#FlashbackFriday: We Go Where You Go—The Exchange in Thailand
During the Vietnam War, 80 percent of all U.S air strikes over North Vietnam came from jets based in Thailand, mostly at Korat Air Base. In early 1962, the Navy Exchange in Bangkok became the wholesale facility for exchange-type merchandise for all U.S. military units based in Thailand. A few years later, as more American combat troops entered Thailand, the Navy Exchange turned PX operations over to AAFES and its Thailand Regional Exchange.
Even before the transfer, AAFES was active in Thailand, where it opened the country’s first Exchange snack bar in late 1963. The snack bar was in a 16-by-90-foot “hutment of tropical design, which was entirely rehabilitated,” according to a January 1964 Exchange Post article. Thai personnel supervised by the 44th Engineer Group worked on the renovation.
This was a pretty good snack bar: It included a soda fountain, grill, deep-fat fryer, milkshake machines, a doughnut machine and a jukebox (seen in left foreground in the above photo). It seated about 90 and provide “the only service of its kind to some 1,000 U.S. Army personnel in the Korat area.”
At the height of the Vietnam War in 1969, more Airmen were serving in Thailand than in South Vietnam. By 1968, AAFES’ Thailand Exchange System’s 47 retail stores, seven cafeterias, 27 snack bars, 15 refreshment stands, 22 mobile stores, 15 beer bars and 197 concessions served American forces. (Above: the base exchange at Thailand’s Korat AB, circa 1969. The U.S. Army’s Camp Friendship was next door.)
One of the most famous customers to visit a Thailand Exchange was Neil Armstrong, who came to the Bangkok main store in late 1969, months after he became the first man to walk on the moon. Armstrong, shown in the above photo, visited along with other members of the Bob Hope Christmas show “Operation Holly.” The Exchange opened one evening exclusively to serve producers, dancers, crew members, band musicians and guests such as Armstrong, who bought a movie camera and a beaded sweater and toured the store.
And then there’s this photo from 1972, featuring Santa arriving at the Exchange Toyland in Bangkok atop a little Thai elephant.
After the Vietnam War ended in 1975, the Exchange phased out operations in Thailand. The last pullout day of all U.S. forces in Thailand was July 20, 1976, 48 years ago this month. Most of what Exchange merchandise was left went to the Philippines and other Pacific locations, but some was distributed worldwide. The last vans transporting merchandise were loaded on July 17.
You can find more photos from the Exchange’s time in Thailand starting here in the Exchange History album on Flickr.
Sources: Exchange Post archives, Exchange History Flickr album, “One Hundred Years of Service: A History of the Army and Air Force Exchange Service”
