USO Still Serves Its Country -- Organization Pulling Duty At Sea- Tac, Providing Aid To Thousands

SEATAC - As he settles in for a night at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Jesse Millstead admits he doesn't know what "USO" stands for.

But the 23-year-old Air Force enlistee knows what the airport's USO center means to him and thousands of other military men and women who pass through the busy airport each year:

Free sandwiches and homemade cakes; paperbacks, video games and television; bunk beds with clean sheets; and showers with clean towels.

And above all, the Admiral James S. Russell USO center at Sea-Tac means nurturing volunteers to talk enlistees like Millstead through long layovers, homesickness and jitters about new assignments.

"You'll see a nervous kid - new in the service - and kind of talk to him a little," said Tim Savage, a Vietnam veteran and one of the Sea-Tac USO's 130 volunteers. "They don't have too many places left like this."

USO officials say the Sea-Tac center is one of only five left in the country that is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week for military people and families in need of a free place to eat, sleep or unwind.

For proof of its popularity with military personnel and their dependents, consider these numbers: Last year, the Sea-Tac center served 21,832 sandwiches, 47,278 cups of coffee and 757 gallons of milk to 65,260 people.

"It's like having someone invite you into their house and say, `The food's over here, the bed's here - Help yourself to anything,' " said Millstead, a Snohomish native who spent a recent night at the Sea-Tac center before an early morning flight to his base in Alaska.

Nearly 60 years of service

The United Service Organizations was created in 1941 to provide recreation, comfort and a "home away from home" for American GIs. During World War II, at the height of the organization's popularity, soldiers and sailors could go to more than 3,000 centers around the world.

But funding shortfalls and reductions in the number of servicemen and servicewomen have led to numerous closings of USO centers. Today, the USO has 150 centers, 68 of them in the United States.

Many people familiar with the USO think it is a federal agency - the organization that brought Bob Hope, Marilyn Monroe and the Andrews Sisters to overseas troops during wartime, that organized dances and parties wherever soldiers were stationed to keep their spirits high.

But the USO is privately funded, relying heavily on donations to provide entertainment and comfort for troops.

"And it's true that during peacetime, people aren't thinking about the troops as much," said Scott Gruber, spokesman for the USO World Headquarters in Washington, D.C. "That means they're not donating to the USO as much."

USOs have cut back, closed

For Millstead's generation - the first in the 20th century to grow up without a lengthy U.S. war - peacetime is the norm. America has had a long time to forget about the USO.

The USO center at Miami International Airport closed last year, its officials claiming the community hadn't given it considerable support since the Persian Gulf War. Centers in Tacoma, Memphis and Fort Lauderdale also closed in recent years, and centers from San Francisco to Kentucky have grappled with funding shortfalls.

The USO Puget Sound Area - which includes the McChord Air Force Base USO center and the Admiral James S. Russell USO at Sea-Tac Airport - has had its own financial struggles. A few years ago, a cutback in United Way funding had local USO officials talking about decreasing services or cutting the three-member paid staff.

But Boeing came through with grant money - providing more than $100,000 to the USO Puget Sound Area since 1993 - and the Sea-Tac center's devoted volunteers found new ways to cut corners and step up their own homespun fund-raising campaign.

They stop at the grocery stores before their weekly shifts to ask for day-old pastries. They bring magazines, books and blankets from home. They use generic orange drink instead of Tang.

"You know those samples you get when you go to the dentist?" asked Savage, the Sea-Tac USO volunteer. "I always have them throw an extra half-dozen in the sack."

Lots of stuff

It makes for an odd mishmash - paper cups of milk are served on cocktail napkins that say "Marlboro," the toiletries often bear hotel labels - but the net effect is a USO center that many claim is one of the country's best.

"The one I was at in Georgia just had doughnuts on a table," said Army Pfc. Joseph Rieke, who recently spent a day at the Sea-Tac USO before a midnight flight to Korea. "There were no TVs or couches or anything. I've never been in one with this much stuff."

The center - a former lounge for United Airlines employees donated to the USO by the Port of Seattle - includes a lounge, a kitchen, a shower, four pay phones, a room with six bunk beds for men, a nook with a bunk bed for women, and even a family room with several day beds and a playpen.

The Sea-Tac USO - named after a longtime president of the USO Puget Sound Area Board of Directors - opened its doors in 1966, becoming one of the first airport USO centers in the country.

The long-gone days of dances

In the late 1950s, when Savage was a young Marine stationed in Oceanside, Calif., "The USO where I was stationed was next to the Greyhound station, and it had a dance every Saturday night," he recalls. "All the gals would go. Everybody knew about them.

"They don't do much of those anymore."

Over the years, the USO has placed increasing emphasis on providing places in airports for the mobile people it serves. Half of the country's USO centers are in airports.

Of course, the USO still does a lot of the service for which it is best known.

This week, the USO announced it will send film star Salma Hayek overseas to entertain troops in the Balkans during the Thanksgiving holiday.

But many in the military say the USO's most valuable service draws far less public notice than overseas tours.

Millstead recalls the time he stopped at the San Antonio USO before he began basic training, a nervous 19-year-old away from home for the first time. An elderly USO volunteer sat down with him and told him what he could expect from the military.

Millstead knew that a lot of what the man was telling him wouldn't apply to his own situation: "He was talking about when the Air Force was still part of the Army," he recalls. "But it was comforting anyway.

"It was the first time on the way to the military that somebody was actually being nice to me - before that, all I had was shots and paperwork," Millstead said. "For 15 or 20 minutes, I was able to feel like I was at home again."

Janet Burkitt's phone number is 206-515-5689.

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Businesses and services closed for Veterans Day.

What's open and closed today (unless otherwise noted, all services will be on a normal schedule tomorrow):

U.S. Postal Service: no home delivery; post offices will be closed.

Banks: U.S. Bank will have regular branches open; other banks will be closed except for some in-store branches.

Public transportation: buses and ferries will run on regular schedule.

Garbage collection: normal pickup; transfer stations open.

Government offices: closed.

Public libraries: closed.

Liquor stores: closed.

Schools: closed.

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If you want to help

If you want to volunteer at the USO, call 206-246-1908. Donations can be sent to:

USO

Puget Sound Area

Main Terminal, 2nd Floor

Seattle Tacoma International Airport

Seattle, WA 98158