In honor of Memorial Day, this story is provided and presented by our sponsor, The Army & Air Force Exchange Service. The Exchange was established by General Orders No. 46 in 1895 to provide goods and services to military members and their dependents.
Since the creation of post exchanges in 1895, there has been some form of an exchange providing goods and services to military members during every major military conflict. Since 9/11, 4,468 Exchange associates have deployed to support our military customers.
Our associates’ close affinity with the military stems largely from family ties or former service. 88 percent of Exchange associates have such an affiliation — which means we truly are Family Serving Family.
It is because of you that we exist and continue to serve — wherever we are needed — whether that is on military installation in CONUS or downrange in a combat zone. (Because of You Video)
In honor of Memorial Day, we offer a retrospective of some of our involvement throughout our 120 years of service and support to our military members during conflicts at home and abroad.
The Spanish-American War began in April 1898, less than three years after the War Department formed the post exchanges. The Army’s subsistence and quartermaster departments provided the basic necessities to troops in the field. At permanent garrisons, units established and operated their own post exchanges, including those in Hawaii for troops en route to the Philippines.
World War I: The sheer volume of 2 million soldiers deployed to France and elsewhere overseas, made it impossible for anyone to do the job alone. The post exchanges served troops in CONUS while groups such as the YMCA, American Red Cross, Salvation Army and others provided services to American troops overseas.
PXs popped up throughout Central America, the Caribbean, South America, Europe, North Africa, China, India, the South Pacific and the Middle East.
Some facts about those WWII era exchanges: The first PX in Europe during World War II was operated by the 34th Infantry Division and opened in a Nissan hut in Belfast, Northern Ireland in February 1942 to serve the first contingent of American troops.
Canteens were operated by German and Italian POWs at military bases under supervision of local post exchange officers. The prisoners would get their merchandise from the nearest Army exchange.
The Army Exchange Service operated a major PX in Brisbane, Australia, the headquarters for Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s Pacific division.
The Berlin Exchange delivered sandwiches and drinks to the tarmacs to serve Air Force pilots participating in the Berlin Airlift.
Although premiering in World War II, mobile exchanges became more widespread in Korea. 18 school buses were converted into mobile exchanges to serve forward operating troops of the 8th Army. 10 two-and-a-half ton trucks operated out of the depot in Punsan, a two-car PX train and a C-47 Air Force PX also delivered merchandise to the troops.
The exchanges packed 193 tons of merchandise for the troops, who were deployed to the country to help quell a Lebanese political crisis. Staffed by no more than 10 military officers, Exchanges were eventually located at the main base of military operations in Beirut, two tents and two hotels.
The last four AAFES managers and 35 Vietnamese who worked at the PXs were airlifted to safety on April 30, 1975, just before the fall of Saigon.
1,100 AAFES Associates deployed to support our customers in Vietnam from 1966 to 1973.
Middle East, March-June 1982: AAFES supported an 11-nation group of multinational forces and observers stationed in the Sinai to patrol a buffer zone between Egypt and Israel to help carry out terms of the 1979 Camp David Accords. AAFES set up a store at Eitam AB in the north and another store at Sharm al Sheikh.
Panama, Dec. 20, 1989-Jan. 3, 1990: Associates provided support to more than 24,000 troops who entered Panama to protect American airbases in the country from threatened attacks by Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega. Associates were already in the country, working in main stores, shoppettes, cafeterias and service stations. Hundreds of other associates at their home exchanges and distribution centers in CONUS served troops readying for deployment.
AAFES support included 17 major retail operations, 152 troop-run facilities, 610 movie locations, and a distribution center. AAFES and AT&T began a calling program for troops, while mobile food trucks began running throughout the country, supplemented by Baskin-Robbins and Pizza Inn.
Exchanges across CONUS and Europe pitched in to serve military families and their loved ones readying for deployment. When troops landed at intermediate points in the Azores, Germany and Spain, AAFES greeted them. At Germany’s Rhein-Main AB, the exchange provided 24-hour retail service and trucked soft drinks, coffee, hot chocolate, ice and decks of cards to incoming troops housed in tent cities.
Associates Deployed: 53 AAFES civilian managers. More than 335 associates volunteered to deploy.
The Balkans, January 1996 to today: Beginning in late 1995, AAFES associates opened hundreds of stores, restaurants, concessions and services in Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo, Hungary and elsewhere to support 20,000 U.S. troops that were part of a NATO peacekeeping force.
"AAFES associates have become a valuable part of the American team and have shared the good and bad of the experience with those they serve—eating the same food, sleeping in the same tents, and trading their business suits for BDUs and Kevlar," wrote Gen. Dennis Reimer, the Army’s Chief of Staff, in 1998. "Thank you, AAFES, for being there for us."
From March to June 1999, AAFES operated three stores and a mobile exchange in Albania, for NATO forces in Operation Allied Force, the bombing campaign meant to stop human rights abuses by the Serbs in Kosovo.
Today, AAFES operates three stores in Kosovo, two in Bosnia and one each in Romania and Bulgaria.
9/11 terrorist attacks: Dozens of associates from Washington, D.C.-area exchanges and in New York City served first responders at the Pentagon and World Trade Center. AAFES set up mobile field exchanges at both sites as well as around New York City.
In New York City, about 10 associates rotated shifts to serve the troops, with as many as 30 involved at the beginning.
At the Pentagon, AAFES associates from Andrews AFB, Fort Myer, Fort Belvoir and Bolling AFB worked around the clock in the Mobile Field Exchange.
Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom, October 2001 to today: For Operation Enduring Freedom, about 250 AAFES associates from CONUS and Europe initially deployed to open retail facilities in: Afghanistan, Bahrain, Djibouti, Africa, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Uzbekistan.
AAFES’ operations quickly morphed into a sophisticated network of large stores at Kandahar AB in southeast Afghanistan to Bagram AB in the center, from Camp Leatherneck and Camp Bastion in the southern portion to such forward operating bases as Sharana, Salerno and Fenty along the border with Pakistan.
AAFES began serving more than 200,000 troops in Operation Iraqi Freedom almost from the time their boots were on the ground in March 2003. AAFES’ first "exchange" in Iraq was the back of a Toyota Land Cruiser at Tallil AB, operated by two associates until a more permanent structure could be established.
Five AAFES associates who deployed during OEF/OIF have received the Department of Defense’s Defense of Freedom Medal — the civilian equivalent of the Purple Heart — after being wounded in action. Another was awarded posthumously, to associate Darren Braswell, after he was killed in the line of duty.
We honor Memorial Day as we remember those in our extended family who have paid the ultimate price.
