FORT DRUM, N.Y. -- The woman who for many years helped align the stars at 10th Mountain Division (LI) headquarters received fond farewells Friday from one-, two-, three- and four-star generals who knew her well.
Carolyn R. Ferguson, executive assistant to the commanding general of Fort Drum and 10th Mountain Division (LI), retired with more than 34 years of federal service. She said she was humbled by the privilege of working for such a great organization.
"It is impossible for me to individually thank everybody who has touched my life over (these years)," she said during an emotional ceremony Friday morning. "It has been a true honor and privilege to serve the command team, all the commanding generals, de-puty commanding generals and chiefs of staff.
"I look across the room, and you have all touched my life, just as so many other people have," she added. "I thank you all very, very much."
Ferguson later received the Department of the Army Meritorious Civilian Service Award from Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who was at Fort Drum conducting a town hall meeting with Soldiers and Family Members.
She was a high school senior when her parents signed paperwork allowing her to enlist in the Women's Army Corps under the delayed entry program in 1976. After her honorable military service, she entered the federal workforce at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona before spending three years working at Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany.
After arriving at Fort Drum in 1990, she worked in various roles for 10 years before becoming executive assistant to the division commander.
Ferguson deployed to Afghan-istan with division headquarters three times and served directly under eight commanding generals here. The distinguished list includes Gen. Lloyd Austin III, commander of U.S. Central Command; Gen. Mark A. Milley, commander of U.S. Army Forces Command; Lt. Gen. James Terry, Third Army / U.S. Army Central commander; and four retired lieutenant generals -- James Campbell, Franklin "Buster" Hagenbeck, Benjamin Freakley and Michael Oates.
In a gesture of the kind of fondness many of the generals held for Ferguson, Campbell mailed her the stars he last wore on his uniform at Fort Drum.
During the retirement ceremony Friday morning, Brig. Gen. Michael L. Howard, 10th Mountain Division (LI) acting senior commander, read a note from the division's commander currently deployed to Afghanistan.
"On behalf of the Soldiers of the 10th Mountain Division (LI) and the entire Fort Drum community, please accept my personal gratitude for your many years of dedicated service to the U.S. Army and Fort Drum," Maj. Gen. Stephen J. Townsend wrote. "Your dedication, sacrifice and personal zeal in caring for Soldiers contributed immeasurably to the 10th Mountain Division and America's Army during a critical period in our history. Thank you for dutifully working to improve the lives of our Soldiers, Civilians and our way of life."
Each of the other seven generals also wrote notes praising Ferguson for running a smooth and highly professional day-to-day operation at division headquarters. They said whether in war or peace, Ferguson was a wise and trusted confidant who always had their backs.
"This is the kind of loyalty this woman brings out of people," Howard said. "(It's) because of the way she serves."
Howard, for whom Ferguson worked over the past year, said division headquarters has looked like a florist shop during the last days of her tenure.
"My final word," Howard told her, "I'm not one of your CGs, but I will miss you as much as every one of those CGs."
Ferguson plans to stay in New York state with her husband, Greg Ferguson, who retired as the head of Fort Drum's Directorate of Em- ergency Services in May.
After the town hall meeting Friday, alluding to the later success of so many of the generals Ferguson worked alongside, Dempsey said she should have been nicknamed the "kingmaker."
Reflecting on two and a half decades with the 10th Mountain Division (LI), Ferguson said Fort Drum and the community here will always hold a special place in her heart.
"This is my family," she said. "It has been like that since I started working here. I'm really going to miss them."
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