128 Years of Family Serving Family: Marne Gulde, Fort Huachuca
One in a series honoring the Exchange’s 128 years of family serving family.
Who she is: Marne Gulde, General Manager, Fort Huachuca
Years with the Exchange: 18
What she did at first: Giftware associate, Ramstein AFB
Where she has worked: Gulde has worked at nearly a dozen Exchange locations, beginning in Germany before deploying to Kuwait Naval Base and Ali Al Salem. After completing the Retail Management Training Program at Fort Sam Houston, she held positions at Fort Cavazos, Exchange HQ, Fort Riley and Moody AFB before promotion to general manager (dual) at Tyndall AFB/Eglin AFB. Gulde then worked as store manager of Fort Stewart before her current position at Huachucha.
What brought her to the Exchange: “My mother was teaching at a Department of Defense Dependents School in Germany. I temporarily moved back with her and my father when I was 21.
“I saw that the Exchange was hiring at Ramstein and took a job as a giftware associate, selling beer steins, Hummel figurines and cuckoo clocks. Soon after that, I was promoted to the store operations team.”
Military connections: “My father was in the Navy for 28 years and retired in 2004. We were stationed in Charleston, S.C., for 12 years then moved to Yokosuka, Japan. It was like night and day. I had never lived anywhere else, but I would not give up that experience.
“It was awesome to grow up in a different country, learn different cultures and get to experience the world through the military. I’m proud to be a Navy daughter. Getting to see the world through those eyes was a blessing.”
Deployment memories: “When I was working as the assistant manager at Kuwait Naval Base, I was actually in the bunk waiting for my overnight flight to deploy to Iraq. Last minute, someone from the movement control team came in and told me I would be remaining in Kuwait.
“The general manager then sent me to Ali Al Salem where I managed the store. One of my best memories there was a Christmas where I wanted to provide a piece of home to the service members there.
“I called my mom, and she had all her teacher friends in Germany send tins of cookies. We decorated the common rooms and that way there was a little something everyone could come home to. I always tried to do anything I could do to bring some fun and a piece of home while I was deployed.”
Memorable moments: “Tyndall AFB has a key place in my heart. I lived on post with my husband and two children when Hurricane Michael hit in 2018. The Exchange team pulled together, staying open as late as possible to make sure shoppers could buy what they needed.
“I was the last one to leave after making sure everything was secure. We had to travel three hours away to find a hotel. It made landfall as a Category 5 and virtually everyone lost their homes.
“It was hard to sit and wait and not know what we’d go back to. Once we returned, every single one of our associates showed up to help clean up and get everything back in order. We were ready to support everyone on the ground.
“We had associates we couldn’t get ahold of and loaded up our cars with diapers, water, canned goods, anything we could find, and drove out to make sure they were OK.
“The team worked so hard after such devastation to put everything back together, working 10- or 12-hour days then having to commute back and forth two or three hours. There will always be a place in my heart for that place.”
Family Serving Family: “I love being a general manager and running an Exchange. I get to have my hands in everything—I get to work in food, services and retail. I get to mingle with everyone in the Exchange more as a GM and I love that.
“The camaraderie, the dedication, the love for the Exchange that I’ve experienced is special. People who work for the Exchange have big hearts and that will always resonate with me.”
