#FlashbackFriday: 2014—The Exchange Supports Troops During the Ebola Crisis
Ten years ago, during Operation United Assistance, thousands of U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps members were sent to West Africa during a breakout of the Ebola virus in 2014. Their role was to provide logistical support and training for health care workers, to test medical samples and to construct Ebola treatment units. As the troops, who deployed to Liberia and Senegal, returned from Africa, Exchanges worldwide offered support.
In CONUS, Langley AFB in Virginia was the East Coast point for all returning military members, regardless of their branch of service. In late 2014, 90 service members, the first wave of returning troops, came to the installation.
Rita Sheridan, then-main store manager at the JB Langley-Eustis’ Exchange, and associate John Shedeed delivered merchandise to a “containment center” for 90 service members returning from Liberia, the Ebola outbreak’s epicenter. (Sheridan and Shedeed appear in the top photo.)
Thirty-four of the returning service members had emailed more than $2,100 of shopping requests to Langley’s Exchange, and “personal shoppers” Sheridan and Shedeed delivered the goods. In an email to Exchange Director/CEO Tom Shull, JB Langley-Eustis Commander Col. John Allen described the Exchange’s work with the returning troops as “fantastic.” (Shedeed is still at the JBLE Exchange, where he works as a computer operator.)
The Fort Bliss Exchange had a similar personal shopper program for Soldiers who were quarantined for 21 days after returning to the States. During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the Fort Bliss PX relaunched the program. It proved successful enough that 20 additional exchanges in CONUS and PAC adopted the program. The 2020 personal shopper program traced its roots directly to the 2014 program.
During the Ebola crisis, the Exchange provided support in OCONUS as well. In Baumholder, Germany in 2014, Europe Commander Col. Geoff Del Tingo, third from right in the above photo, and Senior Enlisted Advisor Sgt. Maj. Keith Craig, fourth from right, presented a gift card donated by Burger King and Taco Bell to 158 Soldiers returning from Africa. For 21 days, the troops stayed at a “controlled monitoring area” at Germany’s Baumholder Garrison, where Del Tingo and Craig made the presentation.
In late 2014, 400 Exchange associates volunteered to deploy to West Africa to support troops deployed during the outbreak—even though only 12 were needed to staff a proposed Exchange facility in Liberia or neighboring Senegal. But Operation United Assistance ended in 2015, and an Exchange was not established in either country.
Sources: Exchange Post archives; “Operation UNITED ASSISTANCE During the Ebola Outbreak in West Africa in 2014-2015” by Dr. Joseph L. Mason; DoD Releases Breakdown of Ebola Response Effort by Claudette Raulo, DoD News
