USO Puget Sound Area - Sept. 2007

 
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The USO tradition is to “provide a touch of home” for our service personnel, and that is exactly what you have helped create at the Internet Café.

– - RADM William French, Commander, Navy Region Northwest .

Since opening in 1966, the USO Puget Sound Area center has provided more than three million service members and their families with morale support, programs, services and the comforts of home. The Seattle-Tacoma (Sea-Tac) and McChord USOs annually service more than 300,000 troops and their families stationed in the Puget Sound area.

The Sea-Tac USO center offers a snack bar, a full nursery, books, sleeping facilities, showers and a lounge area that includes a big-screen TV, X-box games, and Internet access. This summer more than 5,000 Army ROTC students training at Fort Lewis will be provided with bag lunches from the Sea-Tac USO Center as they transit through the airport. Thanks to a grant from Harrah’s, the center is currently expanding and modernizing their lounge and food services area.

 

The USO McChord center, located at McChord Air Force Base, is outfitted with a state-of-the-art lounge, multiple computer stations and a deli, which serves free breakfast, lunch and dinner. The hours of operation for the center fluctuate based on deployment schedules and military operations. USO volunteers at the center stand ready 24 hours a day to send off deploying troops with a kind word, a bite to eat and a USO care package. The United Through Reading® program is also offered to troops who visit the McChord USO center.

The USO Puget Sound Area mobile canteen is available to deliver traditional USO services, refreshments and entertainment to troops stationed in remote locations throughout Washington state. It features a large screen TV, movies, video games and snacks.

 

 

Program/Events: Family Connections Initiative

 

Connecting service members with their families and loved ones is a heartfelt goal of the USO Puget Sound Area. The center provides a variety of ways to ensure this connection, such as access to the Internet, the United Through Reading program and a new TroopSkoot initiative.

Both the Sea-Tac and McChord USO centers provide free Internet access to all service members and their families. In March 2007, a new Internet Café was opened at the Northwest Liberty Center on NAS Whidbey Island. Through a partnership with the Morale, Welfare and Recreation Department at NAS Whidbey Island, and a generous grant from a USO supporter, the Internet Café was outfitted with 24 computers and 11 video game stations for interactive competition.

More recently, the McChord USO center began offering the United Through Reading program to deploying troops in the Fort Lewis/McChord AFB complex. Response to this opportunity for “electronic bonding” between parent and child using a DVD and book has been overwhelming. Service members can schedule an appointment to record a 30 minute DVD before deploying. The DVD and book are then mailed home to their child.

Finally, the USO Puget Sound Area has worked with local technology companies to keep families in touch. The ability to move large audio, video and photo files to loved ones over the Internet can be difficult due to bandwidth and security concerns. By promoting trials of the TroopSkoot technology locally and in cooperation with USO World Headquarters, introduction of this new capability is being facilitated. More information on TroopSkoot including a video clip is available, for viewing now. The Family Connections Initiative is being coordinated by the USO Puget Sound Area President & Executive Director.