USO is sweet place in deployment travels

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Karen Petitt
  • Air Force Communications Agency Public Affairs
BALTIMORE-WASHINGTON INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, Md. (AFPN) --  After checking in three 70-pound bags with my own version of makeshift wheels and working up no small sweat doing so, and avoiding whacks into my eyeballs from bungee cords gone awry, I was happy to find blessed relief in yet another USO center on my journey to Baghdad.

Near Air Mobility Command’s airline counter here were two USO volunteers happily handing out gift bags filled with cookies, phone cards and toothbrushes and directing us soon-to-be weary travelers toward the USO haven.

It’s a place where those of us traveling can have one last piece of home before we leave for the desert and tent living. A mother is saying goodbye to her Army daughter as they drink coffee and chat at a table, while 40 others focus on “Master and Commander," the movie playing on the big TV. A Naval officer is reading next to his open bag of Tagalong peanut butter cookies, and a few others are taking advantage of the computers and available internet.

The USO volunteers twist my arm to take a box of Girl Scout cookies -- Thin Mints, my favorite -- I’m sensing a theme here. They have 26 boxes filled with the cookies donated from Girl Scout Troops in the New England area. I grab an orange for the time when I will start my desert deployment diet, and then I read some cards from those Girl Scouts:

“Oh say can you see … these cookies! Eat them.”

“Dear Sweet Soldier, I hope you enjoy these cookies ….”

“Good Luck on the battlefield. Please write back … but not in cursive. I’m not that good at reading grown up cursive. It confuses me a lot.”

Earlier in the travel day I spent some time at the USO at St. Louis’ Lambert airport and visited with some of the dear old ladies who greeted each person with a smile and who were only too eager to offer words of support along with a … cookie.

There was Julia Fiorito, a volunteer since 1987, a veteran of the service without a uniform. That’s because her two husbands, four brothers and two sons were military. She supported them then and has since supported some of the more than two million troops and their families who have visited the USO there since 1981.

She said she likes to volunteer because the “people make it special.” Her friend, Joanne Cable, has volunteered regularly since February, and said she likes to make the young troops feel like they’re her own. "I want parents to know we’re taking care of the young men and women.” She gave me an impromptu tour of the facilities -- the nursery area for families and the “sleep zone” for those late nighters. “We even have a wake up service,” she boasted.

Vivian Bristol, a volunteer since the St. Louis USO opened in 1981, said she feels like she’s doing some good. I’ll tell you, Vivian, you are. I sat on this cozy sofa next to my husband as we prepared to say our goodbyes. Even though the news on the TV there came streaming in with updates on the prisoner scandal and more American bodies being found, your faith and support of our mission gave me a boost.

A group of six guys are now gathered around a table to play Spades as another 50 or so folks have checked in at BWI’s USO before we take off. I’ll grab one last box of Thin Mints for the road and say one last thank you to the USO volunteers and to all those who have donated the goodies I’ve gathered along this journey. You have made it a sweet place to be.