More than paperwork: Richard Hammonds leaves legacy of taking care of people

FORT SILL, Okla. — Orders can mean moving a family across the country. An identification card can mean access to benefits and services. Retirement paperwork can close a military career that spans decades.

At Fort Sill’s Military Personnel Division, those may be personnel actions. To the Soldier, retiree or family member waiting for help, they are personal.

Richard Hammonds has spent much of his career making sure employees remember the difference.

As a senior human resources specialist with MPD, Hammonds has helped members of the Fort Sill community navigate the administrative requirements that follow service members throughout their careers. As he prepares to retire after more than 20 years as an Army civilian, he leaves behind a straightforward standard.

“The mission for the MPD to me is very simple: provide the best customer service to every customer,” Hammonds said.

That philosophy was shaped in part by his own 23 years in uniform and by remembering what it felt like to be the person on the other side of the counter.

A lifetime of service

Hammonds came from a family with a history of military service and joined the Navy after high school on Oct. 1, 1979.

He entered the medical field and worked in areas that included emergency medicine, laboratory services, X-ray, pharmacy, psychiatric care and sick call. The range of assignments taught him to adapt, while the people around him helped shape his approach to leadership.

Many of his early leaders were Vietnam veterans, whose experience left a lasting impression on him.

But when Hammonds considers who influenced him most personally and professionally, he points closer to home.

“The person that had the greatest influence on the person and professional I became was definitely my wife and kids,” he said.

Hammonds retired from military service Sept. 30, 2002, and moved with his family to Tipton, Oklahoma, near his wife’s extended family.

Three years later, he returned to government service.

He began his Army civilian career at Fort Sill July 5, 2005, with the Directorate of Plans, Training, Mobilization and Security. After seven years with DPTMS, he moved to the Military Personnel Division in 2012.

The job was different, but the focus on serving people remained.

Helping Soldiers through every stage of service

MPD provides many of the personnel services Soldiers and families depend on throughout a military career, including ID cards and Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System support, reassignments, in-processing, transitions and retirement services. The division also supports Fort Sill’s large training population.

That means MPD employees may encounter a Soldier when they first arrive at Fort Sill, when orders send them somewhere new or when they are preparing to leave military service altogether.

Luis A. Pagan, chief of the Military Personnel Division, said Hammonds’ experience and judgment strengthened the organization’s ability to provide that support.

“Richard Hammonds has been an exceptional leader within the Military Personnel Division, bringing deep expertise, steady judgment, and a genuine commitment to Soldiers, families, trainees, and retirees,” Pagan said. “His work has strengthened the division’s ability to deliver dependable personnel support across the Fort Sill community.”

Hammonds understood the importance of that service because he had spent more than two decades as one of those customers.

During his military career, he remembered the employees who took ownership of an issue and left him feeling that someone genuinely cared whether it was resolved.

Those experiences followed him into MPD.

He asks employees to put themselves in the customer’s place and consider one question:

“If you were the customer right now, how would you like to be treated and what type of service would you expect?” For Hammonds, that often meant helping solve a problem rather than simply identifying one.

M. Lorenzo Heller, director of Military Programs, said Hammonds changed the way he thought about the phrase “Johnny-on-the-spot.”

“Whenever a critical issue arose, he was instantly there, not just present, but entirely locked in,” Heller said. “He saved our team countless hours of frustration and delay through his sheer, relentless desire to deconstruct a problem and deliver results.”

Heller said that while others might still be assessing an issue, Hammonds was often already working toward a solution.

Building the team behind the service

When Hammonds talks about the accomplishments that matter most to him, he does not begin with a particularly difficult personnel case.

He talks about people.

Mentoring junior employees and helping them reach personal and professional goals has been one of the most meaningful parts of his Fort Sill career.

That investment matters to customers as well. Employees who understand the work and know how to navigate personnel systems are better prepared to help the Soldier or family member standing in front of them.

Glenn Waters, DPTMS director and a retired Army colonel, has known Hammonds since 2013 and said his influence extends beyond his own workload.

“He leaves behind an inspiring legacy of getting the job done with the utmost professionalism while always putting people first,” Waters said. “Beyond his day-to-day work, Richard took the time to train and elevate everyone around him. Those he mentored are ready to step up and carry his standard forward.”

That depth of experience has become increasingly important as MPD has faced workforce reductions, retirements and other departures without immediately replacing every employee.

The mission, however, continued.

Soldiers still received orders. Families still needed identification cards and DEERS assistance. New personnel arrived at Fort Sill, while others transitioned or retired.

Hammonds said MPD restructured to better serve customers and used borrowed military manpower to help fill some staffing gaps.

The experience reinforced something he had learned throughout his career: regulations and organizations change, but people continue to need help.

“Customers will always need help throughout their careers for themselves and their families,” he said.

A career measured in people

Hammonds said some of his best experiences at Fort Sill came simply from being in a position to improve the service someone received.

Sometimes that meant resolving a difficult personnel issue. Sometimes it meant helping an employee grow. Often it meant assisting someone regardless of where the problem originated.

That is also how he hopes to be remembered.

“I think that people will remember that when someone asked me for help in getting something done, I always helped them no matter where they worked across Fort Sill or what it involved,” Hammonds said.

His career began with caring for people in Navy medicine and continued with more than two decades of civilian service at Fort Sill.

As he prepares to retire, Hammonds believes MPD is stronger than when he joined the division in 2012.

“I know that the MPD is now a better place to work than when I first came here,” he said, crediting its leadership and a culture of wanting to help others.

The regulations will continue to change. New systems will replace old ones. Soldiers will continue arriving at Fort Sill, families will move, and careers will begin and end.

Hammonds will not be there for the next personnel action.

But the people he trained will be.

His influence will remain, if they continue asking the question he asked throughout his career, If I were the customer, how would I want to be treated?

Behind every personnel action is a person counting on someone to care.

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