#FlashbackFriday: 1993—Firestone and the Exchange Begin a Journey of Car Care Service for Military Communities
On Aug. 19, 1993, 30 years ago this month, the Exchange opened Firestone Master Care Car Center at Fort Lewis. It was the first such facility on a military installation in CONUS, opening a new era for automotive care at the Exchange.
The center quickly embraced the military community, occasionally going above and beyond to service those who serve. According to a February 1994 Exchange Post article, when Soldiers deployed to Somalia were scheduled to return to the base, Firestone Manager Michael Zahringer and his team responded to a request to be in the lot where the Soldiers had parked their cars before deploying—in case the cars wouldn’t start or otherwise needed mechanical help after being parked for so long.
The same article included a note from a grateful customer—whose family had just lost their home in a fire during the 1993 holiday season—thanking the Fort Lewis Firestone team for discovering that the brake drum on their car had broken in half. “The help we received from Firestone quite possibly saved the lives of my family again,” the customer wrote. “It is my hope that those involved know just how much we appreciate their help. There truly aren’t enough words to express the thanks I feel they deserve.”
In this 1993 Exchange Post photo, Fort Lewis Exchange General Manager Jack Bego, left, Firestone Store Manager Michael Zahringer and Director of Personnel and Community Activities Col. James Crabbe officiate at the grand opening of the Firestone MasterCare Car Center at Fort Lewis.
A second Firestone Car Care Center opened on Sept. 1, 2000, at Travis Air Force Base. There are now 41 locations at Exchanges in CONUS and Hawaii. One location, at the MacDill AFB Exchange, even temporarily featured a waiting room “museum” with more than 800 pieces of military memorabilia collected by its manager, a Marine Corps Veteran.
Before the modern car-care era, Exchanges operated service stations that included fuel pumps and service bays. This 1955 photo from Hill AFB in Utah shows that even then, some Exchanges featured Firestone products.
The Exchange’s newest Firestone Complete Car Care Center held its grand opening in June 2022 at Fort Jackson. It has eight bays and offers services including oil change, tire rotation, wheel alignment, tire replacement, brake service, diagnostics, engine tune-ups and more.
The original Exchange Firestone at Fort Lewis is still going strong after 30 years of providing quality service to our military customers and their families.
To celebrate Firestone’s 30th anniversary of serving the military, local events will be held at three selected locations: Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Joint Base Andrews and Fort Campbell. The celebration events will include a brand-new van donation from Firestone to the local Boys & Girls Club of America, a community cookout and giveaways.
Sources: Exchange Post archives, Exchange Post History on Flickr, Services & Food Directorate
The story is incorrect. We contracted with Firestone way back in the mid 70’s. As the Area Services Manager of the Arizona Area Exchange, we contracted out two exchange service stations to Firestone to run the service bays, AAFES continued to operate the retail store and pump gas. Great success. In 1976 I was sent to AAFES Europe so don’t know what happened to them after leaving Tucson.
Hi, Leslie,
Sorry for the delayed reply. It took a couple of days to research this. I asked our Services and Food directorate about it and here’s their reply:
Ma’am,
Thank you for your comment on the Firestone 30-year partnership celebration with the Exchange. We are grateful to associates like you for your service and for sharing firsthand accounts of our business from your previous duty stations. While there may have been prior agreements with Firestone to support our direct-run car care center operations, the concession model parentship agreement that we are marking in history began at Joint Base Lewis McChord in 1993.
Vr,
Robert Philpot
The Exchange Post