FORT CARSON, Colo. -- The best memories Debra E. Phillips will have about her job will be those of the people whose lives and careers she has touched working for the government for more than 40 years.

"I had the best job one can have and I have never been bored one day in my life, never," she said to her colleagues, family members and friends gathered together for a retirement ceremony at the Elkhorn Conference Center, July 27.

She spent the last 18 years as the non-appropriated fund human resources officer at the Fort Carson Civilian Personnel Advisory Center.

"It wasn't just a job for me to go and get paid for. It was a job I took pride in," she said expressing her inspiration to come to work every day and try to do the best job that she could possibly do.

She reflected on the people she hired over the years, those whom she advised about a position, helped solve a problem or overcome a challenging situation. Her advice in managing people is crystal clear: "I truly believe in my heart that if you take your employee and do right to your employee, your employee will give you 100 percent … I live by that."

Phillips began her government career in 1972 at Travis Air Force Base, Calif. She remembers being proud of her first pay check making $1.15 an hour, a lot of money for a teenager just out of high school and still living at home with her parents.

She then held various positions with the Air Force and the Army before moving into the HR field in 1976 where she started as a personnel clerk and found her calling.

"She found her passion in HR … and what hasn't she implemented and what hasn't she done. And she's always done it with compassion and with love," said Marty Larson, director of the Civilian Personnel Advisory Center, in her farewell remarks. "She will be mostly missed for her personality and the way she cares about people. She is just extraordinary when it comes to dealing with people and in our job it's all about the people."

Phillips has distinguished herself in her performance with a wide variety of skills and her ability to provide guidance without having to reference a manual. She has acquired immense institutional knowledge over the years and has watched the agency evolve and progress with continued success.

"Debra has done everything she can to make Fort Carson and our Directorate of Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation the very best team you can have to take care of Soldiers and Families," said Nettie Eastlake, deputy director of DFMWR and longtime friend. "And it started right there, bringing on the right people and making sure the developmental opportunities were there for them."

"Technology, people, the mission: she has brought things to this installation," said Larson. "She was the first HR officer on the NAF side of the house for Army Machinery Recreation program. She has watched her staff grow, servicing (a) population going from 200 to 900 that we currently service here. The growth of child care centers, fitness centers, things that directly benefit every Soldier and Family member on this installation, Debra has been involved with."

Proof of an outstanding career, Phillips has been recognized with awards for every year she has worked for the federal government. During the retirement ceremony Larson presented her with four more, including the certificate for 40 years of loyal government service and the Superior Civilian Service Award for "superior performance in keeping with the highest standards of government service."

Phillips was also presented a congratulatory letter from President Barack Obama that read, "… Your hard work and dedication at the Department of the Army over the years have helped defend the American people and protect our way of life. Public service is an honorable calling, and it is my privilege to join you in celebrating your career."

After Obama's letter was read the entire room erupted into cheers and applause.

Daughter of an Air Force servicemember, Phillips was born at the old hospital complex on Fort Carson when the post, then named Camp Carson, consisted of a water tank with old barracks and few vintage buildings, she said.

"To see it coming along such a long way is amazing. … I have seen Fort Carson grow in a way that you would not believe. I will always have ties with Fort Carson and Colorado Springs has been my home, the place I chose to stay.

I have just always loved it. Every time I would go on temporary duty I would always say 'I can't wait to go back to my mountains.'"

Mother of two sons, Anthony and Brandon Phillips, whom she raised by herself, she is the proud grandmother of seven grandchildren. She said it was hard to cope with the job and a family, but she needed to work and she just made it work.

Phillips has seen the agency through many transitions including the conversion from typewriters to computers. "When they first brought a computer to the office," she remembers as if it was yesterday, "I thought I was such a good typist that the computer wouldn't keep up with me.

"But it is all about me, all about me now," Phillips said. "I have a chance for me while I am healthy and, I'll say, young, to enjoy a life I never had, and do what I want to do when I want to do it, in a week of endless weekends."

After retirement, she also looks forward to volunteer activities in an assisted living facility for older people in downtown Colorado Springs.

Her immediate plans include traveling, perhaps an Alaskan or a Caribbean cruise but, before schools reopen, she'll be off to California, "Disneyland first. I promised my grandkids and they won't let me forget," she said.