Caroline (L) and Jamie (R) are the USO Girls. They pose here with a servicemember who's passing through the DFW USO.
Some of the most prolific military bloggers are volunteers with organizations that support the Troops. We’re especially proud of “USO Girls,” two women who volunteer at the Dallas-Fort Worth USO (well, one now; the other gal recently moved) and share the stories of staff, other volunteers, and – most importantly, the Troops and their families who travel through the center.
As part of our continuing celebration of National Volunteer Week, we bringing this special guest blog from the USO Girls – we hope you enjoy it as much as we do!
We are Jamie and Caroline and we are just two of the hundreds of people who volunteer at the USO at the Dallas/Ft Worth airport. We have volunteered for over 4 years, on weekends, hosting active duty, retirees, and families of our service members. We have loved every minute of it and it has become a very important part of our lives. We both have great parents who raised us right and taught us the importance of loving our country and the men and women who protect and defend it. We both wanted to do something to show our appreciation but we weren’t sure how or where to start.
We did research and found the USO. We work in the USO center on Saturdays where service members have the opportunity to watch a movie, enjoy snacks, check email, take a nap, or just kick back and relax.
A servicemember is welcomed home by the USO and greeted by his family during R&R.
The DFW USO also has a unique opportunity to serve our troops through the R&R program. Each day volunteers welcome home a group of soldiers coming home for their two weeks of R&R from Iraq and Afghanistan. We also have a flight that leaves every day going back. They fly to DFW after they have finished up their two weeks of rest. There is a group of volunteers every day for each flight that hang out at the sendoff gate, handing out snacks and water.
We also have the United Through Reading program, it’s a great way for soldiers to keep in contact with their children. We record them reading a book and then we send the DVD and book to their kids so they can read along with the parent while they are deployed. We’ve had so many great experiences through the years and so many memories. From a five year old talking to us over an ice cream cone how excited he was to talk to his daddy on the phone who was overseas to meeting an Airman on his way to Iraq who talked about his wonderful girlfriend, hoping they would make it through his deployment and then seeing him a year after he returned home, telling us he is on his way to propose to her.
The USO and the volunteers has become our second family. We can’t tell you how many times we’ve had service members thank us for just being there. All it takes is a few hours of your time. It’s worth it, we promise!
The opinions expressed in this blog are solely those of the USO Girls and do not necessarily reflect those of the USO.
