Courtesy Photo | Customers at the Ellsworth Air Force Base Commissary, South Dakota, line up for...... read more read more
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By Tamara Eastman, DeCA Historian
FORT GREGG-ADAMS, Va. – Quality of life benefits for the American military have evolved significantly over the past few centuries.
Part of that benefits package includes commissaries, which were restricted to officers dating back to 1825. The era of the “modern” benefit started on July 1, 1867, when Congress authorized enlisted service members to shop there as well.
Today, the Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA) remains committed to providing a 21st century benefit to eligible patrons who need it, said DeCA Director and CEO John E. Hall.
“Our agency exists to deliver the most efficient, valuable and necessary commissary benefit possible to the men and women and their families who’ve earned it,” Hall said. “Today, we help boost food security by providing an average of 25% savings to our patrons in over 235 locations worldwide – many in remote areas with few, if any alternatives for affordable groceries.”
The commissary sales stores of the distant past were nothing like today’s commissaries that offer a wide variety of fresh produce and products with easy access to shopping – including online shopping through DeCA’s online ordering/curbside pickup service known as Commissary CLICK2GO.
The early stores in the late 1860s and 1870s were set up in former wooden horse stables or warehouses and by 1896 typically had a stock list of only 81 items compared to the 15,000 products available at many commissaries today.
When U.S. troops started deploying overseas, commissaries followed. The first overseas commissary opened in Cuba in 1899 followed by another in China in 1900. The commissary in Panama opened in 1904.
The Naval Appropriations Act of 1909 created an allowance for the Navy’s own stores, and the service opened its first store in Washington, D.C., in 1910.
In 1918 during World War I, the U.S. Army ran commissaries in France and included mobile stores that operated from the back of trucks and carried goods to the men on the front lines.
When World War II ended in 1945, U.S. military commissaries were operating on every continent except Antarctica in more than a thousand locations. Before DeCA was created in 1991, each service had responsibility for running its own commissary program under the following organizations:
• The Navy Ship’s Store Office began running Navy commissaries in 1946. It became known as the Navy Resale Support Office in 1969. By 1979, the Navy Resale Services Support Office took over.
• The Air Force Commissary Service (AFCOMS) was activated in January 1976. Before AFCOMS, the Air Force ran commissaries in 1947, serviced by the Army Quartermaster Corps until 1952, when the Air Force Services Division assumed responsibility.
• The Troop Support Agency (TSA) became the centralized management system for all Army commissaries on Feb. 1, 1976.
• Before 1991, the Coast Guard operated “comstores” consisting of a grocery section inside an exchange operation. Eventually, two of these comstores fell under DeCA’s operational control: one located at Governors Island, New York (which closed in 1996), and the other still open at Kodiak, Alaska, in the Aleutian Islands.
• In the 1970s, the Marine Corps Services Division ran the Corps’ 12 commissaries.
The Army and Navy ran their commissaries differently in the 1950s and 1960s. For example, the Navy sought to combine their exchanges and commissaries under one roof. When it came to stock assortment, Army stores could sell shampoo, shaving cream, razors, cigarettes and tobacco products, candy, gum and soft drinks, but Navy commissaries did not. Those items were available only in Navy exchanges.
In 1959, the Navy ran commissaries in South Vietnam beginning in Saigon. Eventually, they were operating branch stores all over Vietnam that served the U.S. service personnel and their families, along with U.S. news reporters, contract workers and government workers stationed in South Vietnam. In April 1966, the Army began running the stores in Vietnam.
In 1990, Congress authorized the consolidation of service commissaries under one agency, the Defense Commissary Agency, which opened its doors on Oct. 1, 1991.
Today, DeCA continues to serve the military and their family members at 235 stores in 13 countries.
The agency boosts the value of the benefit through programs such as Commissary CLICK2GO™; the Your Everyday Savings (YES!) program, which lowers prices on trending products; Commissary Store Brands that offer quality private label products at significant savings; and dietitian-approved programs to help customers make healthier shopping choices.
-DeCA-
About DeCA: The Defense Commissary Agency operates a worldwide chain of commissaries providing groceries to military personnel, retirees, disabled veterans and other authorized patrons and their families in a safe and secure shopping environment. Commissaries provide a military benefit, saving authorized patrons thousands of dollars annually on their purchases compared to similar products at commercial retailers. The discounted prices include a 5-percent surcharge, which supports the costs of building, modernizing and sustaining commissary facilities. A core military family support element and valued part of military pay and benefits, commissaries contribute to family readiness, enhance the quality of life for America’s military services and their families, and help recruit and retain the best and brightest men and women to serve their country.
| Date Taken: | 06.27.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 06.27.2025 07:24 |
| Story ID: | 501662 |
| Location: | FORT GREGG-ADAMS, VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 42 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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