#FlashbackFriday: Since at Least 1941, the Exchange Has Employed Associates With Disabilities
October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month, the origins of which date to 1945. That year, when Congress enacted Public Law 176, which created National Employ the Physically Handicapped Week.
In 1962, the word “Physically” was removed to include people with non-physical disabilities. In 1988, the celebration was expanded to a month.
The Exchange’s history of hiring people with disabilities predates all this. In 1963, the Exchange Post surveyed stores, asking whether their teams included associates with disabilities. Not all did, but Fort Benning (now Fort Moore) reported having 41 associates with disabilities, qualifying some of the disabilities as “minor.” Fort Bliss reported 18 associates with disabilities. All told, stores that responded to the survey employed more than 100 people with disabilities.
A few of the associates had been with the Exchange for more than 20 years. The longest-serving one mentioned in the 1963 article was Ernest Rogers, who joined the Exchange in 1941 as a retail clerk in Camp Shelby, Mississippi. By 1963, he had worked his way up to concession supervisor at the Sandia Area Exchange in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Rogers died in May 1987 at age 78; according to his Exchange Post obituary, he retired in 1971 as a Southeast Exchange Region accounting clerk.
Another 20-year-plus associate was Jose Segarra, who had lost his left eye. Segarra joined the Exchange in 1942 as a bartender at Borinquen Field, a Puerto Rico installation that was renamed Ramey Air Force Base in 1947. He was promoted to beer garden manager nine years later, then to special assistant to the Ramey’ BX’s general manager. In 1955, he was made personnel manager; in 1957, he became concession supervisor, the job he held when the 1963 article was published. His retirement information was unavailable; the last Exchange Post mention of him appears to be in an early-’70s story about associates who achieved 30 years of service.
Although Richard Drew isn’t mentioned in the 1963 story, he was featured in the main photo, shown above. Drew, who lost his left arm in an accident in 1949, trained himself to be a mechanic. He worked at the Sewart AFB Exchange in Tennessee for more than 10 years. Information on when he retired or left the Exchange was unavailable.
Many other associates were featured in the 1963 article, demonstrating the Exchange’s commitment to diversity and inclusion. In the present day, Exchange special emphasis group ABLE (Able, Believe, Lead, Empower) supports associates with disabilities and is dedicated to achieving a workforce in which disable associates are represented at every level.
To learn more ABLE or to join, click here. To learn more about Exchange special emphasis programs, click here.
Source: Exchange Post archives
