• DALLAS
Dr. Patrick Oldenburgh Jr., the Army & Air Force Exchange Service’s (AAFES) chief Human Resources officer (CHRO), is set to retire on July 25 after 30 years of service with the Exchange.
AAFES named Cedric Brown as his successor.
“AAFES FAMILY”
Growing up in Germany, Oldenburgh is a true long-time member of the “AAFES Family,” as his father and sister also worked for the Exchange.
Oldenburgh grew up in Amberg, in what was then West Germany, where his father — an Army Soldier — ran the retail stores at camps along the borders with East Germany and Czechoslovakia during the Cold War.
As a teen, Oldenburgh delivered papers for Stars and Stripes, picking them up at the Amberg Exchange bookstore.
As he grew older, he began looking for a job that paid more and didn’t require him to be up at 4 a.m.
He applied for a job at the Vilseck food court, and worked at Frank’s Franks, an Exchange-exclusive hot dog stand.
When a sales associate job opened at the Amberg Shoppette, Oldenburgh jumped on it.
The Amberg position was part time, so when a full-time supervisory job came up, Oldenburgh applied, but the Exchange manager suggested he go back to the states and get his degree.
Oldenburgh returned to the States, majoring in speech and communication at Cameron University in Lawton, Okla., eventually returning to the Exchange at Fort Sill, Okla.
Oldenburgh had been working part time for about two years when, in 1996, the Fort Sill training instructor retired. Sheila DuBois, the Fort Sill Human Resources (HR) manager, thought that with Oldenburgh’s college background in speech, debate and communication, he would be a good fit.
While waiting to hear more about this job, he volunteered to deploy to the Balkans, where the Exchange was supporting peacekeeping troops during the late 1990s.
But when the training position opened up, he took that job.
After a few years, Oldenburgh moved to Buckley AFB, Colo., where he was HR manager.
DEPLOYMENT
After 9/11, filling deployed positions became the organization’s top priority. This time, he went initially to Kuwait as the second HR manager there. He served in that role for nine months.
Oldenburgh worked with hundreds of U.S. associates who were deploying, for three months to a year. His team also worked to transition from a U.S. workforce to local agencies in Kuwait.
He also helped stock the store and run registers, where he connected with AAFES service members.
POST-DEPLOYMENT
After his deployment, Oldenburgh returned to the HR manager position at the Denver, Colo., Consolidated Exchange, then moved to the HR manager position at Fort Bliss, Texas.
Soon he was moved here to Dallas headquarters, where he oversaw contingency operations during Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom, and after that, he moved back to Europe. “There was a decision made that we were going to move the contingency functions from Dallas headquarters to the Europe Region headquarters,” he said. “I transferred with the job over to Europe. I finally got back to Germany.”
Oldenburgh spent about five years in Europe, following the contingency role with HR manager positions at the RAF Lakenheath, England, Exchange and the Wiesbaden, Germany, Exchange.
STATESIDE RETURN
In 2011, Oldenburgh returned here to Dallas, working in a variety of HR roles.
In 2016, he was promoted to vice president (VP), Human Resources-Policy and then assumed the responsibilities of VP, Human Resources-Operations the next year.
He was named CHRO in August 2020, starting as a senior vice president (SVP) and becoming an executive VP (EVP) in October 2021.
RETIREMENT
Oldenburgh plans to move to the Orlando, Fla., area by December.
Recalling his 30 years with AAFES, he said, “It’s the stuff like that, the enduring stuff, the stuff that sticks, the stuff that changes the culture, that drives a business outcome, that makes things better, that I’m most proud of.
“But I could do nothing without the people I am honored to work with.”
Source: AAFES
Edited by Larry Lapka
