From Kuwait to the DMZ: How One Soldier Has Leaned on the USO Throughout Deployments

By USO Staff

Service members deployed to Camp Casey, South Korea, are under an immense amount of pressure. With a hostile, nuclear-armed nation located less than a 30-minute drive away, the tension is constant, the days are long and the world you came from can feel very far away.

That’s why the USO is there by their side, providing crucial support that helps these service members remain mission-ready. For service members such as U.S. Army Sgt. Stanley Darby, that support comes in many forms – from USO programs that keep him connected to his loved ones back home, to moments of respite while carrying out his mission, to giving back to his own military community through the USO, Darby has leaned on the USO in South Korea in many ways.

How Darby Has Relied on the USO Throughout Deployments

Darby first encountered the USO when he was in basic training, when the USO visited service members at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, during the holiday season. But it was the support he found through the USO during his deployment in Kuwait that led him to truly appreciate what the USO can offer military members around the world. Now deployed to United States Army Garrison Camp Casey, in the Republic of Korea (ROK), it was his memories of his time in Kuwait that pushed Darby to volunteer at the local USO Center.

“While I was deployed to [Kuwait], it was kind of hard being away from my family like I was, and I found out about the Reading Program that they had,” Darby said. “So I used to take clips and videos of me reading to my son and I’d send them home to him. And then when I got home from deployment, it was kind of special because my wife would show me videos of my son laying down just watching me reading him books.”

The USO Reading Program remains one of the USO’s most popular programs for military communities overseas. Through this program, service members can record themselves reading a book, with both the recording equipment and the books provided within a USO Center. Then, the USO has that recording and a copy of the book sent home to the child in the service member’s life, ensuring that despite the distance of deployment, military families can still remain connected.

That experience motivated Darby to volunteer on his next deployment to Camp Casey, South Korea.

“I got inspired to get involved because the entire time I was in Kuwait, [the USO] helped me out with trying to stay close to my family through the USO Reading Program,” he said.

Darby has now been volunteering with the USO on Camp Casey since October 2025 – beginning shortly after his arrival in South Korea. And while the USO Reading Program remains one of his favorite USO programs to share among his fellow service members, he also truly enjoys the USO’s outreach work, visiting locations around base where service members are carrying out their duties.

Camp Casey is a United States Army Garrison that spans 3,500 acres and is home to over 6,000 service members carrying out those duties. These men and women are spending months performing missions and readiness trainings to support our ally, the Republic of Korea (ROK), and – if needed – to defend against aggressors such as North Korea. That’s why the camp is located only 13 miles from the Demilitarized Military Zone (DMZ), a buffer border between South Korea and North Korea. Given that service members must come to this location unaccompanied, as well as Camp Casey’s remote location and high-pressure rotational mission, this is considered a deployment location – and is known for being a high-tempo environment.

That’s why outreach visits around base, such as to the motor pool, where service members are working on military equipment and vehicles, can be so crucial in strengthening the well-being of the soldiers deployed here. This boots-on-the-ground approach offers deployed service members not just a hot cup of coffee during a cold day, or a snack to keep them fueled – this outreach provides soldiers with a brief reprieve before they must carry on in their mission while far from home.

“[The USO has] done a lot in order to help out not only the other soldiers that are here, [but also] they’ve done an excellent job of making me feel at home here and seeing how my family’s doing, and asking questions about my family. So it feels like even though I’m thousands of miles away, I’m still really close to my family.”

Darby has also found solace in volunteering with the USO. In between duties, he dedicates his free time to giving back to his fellow service members, which benefits both Darby and his soldiers.

“It’s fun to volunteer. You meet all kinds of new people being here, seeing people come through the door and stuff,” he said. “Then, seeing how we can actually give them a break – even on an Army installation – from Army life, it is just absolutely phenomenal.”

As soldiers like Darby undertake high-stress deployments all around the globe, the USO provides crucial resources and support that ensures these service members can return to their missions recharged and ready for whatever comes next.