#FlashbackFriday: 2003—a Big Grand Opening in Qatar
On Feb. 3, 2003—22 years ago this week—the Exchange celebrated the grand opening of a new store at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. More than 300 people stood in line for the grand opening, with Exchange Commander Maj. Gen. Kathryn Frost helping cut the ribbon.
Customers were treated to free sandwiches and cake—and free photographs with camels outside the store.
To serve Warfighters During Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Exchange opened dozens of stores in Southwest Asia. Thousands of associates voluntarily deployed to that part of the world to serve the troops.
Maj. Gen. Kathryn Frost (at store corner), Exchange commander in 2003, addresses the crowd at the grand opening of the Al Udeid Exchange in Qatar in February 2003.
When the Exchange arrived at Al Udeid in October 2001, it operated out of a small stockroom. Within months, that expanded to a 90-by-30-foot tactical field Exchange (TFE), which was stocked with food and drinks, electronics, clothes, toiletries, reading material, compact discs and DVDs, and other items that arrived weekly to bring troops the comforts and tastes of home. Associates worked 16-hour days to get the TFE ready; one manager worked 47 straight hours, according to the July 2002 Exchange Post.
The TFE evolved into the new store that opened in February 2003. Today, the Exchange operates BXs at Al Udeid’s Coalition Complex and Blatchford-Preston Complex, as well as at As Saliyah Air Base in Qatar and at the U.S. Embassy in Doha, Qatar’s capital.
In a 2013 photo, Exchange associates gather at Al Udeid Air Base with members of the 379th Expeditionary Force Support Squadron. “This photo is the epitome of … support to the Warfighters,” Exchange Europe Commander Col. Fredrick Hannah (now senior vice president of supply chain) told the Exchange Post. “Our GM, Amanda Hartfield, has done an amazing job of growing trust and credibility for the Exchange throughout the region.” Hartfield, who in 2013 was general manager over Exchanges in Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Oman, is now North East Region Vice President.
