JBSA-Fort Sam Houston Associate Retires—On Her 40th Anniversary With the Exchange

On Oct. 1, 2021, Diane Pagel, operations manager at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, will retire exactly 40 years after she started working at the Exchange.

Diane Pagel, operations manager at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, deposits sales receipts into the smart safe for all the JBSA Exchange branches. During her Exchange careers, she has worked at store in Michigan, California, New Jersey, Idaho and Texas as well as Germany, which was her favorite location.

Pagel served in many positions at the Exchange, including service station attendant, automotive customer service counter, sales associate, lead associate, supervisor, branch manager, assistant store manager, sales & merchandise manager and main store manager.

Branch manager was her favorite job.

“Back in the day we would have huge hangar events and it was always fun to set up and run them,” she said. “Customers were happy, and in the end we had gained customers for life.”

She worked at many Exchanges, including in Michigan, California, New Jersey, Idaho and Texas as well as Germany, which was her favorite location.

“I enjoyed the culture and working with the local nationals; I learned a lot from the local national managers,” she said.

Several of her family members have served in the military: Pagel’s father, father-in-law, sister, three brothers-in-law, an uncle and a nephew have served, totaling more than 130 years of service.

Others are part of the Exchange family: Pagel’s daughter, Jennifer, worked at Hill AFB, Fort Bliss and Vandenberg AFB, and her son-in-law, Arturo Garcia, is the general manager at Mountain Home AFB.

Pagel has been positively influenced by current and former Exchange leaders.

“I would like to recognize the following individuals who made lasting impressions throughout my career with their great leadership—they taught me to fight and to never give up, and they pushed me to the next level: Karen Stack, chief logistics officer; Marla Randolph Smith, senior vice president, Europe Region; Michelle Weisshaar, chief business officer, Europe Region; retired Senior Vice Presidents Shelly Armstrong and Javier Cerna; and retired General Managers Lynn Thomson, William Hoover and Len Freitas,” she said.