#FlashbackFriday: The Exchange Responds After the 9/11 Attacks

This week marked the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon, which took place 24 years ago. It also marks the anniversary of the heroic sacrifice of the United 93 passengers who prevented an attack on the U.S. Capitol. Nearly 3,000 people died in the attacks.

Exchange teams in the New York and Washington areas were quick to provide support to troops and first responders working on rescue and cleanup efforts. Here’s a pictorial look back.

The front page of the October 2001 Exchange Post, the first issue published after the attacks.

Troops shop at a mobile field Exchange set up on the grounds of the Pentagon. Damage to the building can be seen in the background.

Exterior of the Pentagon MFE, which supported 2,000 troops and first responders.

Beth Goodman-Bluhm, then manager at the Andrews Air Force Base Exchange, and Bob Ellis, who directed the Exchange’s Washington office, in a 2001 photo. Ellis—who had left a meeting at the Pentagon minutes before the building was attacked—directed the setup of the Pentagon MFE, which Goodman-Bluhm ran. Ellis retired in 2006; Goodman-Bluhm officially retired in late 2022 but stayed on as Southwest Asia regional vice president until early 2025.

Troops and first responders with American flags they bought at the MFE outside the Pentagon.

Fort Hamilton Exchange General Manager Steve Williams, in red shirt, serves members of the National Guard at Battery Park at the southern end of Manhattan. Williams had just started a meeting to discuss a renovation of his Brooklyn-based store when his assistant told him that a plane had struck one of the World Trade Center towers. A few minutes later, she came in and told him the other tower was attacked. The next days, Williams, Area Manager Ray Black and West Point General Manager Allan Heasty started preparing for the arrival of a mobile field Exchange, which was in Battery Park by Sept. 13. A second MFE was set up on Park Avenue.

A Fort Hamilton Exchange associate serves refreshments and snacks to National Guard members gathered in Battery Park.

Support also happened off-site. Leslie Munsey, a stationery buyer, helped fulfill an urgent need for American flags to honor some of the fallen heroes of 9/11. New York City, having exhausted its conventional means of acquiring American flags for burial services, needed 600 flags and turned to the Exchange for help. Munsey arranged with the Veterans Administration to “borrow” flags and replenish them when she could. “When the VA learned why we needed the flags,” she told the Exchange Post, “they dropped their normal red tape and finalized the agreement in just two hours from the time I called them.” The flags were in New York the next day.

Some other stories of Exchange support:

• The Pentagon MFE also provided support for K9 cadaver dogs. The dogs received Evian mineral water, American flag collars and more. Associates made insulated booties for the rescue dogs whose foot pads were burning away from the intensely hot debris littering the Pentagon grounds.
• More than 2,500 Exchange associates signed a 24-by-4-foot banner with the inscription “United We Stand,” which in October 2001 was presented to the administrative assistant of the Secretary of the Army to be displayed at the Pentagon.
• Truck drivers Brian Hartley and Scott Moore, who transported donated goods from the Dan Daniel Distribution Center to New York, stuck around to help set up a mobile field Exchange, then spent the day assisting customers and helping run the register.
• At Fort Eustis in southeastern Virginia and Fort Dix and McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey, associates held bake sales to raise money for a Red Cross emergency relief fund.
• During its Toyland opening on Sept. 15, 2001, the Whiteman Air Force Base Exchange in Missouri held a “We Love NYC” campaign to collect money for victims of the World Trade Center attacks.
• Associates at Travis Air Force Base in California delivered breakfast and lunch to troops who were manning the gates, ensuring the safety of the installation in the days after attack.
• Associates at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, delivered doughnuts to weary Soldiers protecting the post.
• Kim Bezotte, a Redstone Arsenal associate, prepared 360 egg rolls in two days to raise money for victims of the attacks. Sales raised $210 for the Red Cross NY Rescue 911 fund.
• In Hawaii, Schofield Barracks conducted Operation Aloha Lei, assembling a memorial lei more than two football fields long with floral messages honoring attack victims.
• In Heidelberg, Germany, the associate who ran the airfield snack bar stayed open on Sept. 12, when most facilities were closed, to singlehandedly support troops. Airfield command center sent a letter to the European Stars and Stripes thanking her for her service.