Members of the military and their families will soon have their own lounge at Denver International Airport. They’ll be able to use it for checking e- mail, spending time with family before deployment or just relaxing while they wait for a plane.
The center will be run by the United Service Organizations, a nonprofit charitable corporation that since 1941 has worked to meet “the on-leave recreation needs for the members of the Armed Forces.”
The USO is best known for its celebrity tours, in which stars such as Bob Hope have traveled to war zones to entertain troops.
When it opens Nov. 10, DIA’s 3,600-foot center will be the state’s first USO Center. It will join more than 120 centers around the world, including those at airports such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago’s Midway and O’Hare, Honolulu, Boston’s Logan, Philadelphia and Dallas/Fort Worth.
About 100 volunteers will help staff it in shifts, said Hedy Margolis, the center’s new director.
“They just want to help and to be a shoulder to cry on, a comfort,” Margolis said.
In 1940, President Franklin Roosevelt asked six private groups, including the YMCA, the YWCA and the Salvation Army, to start such an agency.
“He wanted a connection between the American citizen and the military, an opportunity for the U.S. citizens to provide for the needs of the military, so we are the arm,” Margolis said. “You see the old movies with the gals dancing with the servicemen – that’s where they went to have a good time and relax.”
The DIA center will offer more modern forms of relaxation to troops who are between flights or waiting for a plane. It will have a large- screen television, a computer area, an Xbox area, a sleeping room, a cafe and a children’s play and game area.
Margolis expects 50,000 to 75,000 people a year to use the center. It will be located past the security area at the end of the A concourse in an underused part of the Continental Airlines Presidents Club.
“We have so many new military coming into the Colorado area,” Margolis said.
Fort Carson is now home to about 14,000 troops but will gain another 8,000 as the Army’s 4th Infantry Division relocates from Fort Hood, Texas.
Staff writer Kelly Yamanouchi can be reached at 303-820-1488 or kyamanouchi@ denverpost.com.
