#FlashbackFriday: Remembering Maj. Gen. Albin G. Wheeler, 1991-’93 Exchange Commander
This week, Flashback Friday looks back on the career of Maj. Gen. Albin Wheeler, who was Exchange commander from September 1991 to May 1993, and Europe commander from 1981 to 1983. Wheeler passed away June 10 at age 89.
He was born and educated in West Virginia, where he began his military career when he enlisted in the state National Guard.
“I was influenced by the Korean War,” he told the Exchange Post in 1991. “I’d seen the Marine units called up as a junior high school student. Then, when I got to high school, I had a coach who was also responsible for our National Guard unit. He came to me and said, ‘Boy, have I got a job for you.”
When he signed up for the guard, he wasn’t thinking of a military career. After serving in ROTC at Marshall University, he went to work for Procter & Gamble. When he entered active military duty in 1959 as a second lieutenant in the Quartermaster Corps, he compared the business world with life in the military and decided to choose a career in uniform, where he could be of service to his country.
After assignments at Fort Lee (now Fort Gregg-Adams) and Fort Knox, Wheeler volunteered to go to Vietnam in 1962, serving one year as a plans and operations advisor in the Military Assistance Command. He spent three additional years in Southeast Asia as a special advisor to the Royal Thai Army for ground forces in Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.
During his assignment in Thailand, his wife and two children lived with him in Bangkok. One day, he came home from a work trip and was surprised to find a new piano in the house. When they moved to Bangkok, the family had to leave a treasured piano behind—so his wife special-ordered the new one from the PX.
“The Exchange manager had it delivered personally,” Wheeler told the Exchange Post. “He said it was the first one he had ever sold and he wanted to see it go in himself. We kept that piano for 20 years.”
His other assignments before he became AAFES-Europe commander included being special advisor to Adm. John S, McCain Jr., father of future U.S. senator John McCain. He then was named commander-in-chief, Pacific. He held several other command positions, including deputy commander of the U.S. Army Logistics Center immediately before his first tour with the Exchange.
After commanding AAFES-Europe, he commanded the 7th CORPS Support Command, then returned to Washington and was president of the Industrial College of the Armed Forces for four years.
By the time he returned to the Exchange as commander in 1991, he had witnessed such events as the fall of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of the Soviet Union and Operation Desert Storm.
“What’s on my mind now—what’s on everybody’s mind in our world—are the dramatic changes in the world today,” he told the Exchange Post at the time. “AAFES is well on track to adjusting [to them.]”
During Wheeler’s command, the Exchange’s Deferred Payment Plan was extended to CONUS in January 1992; the program eventually evolved into today’s MILITARY STAR credit card. In October 1992, associates deployed for the first time to Eastern Europe to open facilities in Croatia to help with U.N. relief efforts aiding refugees fleeing ethnic violence in neighboring Bosnia. In December, ’92, 17 associates deployed to Somalia to provide support for American forces creating safe routes for humanitarian efforts in the African country.
After retiring from the military in 1993, he was executive director in the Washington law firm of Arent, Fox, Kittner, Plotkin and Kahn. He was selected for Who’s Who in America and a member of the Quartermaster Hall of Fame and was actively involved as a founder and board director of the Society of Yeager Scholars at Marshall University. His awards include Defense and Army Distinguished Service Medal, Bronze Star with 2 Oak Leaf Clusters, Legion of Merit with 2 Oak Leaf Clusters.
To view Wheeler’s official obituary, click here.
Sources: Exchange Post archives, Exchange History Flickr album, Albin Gray Wheeler obituary
