126 Years of Family Serving Family – Aloysius Carino, Offutt Air Force Base
One in a series honoring the Exchange’s 126 years of family serving family
Aloysius Carino, an annex supervisor at Offutt Air Force Base, wanted to follow in the footsteps of his father and brother by joining the military, but he couldn’t enlist due to an injury. So he did the next best thing: he joined the Exchange.
Carino has worked at Offutt for 24 years. He started at the main Exchange and was there for ten years as a sales associate, cashier, customer service leader and store operations associate. Then he was a shift manager at the Military Clothing and Sales store for five years and an Express shift manager for three years.
He remembers the advice his former manager, Cindy Marino (now retired), gave to him.
“She said that working at an Express store is a great experience because you get hands-on training and learn about all aspects of running a store,” Carino said. “I miss her, she was fun to work with.”
Carino got the chance to put her advice into practice at the Express on the Lincoln Air National Guard Base, where he was a one-person operation: ordering, receiving, stocking and serving customers at the register.
“It gives you an opportunity to move up and, like I tell people, learning is an ongoing thing,” Carino said.
He liked working at that location because he met a lot of young Soldiers who came there for leadership training.
“I enjoyed hearing their stories about life in the military, and when I told them about my family members who were serving, they would ask me questions,” said Carino, whose father and brother both retired from the Air Force after serving for 20 years.
Carino also got to experience the Exchange motto of “We Go Where You Go” stateside when he traveled to Forts McCoy, Campbell and Leonard Wood to help set up new stores.
His favorite location (so far) is the annex where he works now
“It’s small, easy to manage and I like the small-town atmosphere,” he said. “The people are appreciative of our being here for them.”
