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By Nick Sellers | Staff Writer

MADISON – After graduating from East Limestone High School in 2001, Raquel Moore set out to find her calling as a person and a professional.

She attended Calhoun Community College for a semester and decided it wasn’t for her. Moore also bounced jobs with a temp agency for a while before her life began to pull in a different direction.

“In the middle of finding myself, the [United States] Army started calling me,” Moore said.

As she found out more about active service, Moore began training for the Army. Money for schooling was also in the back of her mind, and eventually, Moore enlisted in the United States Navy and went to boot camp training in October 2002 at Naval Station Great Lakes.

After training, Moore’s first assignment was on the USS Emory S. Land overseas in Italy. Moore’s assignment on the submarine tender – a type of ship that supports actual submarines – was upkeep, a duty Moore transferred from after four months to a job in a chaplain’s office.

Soon after that, Moore made the jump to the dental field, attending Dental A-School at Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas. She also received training at Naval Hospital Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, N.C.

From December 2004 until June 2008, at the end of Moore’s enlistment, she served at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. She advanced from the rate of E3 to E4 and eventually E5. Moore became a dental technician and also served on the presidential dentistry team, helping provide many high-ranking federal government officials with dental care.

At the end of her enlistment, Moore stayed on another three years with a Navy Reserve unit in Chattanooga until 2011.

“I still wanted to serve, and I still had that feeling that I was going to serve my country,” Moore said.

Moore works on Redstone Arsenal at the on-base dental clinic. In February, Moore cut the ribbon on her mentoring program in Madison, Mending Young Hearts for Christ.