Kirtland civilian marks 50 years of service
Taking a civil service exam on a lark turned into a career of 50 years and counting for a civilian employee at Kirtland Air Force Base.
Magdalena Strickland, general supply specialist at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, received letters of recognition from members of Congress, a flag flown over the U.S. Capitol, a 50-year pin and a command coin during a ceremony last month. Donna Sullivan, director of Acquisition, Finance and Logistics who works from the DTRA Headquarters at Fort Belvoir, Va., presided over the ceremony.
Strickland’s career began Nov. 28, 1956, at now-closed Harlingen Air Force Base, Texas. She took 10 years off to be a stay-at-home mother and then returned to civil service.
“Maggie’s been with us the whole time, and she’s never failed to do a fabulous job,” Sullivan said.
Amos Strickland Jr., the second of Strickland’s five children, said his mother is just as committed to her family as to her job. “She’s a saint,” he said. Around the time she graduated from Brownsville High School in Brownsville, Texas, Strickland saw a flier in the post office announcing administration of the civil service exam. She and her friends took the eight-hour test, and she passed it.
Strickland was willing to work anywhere in the United States, but her mother informed her she wasn’t leaving town. She changed her forms to indicate she would work only at Harlingen, and began working in supply there.
Strickland likes to joke that she started in civil service when she was a year old. “Child labor laws were not in effect then,” she jested.
She worked at Harlingen for five years before she married an airman in 1961. The couple moved to Keesler and Columbus Air Force bases, both in Mississippi, before arriving at Kirtland in 1971.
With her fifth child 3 months old then, it wasn’t practical for her to have a job outside the home. Strickland focused on her family for 10 years before returning to a civil service job in supply.
Her husband retired from the Air Force and went into civil service at Kirtland. He died two months short of their 30th anniversary in 1991.
When Strickland returned to the workforce, she started at the
Air Force Weapons Laboratories and then moved to DTRA in 1998.
“I love my job,” she said. “My doctor said it was the best thing to keep Alzheimer’s and dementia away.”
Strickland orders vehicles and other supplies, and makes sure local DTRA employees have whatever they need. She said she particularly enjoys interacting with the people there.
“Everybody’s a good person,” she said.
Strickland has no plans to retire.
DTRA Chief of Facilities and Logistics Andre Smith, whose office is at Fort Belvoir, has worked with her for 15 years.
“I know that she’s been a consistent employee as far as providing excellent customer service for our support,” he said, adding that Strickland is happy to come to work.
Paul Collins, division chief of facilities and logistics at DTRA’s Kirtland site, agreed that her customer service is exceptional.
“I think the world of Maggie,” he said.