USO Work Day

Yesterday I volunteered at the USO office, sitting at the front desk. It was my first time doing that assignment.  It was a very slow day, and according to the volunteer coordinator, an "eerily" slow day.  I attributed it to my first day there!   I was hoping it would be quiet.  Maybe had something to do with being "Leap Day" ?

Two or three military men came in to use a computer.  One of them must come often since he seemed to be well known to staff.  It's great that they can come in and get on a computer to work on something for a class they're taking, or even email home.

One visitor almost brought me to tears after he left.  He was an older gentleman, all dressed up in suit and tie.  He said he had a question, but was pretty sure he would be told, "No."   He told me he was a disabled veteran and wanted to know if there was anything available to him from the USO.  

I had to tell him that unfortunately, the USO's mission is to serve active duty military personnel only and they didn't have any services for veterans.  He was not happy about it, but had already assumed the answer was no.  I thanked him for his service (I used USO guidelines for answering veterans' questions)  and told him I was sorry I didn't have something to offer him.

We need to be doing more for our veterans!  North Carolina is home to the third largest military population in the United States. 

We have a candidate for congress, Taylor Griffin, who has made the military and veterans a focus of his campaign. We will be voting for him when the time comes.  Hopefully he wins this election instead of the long-time republican congressman who votes against veterans' issues all the time.