08/28/2026
Friday: 1988 — The Exchange Supports Firefighting Troops Near Yellowstone
In late August 1988, 2,400 Soldiers of the 3rd Brigade, 9th Infantry Division were sent from Fort Lewis, Washington, to help fight fires that were threatening forests in Yellowstone National Park. Also assisting firefighters were 1,200 Marines from Camp Pendleton.
And the Exchange was there, too.
While Northwest Area services manager Ed Hourigan remained at Fort Lewis to coordinate the action, exchange manager Leo Bitner activated a Yellowstone annex out of Malmstrom AFB in Montana.
Bitner, area food manager Richard Sheff, area retail manager Toni Long and two barbers from the Fort Lewis Exchange, Kimberly Tyndall and Dave Clawson, arrived at Yellowstone on Aug. 31.
The barbers cut hair at nine base camps throughout the park while the rest of the Exchange crew worked out of a 40-foot trailer. Accommodations were a little different than at a standard barber shop: Seating ranged from folding metal chairs to garbage cans.
Barbers Kimberly Tyndall and Dave Clawson provided haircuts for Fort Lewis troops helping fight fires in Yellowstone in 1988.
The mobile annex was moved from camp to camp, up and down treacherous roads. Despite the adverse conditions, within the first three weeks the annex had sold a variety of items to virtually every one of the 3,600 firefighting troops.
Relief for the first team came when retail manager Art Crane, military clothing sales store manager Maria Heaberlin, assistant service station manager Don Lowry, barber Perry Boggs from the Fort Lewis Exchange and sales associates Kathy Hartry and Bill Ribich from Malmstrom AFB replaced them.
“It was the first time I had been to the park,” Hartry said. “It was a bad way to see it. [But] our presence there was a little bit of home for the troops. A lot of guys just wanted to talk about their thoughts on the fire.”
Source: Exchange Post archives
Northwest Area Exchange associates unload goods to support Soldiers fighting fires in Yellowstone in 1988. Note the garbage cans being adapted into barber chairs at left.
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