History

The Exchange’s Website Turns 25. Here’s how it’s Grown Up.

By Robert Philpot / July 26, 2021 /

Days after www.aaafes.com debuted, thousands found AAFES’ new online home. It evolved into the user-friendly ShopMyExchange.com, and it will continue to grow.

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Vancouver Barracks, the Exchange’s birthplace as a one-room canteen.

#FlashbackFriday: Getting Back to the Exchange’s Roots

By Robert Philpot / July 23, 2021 /

On July 25. the Exchange will celebrate its 126th anniversary serving those who serve. It all started in a little room on the frontier.

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‘We Go Where You Go’: Army & Air Force Exchange Service Marks 126 Years of Serving Military Community

By Marisa Conner / July 22, 2021 /

At home, abroad, in war zones, through natural disasters—wherever Soldiers, Airmen and Guardians serve, the Army & Air Force Exchange Service has gone with them for the last 126 years.

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#FlashbackFriday: Exchange Associates Support Rescuers After a Deadly Quake in the Philippines

By Robert Philpot / July 16, 2021 /

Clark Air Base Exchange associates were among those who volunteered to help after a 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck the Philippines on July 16, 1990.

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#FlashbackFriday: The Scoop on Ice Cream and the Exchange

By Robert Philpot / July 9, 2021 /

July is National Ice Cream Month, so here’s a look at the role ice cream has played in Exchange history.

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Flashback Friday: Arnold joins Exchange associates for a movie premiere in Bosnia

By Robert Philpot / July 2, 2021 /

The first installment of the Exchange Post’s #FlashbackFriday series takes us back to 2002, when  Exchange associates in Bosnia got to see the world premiere of a movie, accompanied by that movie’s big star. Big in more ways than one – the star was Arnold Schwarzenegger. He was part of a USO entertainment tour in…

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The Exchange at 125: D.B. Cooper and the Exchange

By Loyd Brumfield / July 31, 2020 /

On March 22, 1972, Northwest Area Exchange associates operated mobile field exchanges for Soldiers searching for “D.B. Cooper,” an unidentified man who hijacked a Boeing 727 aircraft between Portland, Ore., and Seattle, Wash. He extorted a $200,000 ransom (or $1.2 million in today’s dollars). He—and the money—were never found.  

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The Exchange at 125: Real-Time Help Via Call Centers

By Loyd Brumfield / July 30, 2020 /

In 1992, four people sat around a card table answering phones at headquarters— the Army & Air Force Exchange Service’s first call center, which handled inquiries about the Deferred Payment Plan, the forerunner of today’s MILITARY STAR® card A year later, the call center moved to the first floor of HQ with about 120 associates.…

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The Exchange at 125: From Earthquakes to Hurricanes, Exchange Associates Have Been There

By Robert Philpot / July 29, 2020 /

Dating as far back as 1964 when a killer earthquake struck Alaska, Exchange associates have deployed to the destructive scenes left in Mother Nature’s wake to serve those who served with recovery efforts. The disasters include raging forest fires in the Pacific Northwest; floods and volcanic eruptions around the world; 2005’s Hurricane Katrina; 2012’s Superstorm…

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The Exchange at 125: Blasts from the Past

By Loyd Brumfield / July 29, 2020 /

Some exchanges around the world are now just fond memories. Many of them started in the early days of World War II to train Army pilots, but then closed after combat ended. In Texas alone, air bases were once located in Amarillo; Austin; Fort Worth; Laredo; and Army posts in Galveston and Mineral Wells, among…

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