CityView Magazine

FEATURE Chaplain Peterson Alert" grabs my gaze and I'm ready to plop down to watch well-coiffed talking heads natter on about Facebook and IPOs. I can top off a cup of brew at the coffee bar, pour in some hazelnut creamer, rip into a plastic-wrapped honey bun and savor the warm feeling that comes when you just … relax. And would you look at all these magazines? Fortune 500. Family Circle. Atlantic Monthly. And, of course, City- View. I could keep busy doing nothing for the better part of an aſternoon. The lounge is in a lull at this particular moment. A lone soldier is slouched in one of the cozy seats and studying the T his is the kind of place where I could truly per- fect the art of hanging out. These soſt and roomy red chairs, all fronting a flat-screen TV, beg for my backside. A "Fox News 48 | July/August • 2012 Today's USO treats troops with entertainment, the comforts of home and assistance during hard times The third and final story in CityView's USO series. Still Serving BY BRYAN MIMS smartphone in her right hand. Specialist Gloria Cruz, 26, is dressed in her camouflage fatigues. She wandered into this recently opened USO travel center at the Fayetteville Re- gional Airport while waiting for a flight home to New Jersey, where her uncle just passed away. "I like this place," she tells me. "I would fall asleep, but I can't. I have to catch a flight in 20 minutes." This soldier appears thoroughly at ease, as if she were al- ready home and curled up on a sofa she's loafed on for years. Every one of us has some focal point of familiarity when our travels steer us into strange surroundings. Some of us look for the AAA. Some of us turn to the AARP. But for soldiers like Spc. Cruz, it's the USO – the United Services Organi- zations. Whether it's an airport in Fayetteville or a forward operating base in Afghanistan, the USO is an old standby. Photography by Anna Lester

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