Fort Gordon Associate Celebrates 50 Years—And Then Some

Marjorie Purcell, a Fort Gordon logistics assistant, officially celebrated 50 years with the Exchange in September. But her Exchange experience actually started before 1975.

Purcell, who graduated from high school in 1968, said that an Army recruiter came to her school during her senior year. Purcell had yet to figure out what career she wanted, so she decided to sign up. She served in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) for about a year and half.

“For a while, it suited me,” she said. “But I was about to get married, so I decided to get out.”

Purcell went through basic training at Aniston, Alabama, and advanced individual training at Fort Gordon before being assigned to Fort Riley, Kansas. “Back then, everything was restricted,” she said. “We couldn’t go off the installation, so we did all our shopping at the Exchange.”

After she separated from the WAC, Purcell, whose husband served in the Army Signal Corps, applied for several jobs, including at the Exchange, where she was hired in 1970 as a food service worker in Stuttgart, Germany.

She didn’t stay in that job long, leaving to take a civil-service job that she worked in for about a year. But when she and her husband returned to the States, she came back to the Exchange, this time as a food service worker at Fort Gordon.

“The Exchange just suited my lifestyle, and I felt that I fit into it,” she said. “The benefits kept me here, and the military atmosphere is so different from what you find elsewhere.”

During her time at the Exchange, Purcell has done a little bit of everything. In 1978, she made the transition to retail. She’s also worked in warehouse/stockroom jobs and office jobs

Since 2007, she has been a logistics assistant, except for a short period when she was a warehouse worker. Since 1975, all those jobs have been at Fort Gordon, but she wasn’t exactly staying put.

“I moved around a lot at Fort Gordon,” she said. “I didn’t want to become stagnant and do the same thing for 50 years. With each move, I added a lot to my knowledge of how the Exchange works. I don’t think anyone can know everything, but that’s another thing that kept me going, just learning.

“I always loved what I was doing at the time,” she added. “The people you meet are so interesting. You get people from all walks of life at the Exchange.”

Purcell isn’t going for the official 55 years. She will retire at the end of October.

“I’m ready to calm down and not have a lot on my plate anymore,” she said. “I’m going to keep going, but I don’t want to still be going 9-to-5.”