Commissary plans for furlough Published June 7, 2013 By Senior Airman Laura L. Valentine 22nd Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs MCCONNELL AIR FORCE BASE, Kan. -- Beginning July 8 through September 30, the base commissary will be closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. The McConnell AFB commissary is among the 148 stores which regularly closed on Monday and will be forced to close the following business day. Other than the furlough day, there are no other changes planned for store operation hours, said Joan Countee, McConnell AFB commissary director. Commissary closures are a result of Defense Commissary Agency furloughs brought on by sequestration. Almost 250 commissaries with more than 16,000 employees operating in 13 countries and two U.S. territories will be impacted. The furlough will affect all of DeCA's more than 14,000 U.S. civilian employees. Sixty-five employees will be affected at the McConnell store. "We know that any disruption in commissary operations will impact our patrons," said Joseph H. Jeu, DeCA's director and CEO. "Also, we understand the tremendous burden this places on our employees, who, when furloughed, will lose 20 percent of their pay." The announcement comes as DeCA follows Department of Defense protocols related to the automatic federal government budget reductions, known as sequestration, which began March 1. Like most DOD activities, DeCA is mandated by the Department to furlough its civil service employees. Editor's Note: Information from an official DeCA news release was used in this article.