In 1984, President Ronald Reagan proclaimed July as National Ice Cream Month and the third Sunday in July as National Ice Cream Day. Ice cream also plays a big role in Exchange history. #FlashbackFriday scooped up some examples from the Exchange Post archives.
Early 1940s: An ice cream plant operated by the Fiji Island Exchange during World War II.1946: An Army Exchange Service (AES) ice cream plant in Germany. During World War II, AES and other Exchange operations operated ice cream plants, breweries, soft-drink plants and more to bring tastes of home to U.S. GIs stationed in Europe. By February 1947, AES operated more than 50 ice cream plants in Europe.1956: Col. L.C. Horner, commander of Lockbourne AFB in Ohio, hands out cones at the Lockbourne Exchange’s new ice cream stand, which was in an area set aside for Airmen’s living quarters.1957: Exchange Officer Lt. Col. William Chartock serves the first cone from a new Fort Knox soft ice cream stand to Fort Knox Assistant Chief of Staff Col. George Artman. The soft ice cream machine could make cones (10 cents apiece!) at the rate of nearly 700 an hour. The stand, which opened in December 1956, also featured an automatic milkshake maker.1958: A trio of photos from the Exchange Post shows the ice-cream making process at a European Exchange System (EES) plant in Gruenstadt, Germany. The plant, which opened in late 1956, replaced six smaller EES-operated plants (five in Germany and one in Paris) as well as two operated by the Army Quartermaster Corps in Germany and Italy.1959: Recruits at Lackland AFB line up at an Exchange ice cream truck. According to the accompanying Exchange Post article, Lackland concession stands dispensed 36,000 ice cream servings a month during Lackland’s hot summers.1972: Brig. Gen. Cecil W. Hospelhorn, EES commanding general, shows off a deluxe jumbo sundae from the first of EES’ Old Fashioned Ice Cream Parlors. Hospelhorn was the last commander of the EES when the organization merged with the Exchange in 1972. He then became a major general and Exchange commander from May 1973 to April 1977. He oversaw the closing of all post exchanges in Vietnam before associates were airlifted out of the country in 1975 before the fall of Saigon.1980: A quartet of associates helped hand out 4,000 Exchange ice-cream cones during a three-day food fair at the Baumholder American Community in Germany.1987: Irv Robbins, who co-founded Baskin-Robbins with Burt Baskin in 1945, goes behind the counter to serve up some scoops at the Yongsan AB Exchange Baskin-Robbins in South Korea. In 1977, Baskin-Robbins became the first brand-name restaurant to join the Exchange family.1987: The Upper Heyford Exchange Baskin-Robbins in England sent 750 scoops to the Soviet Union for a trade fair. After receiving the request, the Exchange and Baskin-Robbins fulfilled it in six days.1991: American troops in Kuwait get ice cream and other snacks from a Baskin-Robbins food truck. The sky is blackened by the burning of the Iraqi oil wells during the battle to oust Iraqi forces from Kuwait during Operation Desert Shield/Storm.2003: An Exchange Baskin-Robbins at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait. The store was one of many brand-name food operations the Exchange brought to Southwest Asia during Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom.
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