USO Center Spotlight - Nov. 2007 |
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USO Kaiserlautern
The USO Kaiserlautern provides service men and women stationed in the region with a home away from home. Opened in 1978, USO Kaiserlautern served more than 428,000 service members traveling through, vacationing in or stationed in Germany during 2006. The Kaiserslautern USO consists of four centers, one administration office, one warehouse, and one deployment support counter. The five centers are located at the Contingency Aeromedical Staging Facility (CASF), Ramstein Air Base, Landstuhl Regional Medical Center (LRMC), and Vogelweh. The USO centers provide service members with a place to relax, grab a cup of coffee, watch television, and access the Internet and e-mail. They also provide community information, souvenirs, tickets to local attractions and photocopying services.
The USO at Lanstuhl Regional Medical Center will receive a brand new state of the art facility in 2008, thanks to a generous donation from TriWest Healthcare Alliance. The new center will include a wireless Internet café, phone banks and a full kitchen. The Ramstein Air Terminal USO, located on Ramstein Air Base, expanded last year. The USO Family Lounge is outfitted with a lounge for traveling families, with a wide-screen television, baby changing room and a crib room with a lactation suite.
The CASF USO offers wounded troops a place to relax and get away from the typical hospital environment. The Vogelweh center primarily focuses on assisting the military community with acquiring tickets to local events and attractions. It is a point-of-sale operation rather than a USO center for relaxing.
Program/Event: “Thanks for Thanksgiving Day”
Since 1998, USO Kaiserlautern has helped provide deserving troops with a complete Thanksgiving meal. The “Thanks for Thanksgiving Day” program supplies service members and their families with all the ingredients to make a full Thanksgiving meal in their own home, this includes the turkey with baking pan, stuffing, cranberry sauce, green beans, corn, sweet potatoes, soft drinks and a desert. Local vendors in the Kaiserlautern military community donate the items and help ensure that more than 400 military families receive a traditional holiday feast. This year the “Thanks for Thanksgiving Day” program will take place on Nov. 17, 2007, at the Vogelweh Commissary. To get involved or for more information about the Nov. 17th event, contact Konrad Braun