Colonel James (Jim) Ferguson commissioned in July 1953 as a Second Lieutenant into the U.S. Army Chemical Corps. In September 1955, three months after release from his initial active duty tour at Rocky Mountain Arsenal, Denver, CO, he was assigned to the 464th Chemical Group, USAR, New York, NY. This began, what became a twenty nine year career in the U.S. Army Reserve; nineteen of which were in troop program units and in Chemical units where available.

Colonel Ferguson’s most far reaching contribution to the Chemical Corps was his commitment made in November 1991, to bring to fruition the development of the portable protective mask leakage tester, which is now known as the M46 Joint Service Mask Leakage Tester, the JSMLT.

A few of the projects Colonel Ferguson has helped develop are; protective masks including the XM29, MCU-2/AP, M40/M42, M45, and the M50-JSGPM. He has also helped develop the Advanced Chemical Agent Detection and Alarm ACADA, Modular Decontamination System, Sensitive Equipment Decontamination System, Research programs seeking anhydrous decontamination materials, and new technologies to the Chemical Demilitarization program for use in destroying chemical agents and non-stockpile material.

Colonel Ferguson has also chaired the Chemical Operations Division, American Defense Preparedness Association from December 1979 until December 1992. In 1981, he became a charter member of the old Chemical Corps Association.