This week, Flashback Friday looks back on the career of Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Barry D. Bates, who was Exchange commander from May 1998 to June 2000. Bates passed away in September at age 78.
Bates began his career in May 1970 when the Army commissioned him a 2nd Lieutenant of Quartermaster, Regular Army, after he graduated from Oklahoma State University. During the first three years of his career, Bates served as Platoon Leader and staff officer with the 1st Armored Division in Germany.
Much of his 32-year career was spent in Quartermaster mission-related assignments of increasing responsibilities. In 2013, he was inducted into the Quartermaster Hall of Fame, which honors individuals who are judged to have made the most significant contributions to the overall history and traditions of the Quartermaster Corps.
You can read more about his military career here.
When Bates assumed command of the Exchange in 1998, it was a homecoming: From 1995 to 1996, he had served as vice commander.
“I was hoping I would get the opportunity to come back,” he told the Exchange Post in 1998. “You never really know where the needs of the services are going to take you. Fortunately for me, they brought me back here to AAFES. I’m excited to be back.”
Between his two Exchange tenures, Bates had served as Assistant Chief of Staff, C-4/J-4/G-4, for the United Nations Command/Combined Forces Command/U.S. Forces Korea/8th U.S. Army.
“My time in Korea impressed upon me the fact that we have a special mission in our overseas locations because customers there don’t have the opportunity to comparison shop,” he said in 1998. “We are their retailer in most cases.”
Bates was known for communicating with the workforce often, appearing frequently on “Commander’s Update” on BTV, the Exchange’s in-house TV network. Bates and other leaders took associates’ questions live; when time didn’t allow for all the questions to be answered on-air, Bates followed up with Exchange Post columns to address the questions.
In late 1998, the Exchange collaborated with Hollywood movie studios to provide major first-run movies free of charge to U.S. service members stationed in the Balkans. As arrangements were being finalized for the films to be shipped to Bosnia, Bates determined that the films should also be made available to Soldiers and Airmen serving in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
Bates left the Exchange in 2000 to accept an assignment as the Commander of 19th Theater Army Area Command in Korea, the second-largest command in the Republic of Korea.
“I’ve always said there are only two great commands in the military, the one you just left and the one to which you’re going,” Bates said in 2000. “This has been a great assignment and I’ll never forget the men and women who work so hard in AAFES to ensure our Soldiers, Airmen, retirees and families receive the greatest benefit the military has to offer.”
Bates retired from the Army on Jan. 1, 2003, and joined the National Defense Industrial Association, where he worked until he retired as Executive Vice President in 2017. He was a board member of the U.S. Army Quartermaster Foundation from January 2020 to the end of 2024.
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