One in a series honoring the Exchange’s 125 years of family serving family.
Misty Jones calls herself a military brat. Her father Victor was a fuel technician in the Air Force. An uncle did two tours of duty in Vietnam. Another served in the Marines before switching to the Air Force.
And her brother, an Army Veteran who was killed in 2011 in Iraq, brought home the idea of family serving family for her.
“My brother, shortly before his death, was home visiting and I brought him into the BX to meet my team members,” Jones said. “Everyone thanked him for his service, and as we were leaving, he told me that no one had ever said that to him before.”
Jones has spent all 25-plus years of her Exchange career at Fairchild Air Force Base. Her sister, Anna Beattie Carpenter, worked for Fairchild Exchange main store several years ago and moved on to the Eglin Air Force Base Express. She formerly worked for Eglin’s Invisible Wounds Center but has now moved with her husband to his new assignment at Malmstrom Air Force Base.
Jones said she carries her brother’s message with her every day. And others do, too.
She mentions a former co-worker who one day happened to tag her brother in a social media post. He had no idea how close the connection was.
“With my married last name being Jones, he never put the two together. He was actually deployed to the same location that my brother was at the time of his passing and actually was in the mess tent when the news came through that two were killed by IED,” she said. “When we got to work after working all of that out, he gave me a hug and told me there was a reason for us to be put together at work. It was very healing.”
The Exchange also fostered another connection between Jones and someone who never met her brother but still shared a bond.
“I recently started working with a new hire named Luke. He only worked for me a few weeks before being activated by the National Guard to assist during COVID-19. We keep in touch via text messaging so that he knows we are all thinking about him,” Jones said. “He sent me a picture of his unit and I noticed a patch on his sleeve.”
It belonged to the 2nd Infantry Division, the same battalion her brother served under.
“So yet again, many coincidences that bring healing into my life all came through the Exchange,” she said.
Facebook-friendly version: Misty Jones of the Fairchild AFB Exchange keeps her late brother’s memory alive through her actions at the Exchange. Read more: https://wp.me/p7iUVQ-4ah.
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