Do final military awards for retirement cover accomplishments from unit or from entire span of uniformed career?

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This is not to imply that an extended period of service should be considered for every individual who retires, such periods will be limited to the last 10 years of service.

Entire span of service

Entire career, including enlisted/officer together, if applicable. Keeping in mind the bullet comments are pulled from the past decade of service for the recommendation as per regulation. It can get a little more odd and weirder for recognition, if a service member has breaks in service or has changes in branch of service in terms of the final award citation, but the provisions remain the same. For example a service member started as a USMC enlisted, became an NCO, break in service, switched to US Army as an NCO, went to OCS, became an officer and then retired. In this case, emphasis would be on the US Army service period as an NCO and officer, UNLESS the preponderance of service time (>50%) was USMC. A good adjudant will understand how the final citation should be worded in this case.