#FlashbackFriday: A Photo History of the Exchange in Panama
Post exchanges in Panama date back to the earliest part of the 20th century, when engineers began to build the Panama Canal. U.S. military installations popped up in the Central American country to protect the engineers and, during World War II, protect the Canal Zone.
Here’s a pictorial history. For more photos from the Exchange’s past, visit the Exchange History album on Flickr.
The post exchange at Panama’s Fort Randolph, late 1930s. The fort was used by the Army during World War II for defense of the Panama Canal. Fort Randolph, Fort Sherman and Fort DeLesseps on the Atlantic side and Fort Amador and Fort Kobbe on the Pacific side housed the biggest guns in the U.S. arsenal for the defense of the Canal.
A PX boat from Fort Randolph delivers merchandise to troops in an outlying area of the Panama Canal Zone, circa 1943.
Staff of the Caribbean Central Exchange offices pose for a holiday photo, Corozal, Panama, 1953.
Oct. 18, 1974: Opening day at the Panama Area Exchange main store at Corozal in the Canal Zone. The 45,000-square-foot main store was part of a shopping center that also included a 10,500-square-foot warehouse and a 3,000-square-foot cafeteria. At the time, the three-day grand opening was the highest-grossing in Exchange history.
American Soldiers buy food from an Exchange Anthony’s Pizza truck during Operation Just Cause in Panama, 1989. In Operation Just Cause, American troops had invaded the central American country to oust Panamanian dictator Manual Noriega from power after he threatened to attack his country’s American military installations. Exchanges in the United States geared up to help send extra merchandise to serve the influx of 24,000 American troops into the country. Exchanges already in Panama stepped up their efforts to serve the troops. (For more on Exchange support for Operation Just Cause, go here.)
The Exchange main building, Albrook Air Force Station, Panama, 1995.
The United States withdrew from Panama in 1999, ending an 88-year presence, and Exchanges in the country closed. Even as the Panama Exchange drew toward closure, it supported U.S. troops deployed to El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua after Hurricane Mitch struck Central America in late 1998. AAFES Panama supplied four tactical field Exchanges (TFEs) and a stationary operation to provide Quality-of-Life support to the troops.
The Exchange still operates a Central American store at Soto Cano Air Base in Honduras.
