125 Years of Family Serving Family – Jason Rakestraw, Logistics, HQ & Patricia Rakestraw, Real Estate, HQ

One in a series honoring the Exchange’s 125 years of family serving family

Jason and Patricia Rakestraw first met at the Hawaii Exchange office in 2003 where Patricia was an office assistant and Jason worked as the Hawaii distribution manager. They were married the next year and have since PCS’d six times together as a family.

“What a great experience that has been for our entire family,” Patricia said of their moves. “It gave us the opportunity to meet people from all over the world.”

Jason, who began as a college trainee, is chief of omni-channel logistics. Patricia paused her career to raise their family and recently returned to the Exchange as a fixtures and equipment planner in Real Estate at headquarters.

Jason got to see family serving family in action from his father, an Army Veteran who also retired from the Exchange after 20 years.

“I am proud of the Exchange mission and the support we provide to servicemen and women and their families,” Jason said. “Knowing what we do is improving the quality of life wherever they are is extremely rewarding.”

For Patricia, beginning at the store level and seeing regular shoppers gave her a strong insight into the Exchange’s mission.

“I want to take care of the customer like I would take care of family,” she said.