#FlashbackFriday: For National Photography Day, Our Favorite Photos From Exchange History
Aug. 19 is National Photography Day, which is described this way on the National Today website:
“National Photography Day, celebrated on August 19, honors the photographer who works to offer us images from across the world.”
The Exchange has a rich history of photos—the Exchange Flickr has more than 35,000 photos (including the one above of the photo counter at an unidentified PX in the 1940s) and continues to grow. Exchange social media accounts worldwide, as well as the @ExchangeAssoc pages on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, also include hundreds of photos.
Here are some of our favorites from the Exchange’s 127-year history—and beyond.
One of the oldest photos in the Exchange History album on Flickr: A Civil War sutler’s tent in Brandy Station, Va., in 1864. Long before the post exchange system was created in 1895, a roving band of merchants called “sutlers” served American Warfighters.
1944: During World War II, a PX officer at the Southeast Asia Command HQ in Karachi, India, moves a 2,600-pound refrigerator into the PX with the help of GIs and an elephant named Karunavathi.
Circa 1950: Curbside service at the Zephyr Diner, one of the many restaurants the Exchange operated along Germany’s Frankfurt Autobahn in the post-World War II years.
1954: An exchange manager shows then-Vice President Richard Nixon some of the items sold in the store during Nixon’s visit to Nouasseur Air Base, Morocco.
Circa 1969: an American Soldier gets a haircut from a Vietnamese barber working as a concessionaire for the Vietnam Regional Exchange.
1972: Santa arrives on the back of a Thai elephant at the Exchange Toyland in Bangkok, Thailand.
1972: Comedian Bob Hope cuddles an infant during a visit to the Exchange at Yokota Air Base, Japan. Hope, who entertained troops with performances worldwide for nearly 50 years, visited many exchanges, especially those in Vietnam, during the course of his career.
Circa 2003: An Exchange associate (front, in black sweater and sunglasses) provides basic necessities to American Warfighers in the rugged mountains of Afghanistan.
March 2020: During the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Exchange Domino’s Restaurant at Fort Bragg delivered more than 300 pizzas to Soldiers who were quarantined on the installation after returning from the Middle East.
Early 2022: This photo of an Express at Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska—taken by an associate when it was 47 degrees below zero—is the most popular photo ever on @shopmyexchange Instagram.
Sources: Exchange Post archives, Exchange History Flickr.
