Your USO at Work (September 2009, Issue 4) |
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* The NFL begins a new USO Tour tradition in 2009
* Blues Traveler dedicates new song to the military
* Your USO
* Go ON PATROL with the USO's new magazine
* USO Center Update
* Upcoming Events
U.S. Army CSM Larry Wilson (L) joins hands with NFL coaching legends (left to right) Jon Gruden (formerly Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Oakland Raiders), Tom Coughlin (NY Giants), John Harbaugh (Baltimore Ravens), Jeff Fisher (Tennessee Titans), and Bill Cowher (former Pittsburgh Steelers) prior to a USO meet-and-greet at Forward Operating Base Warrior near Kirkuk, Iraq, July 2, 2009.
USO photo by Mike Theiler.
Are you ready for some football? 'Tis the season!
The National Football League started preseason by continuing its longstanding relationship with the USO by sending five legendary coaches to Iraq from June 30 to July 5.
The coaches -- New York Giants' Tom Coughlin, Tennessee Titans' Jeff Fisher, Baltimore Ravens' John Harbaugh, and Bill Cowher and Jon Gruden -- celebrated Independence Day with the troops and met with them at eight different locations over the week.
"In my time, we had the draft," Coughlin said. "Today, these people who are in Iraq and Afghanistan are volunteers. To spend time with them is to be able to sense the intelligence and the passion of these people and to stand in admiration and awe of this combination."
The coaches also helped open USO Baghdad Airport/Sather Air Base on July 4th, participated in a naturalization ceremony while in Iraq, and met Vice President Biden.
Blues Traveler lead singer, John Popper.
Courtesy photo.
Blues Traveler's frontman John Popper says he has been forever changed by his time on USO tours, and he wants to continue to give back through a song he recently penned called "Forever Owed."
"The USO opened our eyes as civilians to this incredibly selfless spirit of dedicating one's energy to something higher," Popper wrote of his experience visiting troops in Korea and Japan in 1998, on board the USS Kitty Hawk, and in Bosnia and Kosovo in 2002.
The song can be downloaded for free on Blues Traveler’s website, where the band has asked that fans and listeners "make a donation directly to the USO so that they can continue to boost morale for our brave men and women."
"Forever Owed" centers around the refrain of "'Til I can bring you home, no, I will never really be free."
"What I love about my song is its simple truth," Popper wrote. "I will carry my meager taste of honor with me for the rest of my life. And I truly believe it has made me a better man because once you have experienced serving something higher than yourself, you are forever changed and the feeling is forever owed."
Sloan Gibson addresses The American Legion's 91st Annual Convention on August 26, 2009.
Courtesy of The American Legion. Photo by James V. Carroll.
Sloan Gibson, USO president and CEO, addressed The American Legion’s annual conference in Louisville, Kentucky, on August 26. He told the crowd: "Your USO is changing. It's changing because the needs of our troops and their families are changing. Among the troops who need us most these days are … in the most austere and dangerous conditions."
Gibson said that programs such as USO in a Box (transportable USO Centers), USO2GO, and the Mobile Electronic Gaming Systems help to meet the needs of the modern military by being easily deployed to forward locations. The USO has also been shown incredible support for its Operation USO Care Package, Gibson said, and the USO’s new, private telephone network allowed troops overseas to make more than 500,000 phone calls home since April.
To watch Gibson’s American Legion speech, please visit www.legion.org. Gibson also addressed the Veterans of Foreign Wars conference on August 18.
Inaugural Issue of ON PATROL, Spring 2009.
Courtesy ON PATROL.
The USO has been telling Americans the story of our military since World War II. From the service member on the frontlines watching a Bob Hope comedy show to the joy of seeing Marilyn Monroe in person in Korea to NFL coaches and players visiting troops in Vietnam and bringing messages home to their loved ones. That is the USO’s mission.
The USO has been successful for more than 68 years by serving and adjusting to the changing needs of our military. We are constantly looking for new ways to share all the wonderful things people and organizations do to support our military. One way we are doing that today is through our new magazine, ON PATROL. The magazine focuses on the service and sacrifice of our troops and their families and tells inspiring stories of people and organizations that support them.
Distributed around the world to service men and women through USO Centers, as well as here in the States, ON PATROL offers a range of stories reflecting the global reach of military support, while also providing information and resources to troops and their families to find programs available to them.
In ON PATROL read stories about and from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, Sesame’s Gary Knell, John S.D. Eisenhower, CBS Golf Commentator David Feherty, Sir Martin Gilbert, and many more.
Published quarterly, ON PATROL will continue to share the stories that all Americans should read, taking readers on a journey -- from Afghanistan to Fort Bragg to San Diego to Landstuhl, Germany. To learn more, please visit www.USOonPatrol.org to go ON PATROL with the USO!
This summer, the USO surpassed 140 locations (including Mobile Canteens) worldwide! With the opening of USO South Carolina (Columbia) troops and their families can get a small slice of home wherever they may be.
USO Houston, at George Bush Intercontinental Airport, re-opened its doors in September to a new terminal and a bigger, better space to serve the more than 45,000 service members and their families who pass through each year. The revamped center -- expanded from 700 to 1,200 square feet -- features a Cyber Café with free Internet and e-mail access, large screen televisions, DVD players and movies, video game stations, and theater seating in the entertainment lounge.
To find the USO Center nearest you, please visit: www.uso.org.
* In September, the USO and Sesame Workshop launches phase II of "The Sesame Street/USO Experience for Military Families." Learn more at www.uso.org.
* On September 8, celebrate the 50,000 United Through Reading Military Program recording to be hosted at a USO Center at BWI International Airport. To learn more about United Through Reading, please visit www.UnitedThroughReading.org.
* Patriot Day: September 11.
* Happy Birthday to the U.S. Air Force (September 18, 1947)!
* September 18 marks the annual POW/MIA Day of Observance.
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