128 Years of Family Serving Family: Andrea Silverhorn, HR Talent
One in a series honoring the Exchange’s 128 years of family serving family.
Who she is: Andrea Silverhorn, Talent Manager, Human Resources, Exchange HQ
Years with the Exchange: Nov. 13 is Silverhorn’s 14th anniversary with the Exchange. She has worked in various HR positions since she started.
What brought her to the Exchange: “I started out as an hourly paid HR assistant at Fort Sill. My husband received orders to Fort Sill and one of my good friends said, ‘Go apply at AAFES.’ I happened to see an HR position pop up and I applied for it.”
What she did at first: “Day-to-day, it was recruitment. It’s something that’s close to my heart. I love the recruitment process and sharing information about the Exchange. I also handled personnel requests and answered work-related questions, for instance about payroll issues. I dealt with the stores and store associates would ask me how to get promoted. It was a little bit of everything.”
What she does now: “I am the Talent Manager for all pay-band 4 retail management positions,” says Silverhorn, who has been at HQ since 2018. “I work with the vice presidents and general managers on the recruitment process with retail. I love it. It feels like I’m boots on the ground again, working with Operations. I also do career interviews with our management team, talking about what they need to work on or how they can get to the next step.”
Going where you go: While they were at Fort Sill, Silverhorn’s husband received orders to go to Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington. Her Fort Sill supervisor told her to apply for positions at JBML through the Exchange’s Associate Transfer program , which assists military spouses who move with their spouses. She became a learning facilitator at JBML, working on new-hire orientation, conducting training and becoming involved with the Retail Management Academy (RMA) and Restaurant Operations Management Academy (ROMA).
Her husband received orders to go back to Fort Sill, and then decided to retire. She was able to get her old job back at Fort Sill but it meant becoming an hourly paid associate again. Then she was asked if she wanted to deploy. With her husband retiring and going back to school, she said yes.
The rewards of deployment: Silverhorn deployed to Kuwait, where she spent a year taking care of the contingency operation and working with managers and associates based out of Jordan, Iraq and Afghanistan as well as Kuwait.
“It made me love the Exchange even more, because I got to see up close what our mission is, working with our troops,” she says. “We used to do facility visits. I remember at Ali Al Salem, these troops came in for their debriefing. I remember this Soldier coming in and taking a big drink of Gatorade. He said, ‘This is so refreshing and it’s good to be here.’ Just seeing their faces light up really stays with me.”
Military connections: Her father was an Army paratrooper who made 25 jumps during the Vietnam War. All of her uncles on both parents’ sides served in the Army. Her husband served 30 years in the Army.
“When I started working with the Exchange in 2009, I was talking to my dad, and he said, ‘So you got you a new job?’ I said, ‘Yes, I’m working at AAFES and I told him what I was going to be doing. One of the things that really stays with me is that he said, ‘You know, the PX was a light at the end of a dark tunnel whenever we got finished with our missions in Vietnam.’ When I was deployed, I was in awe because my husband had been on the same ground three different times and my brother had deployed to Kuwait a couple of times. My dad’s quote really hit me hard.”
Two memories with her husband also stand out.
“Prior to my working with the Exchange, my husband and I always lived on installations but I didn’t realize there was another side to the Exchange. I just remember that on Wednesdays, when my husband was deployed, those were the ice cream days. We would walk down to Baskin-Robbins at the food court and get ice cream with the kids. That was something that we did every Wednesday.
“During my husband’s first deployment in 2003, everything was pen and paper. We didn’t have cellphones at the time. Around Thanksgiving, we were able to call each other. It was great, but what I didn’t realize till I started working with the Exchange that they worked with AT&T to get phone service for the troops.”
Memorable moments: “Just meeting the people. Seeing a sales area manager who I assisted with the Retail Management Academy and is now a store manager or moving up with the Exchange. That really says a lot. Seeing people I met as operations managers who are now general managers. I love seeing people grow.
“I supported Logistics as a business partner,” she adds. “Alan French [now Senior Vice President of Supply Chain] and I were talking about the Exchange being a diverse company, so I told him I was Native American. I’m half Comanche. I grew up in Oklahoma. My husband is Kiowa. Alan told me about Nation’s Network and I became involved in it.” (French is executive champion of the Special Emphasis Program for Native American and Alaska Native associates.)
Family Serving Family: “It’s taking care of each other, whether it’s our peers or our customers. To me, we’re one, and when it comes to family, we’re protective of our family. I’ve seen so many young Soldiers in the field and I’ll treat them like I’m the Mama Bear, making sure they’re taken care of.
“I have a nephew who graduated from the Air Force Academy. He’s going to be stationed at MacDill AFB. I told him, ‘If you need anything, just let me know.’ I just like taking care of our customers, whether it’s a family member or a shopper.”
