‘While the Army wasn’t always part of my life growing up, AAFES was’

One in a series highlighting service members assigned to the Exchange

Who he is: Col. Kevin Brown, Real Estate Command Engineer, HQ

Years of Experience: 30 years of service in the Army; Col. Brown was assigned to the Exchange in July.

Military and Exchange connections: His father, Bruce Brown, worked for the Exchange in Finance and Accounting and other roles throughout his post-military career.

Col. Brown’s father was a military officer for the Exchange at Fort Leonard Wood, Fort Riley, Okinawa, Thailand (unaccompanied) and Fort Benning (now Fort Moore). He then PCS’d to Exchange headquarters in Dallas, where he worked in accounting until he retired in 2000.

“My dad was in the Army from 1966 to 1970 and started working for AAFES while in uniform in 1968, and continued as a civilian the day he got out,” Brown said. “While the Army wasn’t always part of my life growing up, AAFES was.”

Why he joined the Army: As a teenager, Brown took an interest in engineering. He cites the military engineering profession as his calling. “I was set on attending a service academy in high school. I didn’t apply to the Air Force Academy, but I applied at the Naval Academy and the Military Academy.”

Col. Brown graduated from West Point with a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering and began his Army career in 1993. He also has a master’s in engineering management.

What he did in the Army: Col. Brown served 13 years in tactical units at Forts Bragg (now Liberty), Polk (now Johnson) and Hood (now Cavazos) as a tactical engineer. “I worked with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) in Saint Paul and Dallas as well,” he said.

He spent five and a half years with USACE and received his professional engineering license for civil engineering. Col. Brown also spent three years at the U.S. Army Engineer School and received advanced training throughout his career.

Full circle: Col. Brown’s family moved to Dallas in the 1970s when his dad PCS’d to Exchange headquarters. He graduated from Bishop Dunne High School in Dallas—just a few minutes from HQ.

“The opportunity to work for AAFES and come back home is a poignant way to end my career,” he said. “My dad is always excited to hear what’s new about the organization and likes to tell me how they did it in his day.

“Since returning to Dallas, I went to dinner with a few high school friends. It feels so surreal—almost like going back to high school,” Col. Brown said.

Being an Exchange brat: The meaning of “family serving family” closely relates to Brown’s own experiences in childhood.

“With AAFES, our family PCS’d to Leonard Wood, Fort Moore and other places. I remember the son of a co-worker of my dad’s gave my brother and I his old G.I. Joes to play with in Okinawa. Another kid of my dad’s co-worker during his time in Okinawa was going to an AC/DC concert here in Dallas, and my dad picked him up when he came in town. He stayed with us for the weekend to go to the concert.”

We Go Where You Go: “When I was a 2nd Lieutenant in the fall of 1994, my battalion task force, led then by Lt. Col. Lloyd Austin, who is now the Secretary of Defense, deployed about five or six days before Christmas to establish a base camp in Panama and guarded Cuban migrants there instead of Guantanamo Bay,” he said.

“The first MFE showed up—an 18-wheel trailer in the middle of the base camp with wooden steps off the back. It was busy when the driver opened it from eight in the morning to seven at night. We got soda pop, shaving cream, snacks,” he said.

While Col. Brown deployed to Kuwait in spring 1999, an MFE supported the Soldiers. “We were stuck in the desert, and the truck showed up. I noticed Soldiers were helping a man in a polo shirt manage the store,” he said. “Another time, there was a small troop store in Iraq [where I was stationed] and one day I stopped in for shaving cream and they didn’t have any. Another guy and I took a bus to visit the main Exchange at Victory Base and my jaw dropped. The store was huge,” Col. Brown remembered.

“I bought six American flags that day and sent them to my friends, parents and my uncle saying, ‘This is a flag that was flown above Victory Base.’

Col. Brown also spoke fondly of his Exchange experience in Bosnia.

“The PX was a tall metal building. You could get everything from a haircut to Burger King.” he said.

What he does at HQ: As a command engineer, Col. Brown works within the Real Estate directorate.

“I interact with and educate store managers to communicate initiatives like remote locations, Quality-of-Life (QoL) projects and outreach from a real estate perspective,” he said. “Business development is part of the job. I’ve met many Army generals in my 30-plus year career, which has helped open lines of communication with leadership that the Exchange can work with.”

Family serving family: “AAFES provided for my family while I was growing up, throughout my military career, and still provides for my parents’ retirement,” Col. Brown said.

“When you see any associates at the main store and Expresses, most of those associates have a relationship with a service member. They’re just as invested in service as our service members,” he said. “Exchange associates are mostly tied into the military community, and I think that’s an awesome thing.”