FORT KNOX, Ky. — Few residents of Fort Knox may have noticed that the installation gained a new postmaster on May 18.
They check their mail, they drop mail and packages off to be delivered, they buy stamps, they go home confident that their mail is being handled properly. That’s the way Mary Cardoza-Lane likes it.
“Fort Knox is a great place to be postmaster,” said Cardoza-Lane. “There is so much respect here, and it’s a really special family atmosphere. I feel that every day.”
According to historical records, Cardoza-Lane is also considered the first female to hold the postmaster position at Fort Knox.
“There have been acting postmasters before, but for actual postmasters, it looks like I’m the first one,” said Cardoza-Lane. “I thought that was interesting.”
Cardoza-Lane began her career with the U.S. Postal Service in 2005 as a city carrier in Louisville. She said she was hoping not to stay there too long.
“I was trying to get closer to home,” said Cardoza-Lane. “We live in [Elizabethtown] and the hour commute was a lot.”
Soon after starting at the Louisville office, she got word of a clerk position that had opened up at Fort Knox. Cardoza-Lane said she contacted the acting postmaster at that time – Larry Figg. Figg soon became the Fort Knox postmaster.
“He brought me down here from Louisville as a clerk,” said Cardoza-Lane. “That was my first taste of the military – how things are written, including building numbers and military units.”
After about a year, Cardoza-Lane was promoted to acting supervisor, and by 2008, she moved into the permanent supervisor position.
In 2013, Cardoza-Lane took a position as acting postmaster in Leitchfield, Kentucky, 32 miles southwest of Elizabethtown, before eventually serving at the Vine Grove, Kentucky office as the postmaster. She held that position for the next 11 years.
During that time, she also had acting postmaster assignments at Elizabethtown and Shepherdsville offices, as well as a stint as acting manager of Post Office operations for a while. Operations managers supervise several area postmasters.
By 2023, as Figg prepared to retire, Cardoza-Lane found herself managing the mail at several locations besides just Vine Grove.
“Larry’s been gone since last summer, so I’ve really been here almost a year,” said Cardoza-Lane. “I was running this whole side of [Hardin and Meade counties]. I was running Vine Grove; I was running Fort Knox, Muldraugh and West Point.
Cardoza-Lane was officially sworn in as Fort Knox postmaster June 28. While she is no longer responsible for the Vine Grove office, she still manages the Muldraugh and West Point offices.
Cardoza-Lane admits the biggest driving force behind most of her career decisions has been family.
“Because I’m a mom, you kind of get to this point where you’re juggling this career and being a mom, and I have an Army captain as a son,” said Cardoza-Lane. “I like to be available when he and his family need things. This is a good job for that because while I’m still working, it gives me a little more family time, too.”
Her son currently serves at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and he and his wife are expecting their second baby.
Cardoza-Lane said she was surprised at the welcome she has received since returning.
“Coming back here, there were so many people who remembered me, and others I’ve known for 20 years,” said Cardoza-Lane.
Cardoza-Lane said while she has always had a passion for handling mail at the Postal Service, she gets more value out of it at Fort Knox.
“It’s always meaningful when you’re dealing with people’s mail, because it’s important to them,” said Cardoza-Lane. “But it’s more meaningful working with the Soldiers. When I have a Soldier who comes to me and they’re like, ‘Hey, I can’t find my package because I’ve just moved three times,’ what I think of is my kids.
“I really feel it, because it’s happened to them.”
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