BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La. -- Taryn Montgomery, 307th Bomb Wing budget officer retired after more than 40 years of civil service at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, July 30, 2021.
Friends and family celebrated her service during a static display of a B-52 Stratofortress and again at a farewell luncheon.
“You can’t do anything without people, and the people can’t perform without the money to do that,” said Col. David Anderson, 307th Operations Group Commander. “Terry has been essential in making sure the ‘wheels stay on the bus’ of the 307th Bomb Wing.”
Montgomery started her civil service in July 1981, as an orders clerk, manually typing Airmen’s orders.
Her proclivity for numbers eventually led her in a different direction.
“I got a secretary job in the budget office and was like ‘I kind of like this,’” said Montgomery, laughing. “Then they had an opening in pay.”
Over the years, she worked her way through several financial analyst positions before becoming a budget officer. Montgomery remained a constant through the departure and arrival of three different aircrafts and several wing name changes.
While cherished, she said those memories paled in comparison to the pride she felt in her units work following Hurricane Katrina.
When the 926th Fighter Wing in New Orleans was evacuated, her office proved capable of maintaining their own workload and providing pay and travel voucher assistance to the displaced unit. This earned her team the Air Force Reserve Command’s Finance Office of the Year award in 2006.
Now that she has retired, she plans to spend her days renovating her home, reading and visiting friends in Florida.
“You know, this has been my home for a couple of years now,” she said, tilting her head and smiling. “I’m definitely going to miss it and the people, but I’ll be around.”