THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, September 26, 1994 TAG: 9409260101
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: United Way
SOURCE: BY KERRY DEROCHI, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines
In a small, sparse office on the second floor of an auto-hobby shop, military wives and children connect with the world.
Typing on aging, donated computers, they send messages from home to ships deployed as far away as the Mediterranean.
Hey, I got a new job.
The house is dirty.
You should have heard what your daughter said at dinner.
``It's like you feel connected, really connected,'' said Joanne Nicholson. ``You're sitting here typing and you don't want to stop because if you do, you'll lose that connection.''
The messages are part of a new program put together this summer by the United Service Organizations of Hampton Roads, providing a computer link between Navy families and sailors who are at sea.
Already more than 850 Navy spouses and children use the service - called USO-Gram - each month, making it one of the most prominent and best-publicized services of the venerable USO.
Formed 53 years ago at the brink of World War II, the USO has operated as a resource and a cheerleader for the United States military. Though famous for its World War II dances and for sending entertainers such as Bob Hope to troops abroad, the USO has grown to include a wide variety of services for peacetime and in war.
There are six USO offices in Hampton Roads, seven if a mobile canteen is included. Half of the operation is paid for by United Way contributions. The rest comes from fund raising.
``We rely on the generosity of the community,'' said Francis C. McCrane, the executive director of the USO. ``If the community doesn't support it, we can't go on.''
In recent weeks, the USO volunteers staffed the welcome center for Navy personnel and their families who were evacuated from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Other volunteers spent all night in a hangar at Langley Air Force Base sitting with troops from Fort Eustis who were preparing to go to Haiti. The volunteers gave out popcorn, soda and pizza. They showed movies as the soldiers waited, sometimes until the early morning hours.
``We want them to know they're not alone,'' McCrane said ``They may be sleeping in a hangar and getting on an airplane at four in the morning. We want to bid them a fond farewell and say, `We'll see you when you get back.' ''
At Norfolk Naval Air Station, USO workers staff the four personal computers that make up the USO-Gram.
Started in May as a pilot program on the carrier America, the USO-Gram is now offered on 51 ships in the Navy's fleet. Costing $3, the system gives families a chance to communicate virtually overnight.
The fee covers expenses and includes a specially formatted disk, use of the computer at the USO center and transmission. The 100-line message (3,500 characters) is sent through a private company in Fairfax to the the Navy's Streamlined Automated Logistics in Philadelphia. From there, it is sent to a satellite and onto the ship.
There is no guarantee of when the message will be received. It depends on the ship's location, the exercises it's performing and the weather.
Nicholson, 32, doesn't seem to mind.
This is the third time she's used the USO-Gram to send a letter to her fiance on the amphibious assault ship Wasp. She wanted to tell him about her new job. She wanted to find out when he was coming home.
``I just think it's the greatest thing,'' Nicholson said. ``It's the best $3 I've ever spent.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Bob Hope
The USO gained fame for its World War II dances and for sending
entertainers such as Bob Hope to troops
abroad.
Color staff photo by BILL TIERNAN/
At the USO-Gram office at Norfolk Naval Air Station, Jean Henson
types a letter to her husband on the guided-missile cruiser
Vellagulf.
KEYWORDS: UNITED WAY by CNB