126 Years of Family Serving Family – Katherine Getgasorn and Karah Zinski, Fort Campbell

One in a series honoring the Exchange’s 126 years of family serving family

Katherine Getgasorn, the Burger King facility manager at Fort Campbell, grew to embrace the Exchange mission when she was a young military spouse in Germany.

“While away from home, I realized the unity and commitment to family in the military, especially overseas, and I became more aware of that the longer I worked at the Exchange,”  Getgasorn said.

She started as a food court associate in Germany in 1983 and has been with the Exchange for about 39 years. She has also worked in central checkout in a main store and an Express, main store customer service, to include Food Court management for two different locations, and assistant manager and store manager for various Exchange Burger King’s.

Getgasorn has worked at Exchanges in Germany, Italy, Alaska, Hawaii and several CONUS locations, but her favorite location over all was Alaska.

“The experience was so broad; I had the opportunity to go to Fairbanks to assist with opening new facilities twice,” Getgasorn said. “I liked the environment and the challenge, and we were really involved with those great military communities.”

Getgasorn’s children were Army brats and Exchange brats. While she worked at the Exchange, her first husband, Greg served in the Army for 17 years. Her second husband, Jagyvut, served in the Army for four years, and her son James served in the Air Force for six years.

The Getgasorn family is all-in for working at the Exchange; Jagyvut retired from the Exchange this year after working 17 years between Alaska and Fort Campbell with FMO. Katherine’s son Leonard worked at Burger Kings at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Fort Campbell, and Fort Huachuca for about six years. And her daughter Karah Zinski is currently the concept manager at the Gardner Hill Burger King Fort Campbell.

Zinski has been with the Exchange for six years; she started working at part-time at Subway. “I liked Subway because I had previous Subway experience before coming to the Exchange,”  Zinski said.

After being encouraged by her mother, she switched to Burger King for the opportunity of a full-time position.

“I feel like my mother had a lot of influence on me; the Exchange took care of her while she was taking care of us,”  Zinski said. “I was at a point in my life when I needed a change, and I’m glad I took the chance.”

Like her mother, Zinski also came to appreciate the camaraderie at the Exchange. “I love the feeling of family within the Exchange team,”  Zinski said. “We have parties and activities together.”

The associates at the four Burger Kings on post also come together to help each other out when they have staff shortages or during inspections. “It helps calm my nerves because we are a team,” Zinski said. “We care about each other; we have each other’s back.”