History
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Once upon a time, shoppers couldn’t find televisions or computers for sale anywhere in the Exchanges. Since 1949, the House Armed Services Committee and Department of Defense have regulated what the Exchange can sell. In 1986, the committee gave the Exchange permission to sell computers in 130 computer shops worldwide, which became known as “PowerZones”…
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On Nov. 4, 1979, Iranian college students, who supported the Iranian Revolution, took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and held 52 American staff members who worked there hostage. The hostages were freed on Jan. 20, 1981, after 444 days of captivity. Three days later, associates at Germany’s Hainerberg shopping center greeted them as they…
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Did an elephant once work at a post exchange? Well, yes. And he got paid in bananas and bread. In 1944, the PX officer of the Southeast Asia Command headquarters during World War II moved a 2,600-pound electric refrigerator into a PX in India with the help of some Soldiers and an elephant named Karunavathi.…
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