#FlashbackFriday: She Was the Exchange’s First Female GM—And That Was Just One of Her ‘Firsts’

A Women’s History Month Flashback Friday a couple of weeks ago mentioned Hannabelle Fleming, who was singled out in a February 1956 Exchange Post article about 26 women who were in key positions at the Exchange.

Fleming’s career was one of “firsts”—including first female general manager of an Exchange.

Fleming’s Exchange career began after a Pennsylvania school board turned down her application for a school principal position—because she was a woman. She had worked as a teacher, but left the education field in 1933 because of pay difficulties during the Depression.

She applied at the Exchange, where she found the environment more welcoming and flexible.

“The only job open when I applied at the 1800 C Street Exchange in Washington, D.C., was in the stockroom,” she told the Exchange Post in 1969. “I took the job with the understanding that I would be considered for other openings as they occurred.” A couple of weeks later, the warehouse manager resigned due to illness. Fleming asked for his job and got it.

Fleming moved on from that position to become a buyer. She was in that position in 1937, when the Exchange general manager position was converted from military to civilian status. Fleming became the GM of the C Street Exchange, but not before she had to overcome an obstacle.

“This came when there was still a barrier against women,” she told the Exchange Post. “I knew the job was open and that I wasn’t being considered. Finally, in desperation, I requested the [position] change to prove that I could do the job and they gave me that chance.”

During World War II, her job expanded to general manager for the Consolidation of Exchanges, Military District of Washington. During her time there, she said, the MDW Exchange became a guinea pig for testing “all manner of things” when the first Exchange headquarters opened in Washington.

In 1942, Fleming negotiated a retirement plan for MDW associates—the first of its kind at the Exchange. It became the model for a retirement plan for all CONUS associates.

When the CONUS exchanges were regionalized five years later, Fleming moved to the Military District of Washington Regional Office as Merchandise Control Chief. The job lasted less than a month.

This photo from the December 1963 edition of the Exchange Post shows Hannabelle Fleming, then chief the Training Branch at headquarters, on her 30th anniversary at the Exchange. Fleming was the first female general manager of an Exchange  and the first female branch chief, and those weren’t her only “firsts.”

“The chief of the Exchange Service decided it was imperative that a training school be established, and he assigned me there,” Fleming said. “My first task was to develop the instructional materials and teach merchandising and unit stock control subjects for three basic courses offered by the school at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey.”

In December 1950, after more than 1,500 civilian and military students had been trained, the school closed and Fleming was reassigned to the Training Branch at headquarters. Her first job was to come up with a three-week version of a military Exchange officers’ course that was taught at Fort Monmouth. Through many changes in the course, she taught it for 13 years.

In 1955, Fleming was appointed chief of the Training Branch, becoming the first female branch chief at the Exchange. She instituted a traveling merchandise course that visited 10 Exchanges in CONUS, holding two-week courses at each. She and her team members, who had 17 footlockers in tow for their travels, were dubbed “Fleming’s Circus Troupe.”

During her tenure as Training Branch chief, she developed several recruiting and training programs, including a worldwide computer course that eventually trained more than 1,000 executives in computer techniques. She considered her top achievement to be the establishment of an AAFES Training Center at what was then Fort Lee (now Fort Gregg-Adams). She retired in January 1969 after 35 years with the Exchange.

Fleming’s influence spread beyond the Exchange. The Navy and Marine Exchange systems, and even some civilian department store chains, used training materials she helped develop.

“This is, I think, a real tribute to AAFES, not to me as a person,” she said. “That AAFES top management has been forward-looking and has provide the funds which have enabled us not only to keep pace but to step out in front.”