Flashback Friday: Remembering the Exchange’s First Woman Commander
In honor of Women’s History Month, Flashback Friday remembers Maj. Gen. Kathryn Frost, the Exchange’s first woman commander, who led the Exchange from August 2002 to April 2005.
In this 2004 photo, Maj. Gen. Kathryn Frost is shown helping open a mobile field exchange in Haiti during her tenure as Exchange commander.
Frost directed Exchange support for troops during Operation Iraqi Freedom and oversaw the continued service in Operation Enduring Freedom. She also created “Help Our Troops Call Home,” in which prepaid phone cards could be sent to deployed troops, and “Gifts from the Homefront,” a program in which Americans could buy gift certificates for troops deployed to Southwest Asia and other contingency locations. The troops could then redeem the certificates at an exchange.
As Brig. Gen. Kathryn Carlson, she also served the Exchange from September 1996 to July 1998, when she was deputy commanding general. In 1998, she married U.S. Rep. Martin Frost.
When she retired in 2005, she was the highest-ranking woman in the Army. Her last day as Exchange commander was April 7 of that year—the 31st anniversary of the day she started her Army career as a member of the Women’s Army Corps at Fort McClellan.
On Aug. 18, 2006, 16 months after her retirement, Frost died of breast cancer, which had been diagnosed the year she became Exchange commander. A memorial service was held at Exchange headquarters, attended by her husband, government officials, colleagues and Exchange associates.
“Kathy Frost was a Soldier’s Soldier,” Maj. Gen. Bill Essex, the Exchange commander at the time, said at her memorial service. “[She] led this organization with a passion for taking care of Soldiers, AAFES associates and customers.”
Sources: Exchange Post archives, Exchange history Flickr
