Exchange Deploys Mobile Field Exchange to Serve Afghan Special Immigrant Applicants at Fort Lee
The Exchange deployed a Mobile Field Exchange, a 53-foot-store on wheels, to serve as many as 3,500 Afghan special immigrant applicants at Fort Lee in support of the State Department-led Operation Allies Refuge.
When the military calls for mission support, the Exchange is quick to respond.
Just four days after leaders of Task Force-Eagle requested a Mobile Field Exchange (MFE) to support the State Department-led Operation Allies Refuge, the 53-foot store on wheels arrived to Fort Lee after a 1,300-mile trek from the Exchange’s Waco Distribution Center in Texas.
Stocked with hygiene products, snacks, beverages and other essentials, the MFE will serve as many as 3,500 Afghan special immigrant applicants—including interpreters and others who have supported the U.S. mission and their families—during their brief stay at Fort Lee.
“For the past 126 years, the Exchange has followed American service members to remote locations and natural disasters at home and abroad,” said Fort Lee Exchange General Manager, Eric Desveaux. “Our team is fully prepared to welcome our Afghan guests and make them as comfortable as possible during their stay.”
In 2020, the Exchange deployed an MFE to the Army field hospital at the Javits Center in Manhattan, New York, to serve Soldiers as they supported COVID-19 relief efforts. The Exchange also served more than 17,000 Warfighters deployed for Exercise DEFENDER-Europe 20, the largest U.S. exercise in Europe in more than 25 years. In all, the Exchange supported 23 military exercises across Europe, Southwest Asia and Africa as well as four major exercises in the Pacific in 2020.
