128 Years of Family Serving Family: Bryan Littlejohn, 35-Year Exchange Associate, Fort Wainwright Express

One in a series honoring the Exchange’s 128 years of family serving family.

Who he is: Bryan Littlejohn, Express manager, Fort Wainwright

Years with the Exchange: Littlejohn will retire Feb. 7 after 35 years with the Exchange, all of them at Alaska locations.

Military connection: Littlejohn’s father, whose last assignment was Fort Wainwright, retired as an Army command sergeant major in 1992.

Growing up military—and with the Exchange: “I was very young when my dad was based at Fort Stewart, Georgia, but I do remember a lot about Colorado, when we were stationed there. We spent a lot of years at Fort Hood [now Cavazos]. I went to middle school there and graduated from Ellison High School in Killeen, Texas. I knew the PX and the commissary well.

“We lived mostly overseas. We were in Schweinfurt, Germany, and I remember my dad buying a VHS recorder. We purchased the movie Grease with John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. I think I still have it.”

What brought him to Alaska: “My dad was stationed here at Fort Wainwright. He got here in 1987. I was going to Texas State Technical Institute in Waco for motorcycle mechanics, and I decided college wasn’t for me. I said, ‘Well, I’m going to go where my mom and dad are.’

“I was 19 years old when I left for Fairbanks. When I left Dallas, it was 96 degrees. I landed in Fairbanks on Thanksgiving Day 1988 and it was minus 45 degrees. I was like, ‘Where am I.’ I think I slept for two days. When I came off the plane, my dad just threw a jacket over me. It was a big military woolly jacket. Man, it was crazy cold.”

What brought him to the Exchange: “I was at a point in my life that I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. My dad didn’t want me to join the military. But I wanted to start working, and the closest thing was the Exchange. I applied for a custodian job at the Fort Wainwright main store and didn’t get hired. But the person they hired instead of me got caught stealing on his first day. So they asked me to come over the next day and take the job.”

The first day: “Being in Alaska and going outside, it was quite different. I remember going out to the trash can and you could barely get the Dumpster door to slide open because it was frozen. I wasn’t at the main store very long. I got hired at the warehouse, where we were the distribution point carrying all the merchandise back to the main store.”

What’s changed in 35 years: “I’ve been with the Exchange since Dec. 4, 1988. Fort Wainwright has grown considerably. We had a commissary that was probably an 80-by-80-square foot building with and aluminum roof, in Alaska. It was tiny. And the PX was even smaller, but we’ve done major additions since then. We went from three gas pumps to 10 at this Express, and I was the project manager for that. One of my many positions was being the branch manager of the Fort Wainwright Sports Store.  It was like a dream come true. The Sports Store was actually the same address as the new Gaffney Road Express built in 2013, where I was the project manager from the ground up.”

The biggest chill: “I’ve seen 65 to 68 below on Fort Wainwright. I drove from Fort Wainwright to Eielson Air Force Base, where I worked at the Exchange at one time, in 57 below. [Eielson is roughly 22 miles southeast of Wainwright.] It can be life-threatening if your vehicle doesn’t run correctly.”

Managing an Express in Alaska: “We have great teams. People can’t be afraid to go outside. We drive forklifts and we have to have all the winterization items on them to be able to get them to run. You get that crew that knows what’s going on and you’re good to go, but it’s definitely challenging.

“Our regular customers, it’s just like California—they dress up or they dress down. A lot of young kids come in wearing flip-flops at 20 below. People just adapt to the weather. Alaska is a way of life. You learn your dos and don’ts the hard way.”

The most Alaska thing that’s happened to him: “I broke down in a four-wheeler out in the middle of nowhere when I was hunting. Luckily, a couple of Alaskans came by and dragged me out. It was pretty scary because it was about two days before anyone came by. I was hung up in a mudhole. I was safe, but the four-wheeler wasn’t getting out. I didn’t sleep lightly for those couple of days, though.”

On the road in Alaska: “My loving wife Carrie has stuck it out in Alaska to further my career. We have traveled the state for our yearly vacations, rather than leaving the most beautiful state in the world during the summer or winter.

“We have made yearly trips pulling an ocean boat back and forth to Valdez, in southern Alaska about 360 miles away from Fort Wainwright, to get Carrie to her Alaska Women’s Silver Salmon Derby. Yes, she is the fisher. I’m the driver, netter, mechanic, fish finder, etc. This event is huge for her and her girlfriend. We eventually retained a slip to leave the boat in during the 12 years running the ocean in Valdez. The wildlife was amazing. We have had the pleasure of close encounters with a pod of orcas many times and followed them into the harbor. We’ve seen sea lions, halibut, pink salmon, coho silver salmon, lingcod, yelloweye rockfish.

“As we got older and left the boat behind, we purchased a Fifth Wheel RV and have traveled all over Alaska. Seward has become our away-from-home place. We do some fishing, but we mostly do sightseeing and take pictures of wildlife. We have spent many nights on the Turnagain Arm, Bird Creek just out side of Anchorage. We have taken a train out of another favorite spot, Talkeetna, to the small town of Curry, an epic historical trip.  Our travel has taken us all over Alaska, including Alyeska resort, Bulga Point, McHugh Creek, Rushing River, Hope, Sterling, Soldotna, Anchor Point and Clam Gulch. Quartz Lake at Greely is our hot spot for Fourth of July events.

Retirement plans: “Our next adventure in life is to travel the Alaskan Highway to the lower 48 in our  Fifth Wheel. That will a be a slow trip, with all the stops Carrie wants to hit on the way to Wenatchee, Washington, where her parents reside. Then we’ll be on our way to Laughlin, Nevada, to see her older sister Lisa and her husband Richard Garcia.

“The trip will end at Fort Cavazos, formerly Fort Hood, which is pretty much my hometown. My parents live in Copperas Cove, which is about 10 miles from the installation.”

Family serving family: “It’s everything to me. My associates, my customers. Because I’ve worked in the same place for so long, I have customers who’ve been customers for 20 years. They come in and ask for me. If I’m not here and I see them in town, they’ll say, ‘You weren’t at work yesterday.’ It’s very heartwarming.”