Support the USO - more help to our troops than is a bumper sticker

There are many ways to support our troops, actions more effective than putting a sticker on your car’s bumper.  For example, you can support the USO by donating money or your time.  Organizations like this are America in action.

The USO is a private, nonprofit organization whose mission is to support the troops by providing morale, welfare and recreation-type services to our men and women in uniform. The original intent of Congress - and enduring style of USO delivery - is to represent the American people by extending a touch of home to the military.  The USO is one way the American public supports the troops.

The USO opened in 1941 in response to a challenge from President Franklin D. Roosevelt to handle the on-leave morale needs for members of the armed forces.  While the USO has diversified and changed over time, the mission remains unchanged: to bring a touch of home to our men and women in uniform, until every one comes home.  The USO is the link between the American people and military personnel. Through the USO, Americans can show their appreciation and express their gratitude.

What is the USO?

1. The USO is not a government agency. It is a nonprofit, charitable organization and relies on donations from private citizens and corporations.
2. More than 25,000 volunteers donate their time and talents.
3. Service members and their families visit USO centers 5.3 million times each year.
4. The USO runs more than 130 centers in 21 states and overseas in Germany, Italy, the United Arab Emirates, Japan, Qatar, Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, Guam, and Kuwait.

Click here for more information about the USO.  Click here to learn more about what they do to support our troops.

To support the USO

To make a donation by check, by telephone, or online, click here.  Donations are tax-deductible.

Just as valuable as donating money is donating your time.  You get a unique perspective by working in your local USO.  For example, watching a group of tired young men and women dropping at 1 am to the USO at Los Angeles airport, grateful for place to relax, eat (free), and call home – hanging out until their 11 am (or 9 pm) flight out.

Whether helping a soldier with a connecting flight, distributing a Care Package, serving snacks with a smile, providing local information, or “welcoming home” troops from deployment, USO volunteers are vital to the success of the USO’s mission. While the duties of a volunteer may vary, the goal is always the same - to improve the quality of life of service members, to boost their morale and to serve as the link between service members and the American people.

If you are interested in becoming a USO volunteer, please visit the locations directory to contact the USO center nearest you. 

Please share your comments by posting below (brief and relevant, please), or email me at fabmaximus at hotmail dot com (note the spam-protected spelling).

Other posts in this series

An effective way to support our Troops: help the Blue Star Mothers of America (8 June 2008)

Posts about good news for America

1. Good news: The Singularity is coming (again)  (8 December 2007) — History tends to look better over longer time horizons.
2. Some good news (one of the more important posts on this blog)  (21 December 2007)
3. A crisis at the beginning of the American experiment  (27 December 2008) — Looking at the problems looming before us, it is easy to forget those of equal or greater danger that we have surmounted in the past.  
4. An important thing to remember as we start a New Year  (29 December 2007) — As we start a New Year I find it useful to review my core beliefs. It is easy to lose sight of those amidst the clatter of daily events. Here is my list…
5. Is America’s decline inevitable? No.  (21 January 2008)
6. Let us light a candle while we walk, lest we fear what lies ahead  (10 February 2008) — Need we fear the future?
7. A happy ending to the current economic recession  (12 February 2008)
8. Fears of flying into the future  (25 February 2008)
9. Experts, with wrinkled brows, warn about the future  (2 May 2008) — Experts often see the future with alarm, seeing the dangers but not benefits. That gets attention, from both the media and an increasinly fearful public. Both sides feed this process. It need not be so, as most trends contain the seeds of good and bad futures. This post considers two examples.
10. Peak Oil Doomsters debunked, end of civilization called off  (8 May 2008)
11. Good news about the 21st century, a counterbalance to the doomsters  (9 May 2008)
12. There is no “peak water” crisis  (19 June 2008)

Click here for all posts discussing good news about America’s future.