#FlashbackFriday: 1991–A Letter Home From Saudi Arabia After Operation Desert Storm

On Feb. 27, 1991—34 years ago this week—hostilities ceased in Operation Desert Storm in the Persian Gulf. Beginning in 1990, scores of Exchange associates volunteered to deploy to the Gulf Region to support troops during the build-up to the Gulf War and during the war itself.

One of those associates was Karen Patrick, who was general manager of the Grand Forks AFB Exchange. She became general manager of a PX in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, with Nancy Poore, another GM, as store manager. They were the first women from the Exchange to deploy to a war zone.

For the March/April 1991 issue of the Exchange Post, Patrick wrote “A Letter Home,” a collection of memories from her time in Saudi Arabia.

“Not one manager realized what they were getting into when they volunteered for Saudi Arabia,” the letter began. There have been some good memories, and some bad memories that we’d like to forget.

“The appreciation of Soldiers holds steadfast in my mind as something I will always carry with me,” the letter continued. “The SCUD [missile] attacks that made war seem so real, and the news that war was imminent are also memories I will carry home. Attending the memorial service for the SCUD victims made us realize war is more than a word in the dictionary but had become a way of life for the AAFES managers in Saudi.”

The letter included stories of managers working in metal trailers where the heat exceeded 100 degrees; using calculators to continue selling to troops after generators failed; training Soldiers to run cash registers only to have their units pull out just as they were trained.

One manager landed in Saudi Arabia as Patriot missiles were firing; another was driving when they went off and wound up in a ditch as he attempted to speed to safety; another was golfing at the time (“his clubs went one way and he went the other,” Patrick wrote).

Karen Patrick (later Karen Stack), second from right, and other deployed Exchange associates with two Cunard Princess hostesses in a 1990 Exchange Post photo. The Exchange team set up a PX on the cruise ship during Christmas 1990 in Bahrain.

About 4 p.m. Christmas Eve 1990, an R&R cruise ship, the Cunard Princess, arrived in port at Bahrain. Patrick reported that at 10 p.m., several associates were allowed to start setting up an onboard PX. “Everyone worked through the night so we could open the doors Christmas Day at 9 a.m.,” she wrote. “We all helped run the cash registers, price merchandise and carry it up the gangplank, etc.”

During one return trip from a supermarket, several Exchange associates found themselves inadvertently part of a parade celebrating the liberation of Kuwait, and were thanked by numerous Kuwaitis and Saudis.

Patrick was in Saudi Arabia for almost a year. She later became Karen Stack, and retired from the Exchange in early 2024 as executive vice president and chief logistics officer, ending a 47-year Exchange career.

Karen Patrick’s letter home on Page 8 of the March/April 1991 edition of the Exchange Post. Patrick later became Karen Stack, and retired from the Exchange in 2024 as executive vice president and chief logistics officer.