• DALLAS
Mike Smietana, the Army & Air Force Exchange Service’s (AAFES) senior vice president (SVP) of its Real Estate (RE) Directorate for the past nine years, retires today.
Smietana served 26 years in the Air Force before joining AAFES for an additional 18 years in the RE Directorate.
His successor is Juan Saldivar, previously vice president (VP) of the RE Directorate’s Store Planning and Operations.
FINDING HIS PATH
After earning a bachelor of science in civil engineering from the State University of New York (SUNY) in Buffalo, Smietana found the career field to be narrow and specialized.
Fortunately, he had talked to an Air Force recruiter who had come to SUNY seeking engineering talent. He joined the Air Force as a civil engineer officer assigned to the Headquarters Air Combat Command staff at JB Langley-Eustis, Va., and was assigned twice to the Pentagon: once as an action officer responsible for military and non-appropriated fund construction, and later as an Air Force Housing Division chief.
Smietana also served as senior military assistant to the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Installations, Environment and Logistics.
While serving in the Air Force, Smietana continued his education, earning a master’s degree in business administration from the University of West Florida and a Master of Science in national resource strategy from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces.
GOING WHERE YOU GO
As Smietana moved up in his career, the Exchange was always there. In 2008, Dan Metsala, the Exchange’s RE SVP, wanted to hire former military engineers. Smietana joined the Exchange in 2008 as VP of the RE Directorate Support Division. He later became VP of Facility Management and Support.
In August 2011, he was named VP of the RE Directorate, and assumed the position of SVP in August 2017. Among the biggest achievements under his oversight were the 2017 opening of the USAG Humphreys, South Korea, Exchange, serving a population which had quadrupled due to a major relocation of forces there; and the completion of a 2020 pilot program targeting quality-of-life improvements at the “big three” installations of Forts Irwin (Calif.), Polk (La.) and Wainwright (Alaska), later adding Fort Hood (Texas) to the list.
RETIREMENT PLANS
In retirement, Smietana and his wife plan to see the country, traveling in their motor home, and visiting “as many military installations and Exchanges as we can,” he said.
These visits are more than just sentimental — they’re family visiting family. “We have a significant advantage over regular retailers in the fact we know our customers,” Smietana said. “Many of us are our customers. That is a distinct advantage in the retail world … . We understand our customers better than anyone else does.” Source: AAFES
Edited by Larry Lapka
