Holloman Command Honors Main Store Manager Before Her Move From the Desert to Alaska

For 17 years, Joanne Alhambra had served those who serve at the Exchange’s Main Store at Holloman Air Force Base, where she was the main store manager. Shortly before she PCS’d in August for a big switch from the New Mexico desert—she is now main store manager at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska—she received an unexpected honor.

Col. Ryan Keeney, 49^th Wing commander, presented Alhambra with the Air Force Exemplary Civilian Service Medal. The award recognizes those who have provided outstanding service for at least one year.

“Ms. Alhambra’s outstanding leadership, exemplary foresight, and ceaseless efforts were instrumental in the unfailing delivery of competitively priced high-quality goods and services to twenty-one thousand Total Force Airmen” during her  tenure at Holloman, reads an accompanying citation signed by Col. Juan A. Alvarez, 49^th Mission Support Group commander.  “[Her] unwavering dedication and ceaseless commitment garnered the respect of an entire wing.”

“I was surprised, because I’d been there 17 years, supporting the Holloman community,” Alhambra said from Alaska. “It was presented to me on my last day, and I didn’t know I’d made that big of an impact on the whole community and the whole wing to support their mission.”

Alhambra had started in an older store at Holloman in the middle of the transition to Holloman’s current store. “I felt like I gave birth to the new store,” she said. “From day one I was there.”

During her long run at Holloman, teammates and even then-Chief Operating Officer Dave Nelson encouraged her to go mobile and move to another store. But the timing wasn’t right – she was a single mom who wanted to stay in place while raising her daughter.

“Now, I think it’s time,” she says of her move to Alaska, which occurred in August. “My daughter is 13, and I believe I can make a good impact here in any of the stores and the community at JBER.”

She’s already shown her adaptability—she came to the JBER Exchange as sales and merchandising manager, but the store manager transferred, so she has been the acting store manager for a couple of weeks.

And she’s had to adapt in another way.

“Coming from the desert, where they’re still having 90-degree days at Holloman, to 40 degrees every day here is a big change,” she said in mid-September. “And it’s not even winter yet!”