125 Years of Family Serving Family – Steven Garcia, freight rate tech, Logistics Directorate, HQ
One in a series honoring the Exchange’s 125 years of family serving family
Because of his lineage at the Exchange, Steven Garcia of the Logistics Directorate brings a unique perspective to family serving family. Dating back to the mid-1960s, nearly a dozen family members have worked for the Exchange and some are even working now.
“The Garcia family exemplifies the core value of family serving family because multiple generations of my family have either served in the Armed Forces or served our Warfighters through the Exchange,” Garcia said.
Cousin Santiago has worked for the Exchange for 19 years in the IT Directorate. Father Lonnie worked for the IT Directorate for 29 years, retiring in 2010 as a senior project manager. Uncle Jimmy also worked for the Exchange.
Steven Garcia has a family history with the Exchange that dates to the 1960s.
The family’s military service dates back to World War II and encompasses nearly every branch.
How could he not hear of the Exchange while attending the University of Texas at Arlington and hunting for work.
Five years ago, Garcia started as an Exchange associate in the NAS Fort Worth JRB Exchange before moving to HQ about two years ago. He is now a freight rate tech who helps figure costs of getting packages from point A to point B. Garcia, who helped launch today’s nearly 100 Ship from Store locations, manages rates for small packages in the program and also for e-commerce drop-ship delivery.
Father Lonnie worked on the Exchange’s first point-of-sale system in 1982 that scanned products rather than requiring cashiers to enter everything manually. This system served as the forerunner of today’s sophisticated point-of-sale technology. Lonnie also served as the Exchange’s IT chief in Europe from November 1996 to July 2001.
Steven said he takes great pride in his family’s legacy at the Exchange, but noted that family serving family is more than a legacy.
“I believe that family serving family encompasses people who work at the Exchange and the people that they serve,” he said. “We are family serving family because we are a part of the military family and have an understanding of military life in a way that no other retailer does.”
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Steven Garcia’s family history is deeply embedded in the history of the Exchange. Read more: https://wp.me/p7iUVQ-4eQ.
