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Defense officials are weighing a proposal from the director of the Army and Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) to allow the nation’s 22 million honorably discharged veterans, and perhaps an equal number of their family members, to shop online for military exchange products and discounts. Shoppers who use the AAFES website enjoy savings of up to 25 percent on many brand name products. They also avoid state and local sale taxes on their purchases just like on-base shoppers do. By providing online discounts to millions of deserving veterans and families, said Thomas C. Shull, chief executive officer of AAFES, the...

<p>Breaking News Alert, Police on scene at Fort Lewis PX Shooting. 2 people shot reported.</p>

New Exchange Makes Life Better for Deployed Having a well-stocked post exchange makes life a little homier at remote Forward Operating Base Sharana in Afghanistan. By Army Pfc. Nathan VeachTask Force Rugged FORWARD OPERATING BASE SHARANA, Afghanistan, Sept. 28, 2007 — Hundreds of soldiers and civilian contractors lined up outside the doors of the Army & Air Force Exchange Service’s new Post Exchange on grand opening day. "Getting the AAFES PX here in Sharana makes us feel like we are back at home."Army Staff Sgt. Ian Roberts “Getting the AAFES PX here in Sharana makes us feel like we...

WASHINGTON, June 13, 2007 – On June 17, most fathers will awake to smiles, hugs and maybe even another tie for their collection. For more than 150,000 American fathers, sons and daughters serving in operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom, their Father's Day will be much different. To help bridge the gap between the front lines and the home front, the Army and Air Force Exchange Service actively partners with the American public on not just Father's Day, but every day troops are far from home, AAFES officials said. Available to the public since April 2004, “Help Our Troops...

CLEVELAND (AP) -- Party planners beware: a global but temporary helium shortage could deflate festive balloons this fall. The shortage affecting some suppliers results from a series of unconnected events, including delays in getting helium plants on line in Algeria and the Mideast, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management said. The agency manages public lands, mostly in the West, and their mineral resources. It handles 42 percent of the U.S. production of crude helium, the colorless, odorless gas best known for inflating balloons that is derived from natural gas production. The government provides more than one third of the world's...

DANBURY, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 10, 2006--Praxair Chemax Semiconductor Materials Co. Ltd., a joint venture between Praxair, Inc. (NYSE: PX - News) and China Petrochemical Development Corp., announced that it will double the transfill production of silane in their Toufen, Taiwan facility. The increase in capacity is the result of the growing demand for silane in the production of TFT-LCD (Thin Film Transistor-Liquid Crystal Display) technology as well as at 300mm semiconductor wafer fabs in the region. "This expansion will allow us to meet the new requirements of our key customers and provide Praxair Chemax with the capability to maintain our leading...

About the time you're celebrating the Fourth of July, Lena Haddix will be en route to Iraq. She's a 73-year-old great-grandmother who recently finished a six-month deployment to Kuwait and then signed up for a six-month deployment to Baghdad. Haddix is a store manager for the Army & Air Force Exchange Service and volunteered to work overseas because she wants to support the youngsters in the military. "I'm doing it for our troops," Haddix said in a telephone interview from her home in Lawton, Okla. "I was a little late getting started because I raised a family first. But now...

The Army & Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) is now authorized to sell prepaid calling cards to any individual, company or organization that wishes to purchase cards for troops who are deployed. Up until now, those wishing to lend a helping hand had no other alternative but to purchase other retailer's prepaid cards that, in many cases, were not designed for affordable international calling in deployed areas. Now, anyone (even those not in the military) can help troops in contingency operations call home from one of the many AAFES call centers in Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom (OIF/OEF). Many of...

AAFES hoping to show 'Passion' film at theaters By Charlie Coon, Stars and Stripes European edition, Monday, March 1, 2004 The controversial movie “The Passion of the Christ” might not be playing anytime soon at theaters on U.S. military bases. Judd Anstey, a spokesman for the Army and Air Force Exchange Service, which operates the theaters, said AAFES does not have a business relationship with the movie’s distributor, New Market. Anstey said AAFES is trying to bring the movie to base theaters. “AAFES has notified the companies that represent this distributor of our intention to offer this film to the...

The first soldiers in line at the new PX began lining up three hours before the scheduled opening. More than 650 Soldiers made purchases on opening day. Photo by Jamie Bender / Staff writer 1BCT PX Opens at Camp Junction City By Jamie Bender / 350th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment CAMP JUNCITON CITY, Ar Ramadi, Iraq — Soldiers lined up three hours early to make their purchases at the new Post Exchange grand opening Nov. 15.Col. Buck Connor, 1st Brigade Combat Team commander, and Command Sgt. Maj. Ronald Riling, 1st BCT command sergeant major, were on had to cut...