Fitting retirement for two ACC-WRN employees

By Catherine LiedkeJanuary 25, 2016

Fitting retirement for two ACC-WRN employees
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Fitting retirement for two ACC-WRN employees
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Fitting retirement for two ACC-WRN employees
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How many people can say they retired on the same day as their best friend? Two Army Contracting Command-Warren, Michigan, retirees can say just that.

Elaine Lulko, ACC-WRN Government Travel Charge Card Program Agency program coordinator, and Janis Thelen, ACC-WRN DTS project lead, decided retiring on the same day was the most fitting way to end their careers considering their history. And a long history it is.

Lulko and Thelen met in junior high school and quickly became friends as part of a small group of people taking a block business class. They attended Roseville High School in Roseville, and even had identical class schedules their senior year. During their senior year, government representatives visited local high schools to administer the civil service exam for recruitment into the civil service. Not really knowing what the exam was for, Lulko and Thelen took it. But only because their teacher threatened to fail them if they did not.

After graduation from high school in June of 1976, Thelen began job searching and Lulko moved to full-time work at the industrial clinic she had worked at during high school. Soon, both were offered positions at what become the U.S. Army TACOM Life Cycle Management Command. Lulko got hired in November, 1976, followed by Thelen a month later.

This friendship was clearly much deeper than just schoolmates or co-workers. Lulko was Thelen's maid of honor and Thelen was Lulko's matron of honor, getting married three months apart to the day.

Over the next 39 years, their careers paralleled each other's, even working in the same office at times. Ironically, their career paths led them back together where they spent the last seven years sitting right next to each other in positions that closely intertwined.

After a shared retirement ceremony and celebration, the two retired on Jan. 2. When asked about plans for retirement, Thelen said, "We won't be together every day, but we plan to get together often. And we have already planned a trip to Washington, D.C., to see the cherry blossoms this spring."