FORT DRUM, N.Y. -- The United Service Organizations is celebrating its 75 years of service throughout 2016 by highlighting the lives it has impacted and the volunteers who helped it do so. Some of those individuals can be found on Fort Drum, where the USO Fort Drum has supported numerous Soldiers and Family Members since its founding eight years ago.
The USO Fort Drum marked the birthday celebration Thursday with a cake-cutting ceremony and a host of well-wishers, including guests of honor Brig. Gen. Paul Bontrager, 10th Mountain Division (LI) and Fort Drum acting senior commander, and Col. Bryan J. Laske, Fort Drum garrison commander.
In 1941, at the request of then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt, five charities came together to help create an umbrella organization with the mission of helping to meet service members' recreation needs.
What began with charitable organizations answering Roosevelt's request has turned into a troop-supporting organization with centers around the globe. Whether at crowded airports on their way home from war or on a remote forward operating base thinking of home, service members have long walked into USO centers to find smiling faces, a cup of coffee and a place to be comfortable between destinations. Even here on Fort Drum, the USO maintains a constant presence.
The USO Fort Drum, located inside the Heritage Center on South Riva Ridge Loop, boasts 22 computers, 12 gaming stations with more than 100 games, and a nine-seat theater where patrons can catch the latest DVD. Music equipment and couches are laid out throughout the facility, which opens its doors each day at 11:30 a.m. before the lunch rush and provides free meals to patrons.
Soldiers on redeployment flights into Wheeler-Sack Army Airfield also know the USO's presence through volunteers who are there to greet them, providing comfort items as they go through the redeployment process before being released to their Families.
Although it had humble beginnings, holding shows in barnyards and on farms, the "Camp Shows" programs quickly grew as celebrities flocked to remote locations to bring service members bits and pieces of American culture. Between 1941 and 1947, USO volunteers, who included American icons like Humphrey Bogart, Gary Cooper, Frank Sinatra and Bob Hope, gave more than 400,000 performances.
While celebrities come and go to entertain service members, other groups of ordinary volunteers maintain a constant presence to support Soldiers at USO centers around the world.
At the USO Fort Drum, volunteers include Family Members and veterans. Charlie David is one of those volunteers. A military spouse who began working with the USO two years ago, David said she makes giving back a Family activity because of the gratification she and her children get from working to support Soldiers. Although they may be limited in availability because of school obligations, her children contribute in the small ways they can with the skills they have, David said.
Her son, Korbin, takes pictures of the events that take place at the USO while her daughter, Lyberti, reads to toddlers during USO Fort Drum's monthly story time programs.
One afternoon, David was dressed in a polo shirt with the USO logo as Soldiers filed in to USO Fort Drum during a lunch rush. Standing behind the counter, David doled out scoops of food to Soldiers and Family Members, greeting each patron as they went through the line. As they settled down to their meals, sharing laughter between bites and games of pool, David began to lay out snacks.
"It's satisfying for me to see them come in," she said. "This is a relaxing environment that can uplift their spirits and motivate them."
While some spend their time during the lunch rush supporting Soldiers inside the facility, others are there during Soldiers' important milestones and when they may need someone with whom to celebrate.
Bob Kip, of Owego, has helped Soldiers for five years. A veteran and retiree, the 73-year-old makes the 3.5-hour drive each way to greet Soldiers on redeployment flights. Wherever they might have served, when 10th Mountain Division Soldiers (LI) come back on chartered flights, Kip's is one of the first faces they see.
One reason Kip donates his time to greet Soldiers is to remind them of the honor in their work and to let them know they aren't forgotten, he said.
"I appreciate what they do, because some of them don't come home. For those who come home, they just don't know if people are going to care or remember them in six months," he said.
Just as Kip makes the effort to remember the Soldiers, they also remember him.
During a recent welcome home ceremony, Kip met an Army captain who warmly greeted him and asked how he was doing. When the Soldier sensed that Kip was perhaps a bit confounded by such a personal greeting, he continued.
"I was on that returning flight two nights ago, and when I got off the plane, you put a cup of coffee in my hand," Kip recalled the Soldier saying.
Moments like that -- where a small, kind gesture makes an imprint on a Soldier's memory -- could not have happened without the volunteers, said Karen Clark, USO Fort Drum center director.
"(They) don't have to be there," Clark said. "But they get up in the middle of the night and in snowstorms just to welcome Soldiers home."
Because arrival times for international flights fluctuate, greeters have sometimes come to welcome Soldiers only to find out the plane would be late. When it happened to Kip, rather than making the trek home, he decided to sleep in his car overnight while waiting for the Soldiers.
"I was at the gate and saw that there was nobody there," he said. "I found out that the plane would be late, so I set my phone for 3 a.m. and went to sleep in my car."
It is because of those like Kip that the USO is able to meet service members' needs, Clark said.
"They volunteer because they want to support the troops," she said. "They're not getting a check or promotion -- their benefit is to bring a smile to a Soldier's or Family Member's face."
In recent years, the USO has extended its services to also provide support for Family Members. Because the military lifestyle requires constant change and adaptation, younger military children may find it difficult to face uncertainties like being without a deployed parent for a year or having to move to a different post.
To help put these worries at ease, the USO worked with Sesame Street to create Katie, a 6-year-old character who is a military child. In a video posted on the USO website, www.uso.org, Katie confides in the Muppets her concerns about a pending move and having to make new friends.
"We'll still be friends. We can send each other letters," Elmo said.
"And cookies," chimed in Cookie Monster, to the laughter of children and parents.
Programs for Family Members are especially useful for Kimberly Mills and her 2-year-old daughter, Katherine. While Kimberly Mills and her husband, Spc. Bradley Mills, an infantry Soldier with 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, were having lunch Wednesday at the USO Fort Drum, Katherine enjoyed herself by watching Soldiers play pool. For Bradley Mills, the USO Fort Drum is important because he knows his Family is supported.
"It's a good place to hang out whether I am here or not," he said. "It a sense of comfort because I know they're having fun while I am away."
"We've been coming here since (Katherine) was 3 months old," Kimberly Mills said. "It provides comfort for Soldiers and Families and helps keep their minds off deployments."
Older children also are included in the USO's programs. "Comfort Crew for Military Kids," for example, helps military children ages 6-12 with the unique challenges that come with being a military Family Member.
Hosted by motivational speaker Trevor Romain, the program also provides kits that include journals and DVDs to help children to become more resilient.
Despite the variety of programs the USO offers, Clark said her favorite is the local, most basic program -- being open each day to give service members a place to call home when they miss it most.
"They can come here to be surrounded by kindness and familiar voices and laughter," she said.
Having a place where they are welcomed and can be themselves is one of the reasons Soldiers come to the USO Fort Drum.
Spc. Sam Watkins and his friend, Spc. Shanay Lespes, are among those Soldiers.
The two Soldiers, of 3rd Battalion, 6th Field Artillery Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, sat across from each other one afternoon, as Watkins showed Lespes how to play chess, a game Watkins said he preferred because the game reminds him of his childhood.
Lespes, who lives in Watertown, said the facility gives her an opportunity to wind down and have lunch without having to go home. A regular at the USO Fort Drum, Watkins said the facility is a place to catch up with friends and spend time with his Army Family.
"At the USO, you're able to talk to your Family and friends," he said. "It's a little bit of freedom and space. It's kind of like being home."
For Clark, providing a place where Soldiers and their Families can go is the reason that facilities like the USO Fort Drum exist.
"On paper, we may not look all that impressive, but it's comfortable here," she said. "The best compliment for us is when they say that it's a 'home away from home.'" o
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