In late August 1988, 2,400 Soldiers of the 3rd Brigade, 9th Infantry Division were sent from Fort Lewis, Washington, to help fight fires that were threatening forests in Yellowstone National Park. Also assisting firefighters were 1,200 Marines from Camp Pendleton.
And the Exchange was there, too.
While Northwest Area services manager Ed Hourigan remained at Fort Lewis to coordinate the action, Exchange Manager Leo Bitner activated a Yellowstone annex out of Malmstrom AFB in Montana.
Bitner, area food manager Richard Sheff, area retail manager Toni Long and two barbers from the Fort Lewis Exchange, Kimberly Tyndall and Dave Clawson, arrived at Yellowstone on Aug. 31. (Sheff went on to be the Exchange’s chief marketing officer, retiring in 2008 after a 33-year career.)
The barbers cut hair at nine base camps throughout the park while the rest of the Exchange crew worked out of a 40-foot trailer fitted with retail shelving. Accommodations were a little different than at a standard barber shop: Seating ranged from folding metal chairs to garbage cans.
The mobile annex was moved from camp to camp, up and down treacherous roads. Despite the adverse conditions, within the first three weeks the annex had sold a variety of items to virtually every one of the 3,600 firefighting troops.
Relief for the first team came when retail manager Art Crane, military clothing sales store manager Maria Heaberlin, assistant service station manager Don Lowry, barber Perry Boggs from the Fort Lewis Exchange and sales associates Kathy Hartry and Bill Ribich from Malmstrom AFB replaced them.
“The men were appreciative that we were there,” Hartry said. “It was the first time I had been to the park. It was a bad way to see it. [But] our presence there was a little bit of home for the troops. A lot of guys just wanted to talk about their thoughts on the fire.”
In September, a second task force, consisting of 2,000 additional troops from Fort Lewis, deployed to help fight a 250,000-acre fire in the Canyon Creek area, running from Helena, Montana, through Flathead National Forest.
A base camp was established at Kleinschmidt Flats, Montana, about 120 miles from Malmstrom. Two food mobiles were converted into a second annex to serve those troops. The annex was managed by Chris Gavit, a college trainee from the McChord AFB Exchange.
The Puget Sound Distribution Center in Washington delivered merchandise to McChord and to Gray Field at Fort Lewis, where it was then flown to the annex sites.
“[They] have been nothing less than fantastic,” Northwest Exchange General Manager Ed Fitzgerald said about the DC team. He added that I Corps at Fort Lewis praised the Exchange effort. “I was given some glowing comments of appreciation for the fine support that our staff has provided the troops at Yellowstone,” Fitzgerald said.
Source: Exchange Post archives
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