Exchange History Articles

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.…

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…

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”…

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…