• JB PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, HICKAM AFB, Hawaii
The American Logistics Association (ALA) provides regular lists of military resale retirees in its online Military Commerce Magazine’s “On the Move” section, but you will not find one particular associate’s name from the Army & Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) on the retiree list anytime soon.
Serving a total of 55 years with the Exchange, Lurline Mau-Saloricman celebrated her years of service with the Exchange this past March —
And she has absolutely no intention of retiring.
“I cannot handle doing nothing,” she said. “I’m a workaholic, and when I did try to retire, I thought, ‘Maybe there’s something better out there.’ But there wasn’t, so I just continue working.”
HOW SHE DID IT
Mau-Saloricman’s Exchange story starts in 1968.
She was looking for a job when a friend told her about the Exchange. She had no military background and was not familiar with the organization, but she did have retail experience.
She applied, and was hired as a sales associate at the Fort Shafter, Hawaii, Exchange.
“It was convenient for where I was living and I had children to support, so they come first in my life,” she said. “Then AAFES sort of took over after that.
“I’d worked for Sears and Holiday Mart, and I didn’t think military customers were different from other customers.”
In 1986, she switched to what was then the Hawaii Area Exchange Depot, where she was a warehouse worker foreman.
From 1986 to 2005, Mau-Saloricman worked at warehouses in Hawaii, except for a brief period in 1989 when she worked as an assistant retail manager on Johnston Island, part of Johnston Atoll, roughly 825 miles southwest of Hawaii (the Exchange operated a PX there from about 1948 to 2003).
After about six months on Johnston Island, Mau-Saloricman returned to Hawaii, and was there when the Hawaii DC opened in 1993.
She spent most of her remaining time there as a warehouse foreman, but was temporary DC manager for a few weeks in March and April 2005.
She retired in 2005 to take care of her ailing husband. After he passed away, she found she could not stay away from the Exchange and returned in 2008, and has been there ever since.
Throughout her long Exchange career, Mau-Saloricman has earned nearly 40 awards and letters of appreciation.
RETIREMENT?
This time, Mau-Saloricman plans to stick around.
“I love coming to work every day, you know, doing my job, working with the people, have a little fun,” she said. “We kid around, but that’s what makes the working condition better.
“I’ve been fortunate. I’ve still got a lot of mileage left in me.”
Source: AAFES
Edited by Larry Lapka
