Photo By Senior Master Sgt. George Thompson | Daphany Horne, store manager at the Army and Air Force Exchange Service at the 386th...... read more read more
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UNDISCLOSED LOCATION - Mahatma Gandhi stated “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” For Daphany Horne, store manager at the Army and Air Force Exchange Service at the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing, she found herself in Southwest Asia after visiting with wounded service members at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
“We had to go visit the soldiers and airmen three times a week, so at that point I decided the least I could do was to volunteer to deploy,” said Horne.
Horne’s introduction and career with AAFES began after her husband received permanent change of station orders overseas.
“We were at Fort Irwin, Calif. and we got orders to Germany,” she said. “There was no type of employment in that area except for AAFES and that was actually the first time I even found out about AAFES.”
In her 22 year career with AAFES, Horne served in Spangahelm and Mannheim, Germany, Dallas, Texas and Fort Belvoir, Va.
Horne started as an intermittent cashier working the late shift in the AAFES shopette and ended up becoming a manger after she transitioned to Texas as a favor to her boss.
“Actually I was not looking to become a manger, that is where my mentor came into play,” she said. “He didn’t have a replacement at that time and said I should take a chance, so I took a chance and I’ve been here ever since.”
That leap of faith has landed Horne here at ‘The Rock’ where she now manages a diverse staff of American and third country nationals.
“The TCN’s here have been awesome,” she said. “They know their jobs and we work as a team, we’re like family now.”
Horne confessed her greatest challenge as a manager is simply not meeting the expectations of customers.
“My biggest thing is not being able to help a customer,” she said. “We’re taught to always solve for yes and it’s difficult when you can’t find a yes and you actually have to tell a customer no.”
As Horne nears the halfway point of her tour, she reflects on her initial motivation behind volunteering to travel so far from her family.
“When you look at the customer base we serve, what greater customer base could anyone serve then our military customers,” she said.
| Date Taken: | 03.19.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 03.19.2013 07:03 |
| Story ID: | 103710 |
| Location: | (UNDISCLOSED LOCATION) |
| Web Views: | 80 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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