year career, she still feels she has a lot to learn.
"I read books on [bowling]. I go online and watch videos," she said. "I talk with others and find out about their strategy. What works; what doesn't?"
As her three-year tour in Germany comes to an end, Jenkins will soon depart the Kaiserslautern Military Community to attend drill sergeant school at Fort Sill in Lawton, Oklahoma. She was selected by the Army for the assignment, an honor she describes as "the ultimate compliment for a noncommissioned officer. I'm really excited about it."
It's safe to say Jenkins will be spending most, if not all, of her free time at the base's bowling center. Her goals are simple.
"I would definitely like to repeat All-Army as much as possible," she said. "I've got another 12 years or so in the Army, so a lot's possible."
She is also still chasing that elusive perfect game.
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