FORT KNOX, Ky. –
This week before a large audience of supportive friends and family, Lt. Col. Lyndsey Thompson took command of the U.S. Army Accessions Mission Support Battalion (AMSB) of the U.S. Army Marketing and Engagement Brigade at Flagg Field in Fort Knox, Kentucky. She succeeds Lt. Col. Heather Schmitt, who has led the ‘Workhorse’ Battalion with dedication and distinction for the last two years.
Thompson has a strong link to the Fort Knox community as her father was also stationed at Fort Knox years ago. She attended high school on post, and eventually her family fell in love with the area and decided to plant roots in the community who welcomed them with open arms.
“Dad [moved] a few more times, but Mom, Desmond (my younger brother), and I stayed here,” Thompson said. “Desmond and I both graduated from Western Kentucky University, where I commissioned into the Army through the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC).”
Thompson is extremely grateful to have the honor of leading this unique battalion in its goal of enabling the Army’s recruiting mission, expressing her appreciation to the leadership of the brigade and the U.S. Army Recruiting Command.
“Major General Davis, Colonel Rutka, thank you for placing your confidence in me and allowing me this opportunity,” Thompson said during remarks at the Change of Command Ceremony. “I won’t let you down.”
During her closing comments followed the event’s transfer of command, Schmitt praised the Soldiers of the battalion, and expressed for the audience the battalion’s distinctive role.
“The AMSB is a small battalion with a big mission,” she related. “We get to tell our Army story while creating personal and powerful engagements and experiences through shared passions to encourage America’s young people to join the Army. In fact, soon after taking command I changed the [our] motto to ‘We get to do this!’ because at no other time in any of our Army careers will we have this kind of opportunity.”
Thompson joins the AMSB following service in a wide variety of capacities, including deployments to both Afghanistan and Iraq, and most recently served as the deputy intelligence officer with V Corps here at Fort Knox.
“I've had the privilege of serving under several phenomenal leaders and I've learned more than I could ever recite, but there are four items that I have gathered over the last 19 years that I've referred back to with each new assignment,” Thompson said. “Don't be afraid the rock the boat, ask the hard questions, get to the root of the problem before you start trying to solve it, and as my former boss and mentor Vice Adm. (Ret.) Jim Malloy [would say] - ‘The risk if found in the seams, transitions, and first of's.’ These four pillars have served me well over the past few years, and going into a command as unique as this, it will serve my staff and I to heed these lessons.”
As a native of Fort Knox and her links within the greater community, Thompson is looking forward to the many challenges, opportunities, and experiences her tenure as commander of the AMSB will bring.
“I took my very first PT test on this post, I went to Basic Camp on this post, my father went to basic training, and served as a drill sergeant and a first sergeant on this post,” she said. “Fort Knox is home and there is nowhere else I would rather command.”