Working in a retail environment in Afghanistan is like nothing else...

With a history dating back to 1920, NAAFI (Navy, Army & Air Forces Institutes) is a British institution which is proud to count HM The Queen as its patron. As a not for profit organisation, NAAFI has actively supported Britain’s Armed Forces, side by side, in campaigns all around the world, something it continues to do today in Afghanistan.

Since its inception, over 550 NAAFI employees have paid the ultimate price for their loyalty with many awarded campaign medals for their outstanding commitment to serving the British Armed Forces. This year the organisation will celebrate its 90th year by recognising the service of its staff, past and present, in a year of commemoration.

NAAFI is made up of three groups of people; EFI (Expeditionary Force Institutes), NCS (Naval Canteen Service) and NAAFI civilians (the majority of which are dependants of Armed Forces personnel). Major Lynn Cassidy was NAAFI Country Manager with EFI in Afghanistan until late last year having completed ten operational tours, including five tours of Iraq and three in Afghanistan. “Working with EFI has been the best experience of my life,” says Lynn. “After starting my NAAFI career as a manager in Celle, Germany, I enrolled within EFI, the uniformed arm of NAAFI working alongside troops on the front line, in 2000. What we do gives so much to you as a person and so much to the guys that are I couldn’t express it enough. I feel privileged to serve our servicemen and women fighting on the front line with the home comforts that make their job just that little bit easier.”

Today the organisation has 91 staff catering for 9,500 troops in Afghanistan and continues to play a vital role in forces life, providing home comforts and convenience to service personnel and their families through catering, retail and leisure facilities, no matter where in the world they are serving.

Since returning home from Afghanistan, Lynn’s role has been working alongside Central Operations to help recruit and train NAAFI personnel. “I’m keen to get more recruits through basic training and into uniform so that they can experience what NAAFI life has to offer as a hugely rewarding career.”

Lynn describes herself as a ‘people person’ and that’s what working for NAAFI is all about. “Serving the services is at the heart of everything we do and the ability to get on with people is key to the role. Working in a retail environment in a place like Afghanistan is like nothing else. It is such a sociable job. There’s always that feeling that you can go that extra mile to help the efforts out there and show the active servicemen and women that we are grateful for their commitment whether that be on the frontline in Afghanistan or places that people tend to forget about like the Falklands, Germany or Northern Ireland. Just being there to serve the troops, I really get the feeling that they appreciate we are there helping them to do their jobs and give them a little slice of home.”

The Armed Forces is an integral part of Lynn’s life. Married to a soldier and with two soldier sons aged 25 and 27, military life is in her blood and, Lynn believes, probably always will be.  She says: “My world revolves around forces life and I really identify with the troops in theatre. As the mother of two serving soldiers I can speak from experience when I say how important it is for the troops out in Afghanistan to have someone to turn to or chat to over a cup of tea. It’s the simplest of things that make a real difference. Being on the frontline can be a very lonely place especially when your loved ones are thousands of miles away.”

Lynn has been stationed all over the world since her first encounter with NAAFI in Germany in 1982. Since then she’s spent time in some hostile environments ranging from Kosovo and Kuwait to Shaibah in Iraq and more recently in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

Lynn says she has never felt in danger while she’s been serving although she has had one or two near misses and it’s always at the back of her mind. She recalls how she was part of a rolling convoy on its way back from Kuwait when one of the vehicles was hit by an IED (improvised explosive device). She says: “While that incident was terrifying you can’t let it affect you. I just had to put it to the back of my mind and think about the risks that the guys on the frontline take every minute they are out there. I just had to get on with it and do my job. Like they do day in day out!”

Lynn says that NAAFI life presents the same challenges as any normal retail environment, and a few more! She recalls: “My first time in Kuwait in 2003, I was trading out of an 18ft x 24 ft tent from a trestle table in the middle of the desert.  The conditions were incredibly challenging but this was at the start of the second Gulf war so was a key time.  I was out there for six months and it was probably at this time that the realisation of the importance of my role dawned on me. I knew that I was doing the job that I was born to do.”

Key to Lynn’s job satisfaction is the NAAFI’s ability to evolve. Just like high street retail NAAFI has had to change with the times to stay competitive: “NAAFI has listened to its customers – the Armed Forces and their families - and tried to give them what they want. It has never lost sight of the fact that providing a little piece of home is key to maintaining morale. There’s even a café culture developing in theatre with our own coffee shops recreateing the contemporary high street cafés back home, so soldiers and their families can have a good catch-up over a latte and a blueberry muffin. It’s come a long way since the traditional char and wad that NAAFI was originally famed for but is also providing the same level of no nonsense service which was so valued by WWII troops.”

“Of course we have the occasional unhappy customer and complaints of not stocking certain items but the range offered by NAAFI is expanding all the time and caters for all tastes. In stores, we sell everything from bacon butties to iPods and designer handbags. We even sell motorcars. The key thing is listening to what our customers want and being able to respond to their demands. It’s also important for us to communicate to customers that NAAFI puts so much money back into welfare services, so they know that shopping with NAAFI has real future benefits. We have returned close to £30 million to the Armed Forces in the last five years in total.”

When it comes to the future, Lynn is quite happy to remain on the operational side of things and is now Commanding Officer based in Bulford. Lynn, who wanted to be a policewoman when she was a little girl, lives in Hertfordshire and particularly enjoys the training element of her latest role.

She says: “While there is still a war on it’s vital that we in NAAFI continue to recruit and train EFI personnel who can provide the required level of support and service to our troops. I’ve worked with a superb group of people in an organisation that has a long and proud history. NAAFI has given me and thousands of others a hugely rewarding career and I’m thrilled to be associated with it. NAAFI’s contribution and the contribution of its staff, from those serving the services on the frontline to the behind the scenes team who keep everything moving, cannot be underestimated. It’s amazing to think that NAAFI has been fulfilling such a valuable role for the past 90 years. Long may it continue!”