Sky Harbor lands new USO center PDF Print
Thursday, 02 September 2010 00:00
Emily Gersema

The Arizona Republic

Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport is the new home of a United Service Organizations center for military servicemen and -women.

Arizona is the 24th state to add a USO site.

For more than 67 years, the national non-profit group has been offering support, entertainment and various comforts to members of the military, veterans and their families at dozens of locations worldwide, including several airports. Its volunteer "ambassadors" have included entertainer Bob Hope.

On Wednesday, Mayor Phil Gordon welcomed USO to Sky Harbor, which has had a city-operated military lounge in Terminal 2 since 2007, when it was created by its Military Veterans Commission. The city handed oversight of the lounge to the USO in July.

The lounge, which is staffed by volunteers, is hard for many passengers to find and will be moved to fill a spot on the eastern side of Level 2 in Terminal 4 by late next year.

"The space just wasn't big enough and it wasn't in our busiest terminal," Gordon said.

More than 1.2 million passengers flow through Terminal 4 each month, nearly 10 times more than the estimated 125,000 each month in Terminal 2.

Maj. Gen. Hugo Salazar, adjutant general for the Arizona National Guard, said moving the lounge to Terminal 4 should make it easier for military members and their families to find and take a break.

"To have the USO in the main terminal in Phoenix is going to be amazing," he said. "When you walk into a USO, after you show your ID, you get a warm embrace."

"It's wonderful," agreed Lambert Modder, a former chief pharmacist in the Navy and World War II veteran of Pearl Harbor.

"I used the USO when I was in the service," recalled Lou Linxwiler, also a World War II veteran who was a lieutenant in the Army during the German occupation of France. "When I was on leave, I went to Rome. I had car trouble getting in there, and I arrived at 2 a.m. But they got me a hotel even at that hour."

Renovations cost money, though, and that's something the city doesn't have much of amid the sluggish economy.

TriWest Healthcare Alliance, a large insurance company based in Phoenix that insures military members, is donating $50,000 to help pay for renovations.

It's unclear how much the project will cost, but USO spokeswoman Patrice Cameau said the organization will cover the remainder of the project with donations.

TriWest President and CEO Dave McIntyre is on the USO's board of governors that oversees the non-profit group.

TriWest also recently announced that it is working with several USO centers to expand a behavioral-health pilot program from three sites to 17 to help identify symptoms of post-traumatic stress in soldiers and care for them. The program is now available at sites in California, Colorado, Hawaii, Kansas, Missouri, Texas and Washington.

USO President and CEO Sloan Gibson said the USO is a comfort to many Americans.

Military service members "are going to feel that Arizona thanks them for the difference that they and their families make in our lives" with the creation of the new center, Gibson said.

Phoenix council members Sal DiCiccio, Bill Gates, Michael Johnson and Claude Mattox joined Gordon at the airport.

Also present were Reps. Harry Mitchell, a Democrat seeking re-election in Arizona's Congressional District 5, and John Shadegg, a Republican retiring from Congressional District 3. They were there to thank the USO and TriWest for starting the new center.

To make a donation to help pay for the Terminal 4 renovations, go to www.uso.org.


 
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