#FlashbackFriday: How Exchanges Worldwide Responded After 9/11
After the 9/11 attacks, Exchanges in the New York City area and near Washington, D.C., supported troops and first responders with 24-hour operations and mobile field exchanges. Exchanges outside of New York and the Washington area did their part as well.
At Fort Eustis in southeastern Virginia and Fort Dix and McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey, associates held bake sales to raise money for a Red Cross emergency relief fund. During its Toyland opening on Sept. 15, 2001, the Whiteman Air Force Base Exchange in Missouri held a “We Love NYC” campaign to collect money for victims of the World Trade Center attacks.
Some Exchanges offered support closer to home, as military personnel were called on to work all hours in all kinds of weather to ensure the safety of posts and bases. The Exchange Post reported about associates at Travis Air Force Base in California delivering breakfast and lunch to troops manning the gates, and associates at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, delivering doughnuts to weary Soldiers.
In Puerto Rico, the Exchange provided support for more than 100 Puerto Rican Army National Reservists who flew to Washington to assist with cleanup efforts at the Pentagon. Schofield Barracks in Hawaii conducted Operation Aloha Lei, assembling a memorial lei more than two football fields long with floral messages honoring attack victims.
Sometimes the Exchange received support: In Germany, three days after the attacks, students from Gruenstadt Secondary School, Leininger Gymnasium, presented the interim general manager of the Gruenstadt Depot Exchange with a condolence list, as well as about DM 4,600 (about $2,400 in U.S. dollars at the time) they had collected, which was given to the local Red Cross chapter.
In February 2002, after New York City ran out of U.S. flags, the Exchange provided 600 flags to the city for funerals and burials of first responders who died in the attacks.
This is just a snapshot of the support, culled from Exchange Post reports and photos published in the aftermath of 9/11. “I am moved by the reports of your dedication,” Maj. Gen. C.J. Wax, the Exchange commander at the time, wrote in the Post. “What a profound opportunity to show the world what America is made of.”
