{"id":2138,"date":"2013-06-07T16:49:26","date_gmt":"2013-06-07T21:49:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/?p=2138"},"modified":"2013-06-06T23:01:59","modified_gmt":"2013-06-07T04:01:59","slug":"the-dallas-airport-uso","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2013\/06\/the-dallas-airport-uso.html","title":{"rendered":"The Dallas Airport USO"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"It's<\/a>

It’s tradition.<\/p><\/div>\n

Whenever I fly to Nebraska for my Air Force Reserve duties**, I tend to rotate among the three airlines that fly between my local airports here and Omaha: Delta, American and United.<\/p>\n

**Once we get to Colorado, flying to my Air Force duties will no longer be my only option. I’m very excited about this.<\/p>\n

On my last trip to Nebraska in late April, I flew American Airlines and had a three-hour layover in Dallas-Fort Worth. As it turned out, my connecting gate was across the hall from the airport’s USO.<\/p>\n

Typically, my layovers are VERY tight…less than an hour. Also, in an airport as big as DFW, to be so close to the USO was pure luck.<\/p>\n

For those unfamiliar, USO lounges are set up in many airports mainly for the servicemembers on official travel. However, family members and retirees are free to use the facilities. In Dallas, the USO lounge would put many airlines’ VIP lounges to shame! A computer lab, kids’ play area, snack bar (you’re allowed up to three snacks\/beverages free of charge), and a HUGE theater area with comfy seating.<\/p>\n

I had been to this particular USO before, but since my last visit (2009, I believe), it had nearly doubled in size.<\/p>\n

This time around, I met a family who was awaiting their connecting flight after having flown 10 hours from Germany. The kids were so tired, they were just plain silly! I also met several uniformed soldiers coming home from Afghanistan for their two-week R&R trip. I also met a very young female Air Force officer assigned to Holloman AFB, NM, I asked how she liked it and I’d never seen someone so happy to be in New Mexico. Good for her \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

There’s a luggage area that’s conveniently covered with carpeting. Why? So you can attach your velcro patches to the walls. I had no unit patches (my uniform doesn’t use velcro patches), but I had my name tape on my backpack…which is what I left behind.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The cubbies on the left easily accommodated the carry on bags we all had.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whenever I fly to Nebraska for my Air Force Reserve duties**, I tend to rotate among the three airlines that fly between my local airports here and Omaha: Delta, American and United. **Once we get to Colorado, flying to my Air Force duties will no longer be my only option. I’m very excited about this. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[622,13,381,382,379,623,380],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5ycQ0-yu","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":569,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2011\/05\/why-i-fly-in-my-uniform.html","url_meta":{"origin":2138,"position":0},"title":"Why I Fly in my Uniform","date":"19 May 11","format":false,"excerpt":"Folks find it strange that I travel to and from my Reserve duty in uniform. In this week's case, I didn't have an official appointment as soon as I landed; I didn't have to report to duty as soon as I landed either. Nonetheless, I have found it beneficial in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"air force reserves\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":136,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2008\/05\/happy-mothers-day.html","url_meta":{"origin":2138,"position":1},"title":"Happy Mother’s Day","date":"11 May 08","format":false,"excerpt":"From 2008 05 06 Fl...For Mother's Day, I thought I'd share this clip about a fellow Air Force \"Major Mom\" and her family featured on Saturday's CBS \"The Early Show\".Dave and I watched this together yesterday. I'm being considered for a deployment to Al Udeid, Qatar in 2009 (don't fret,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"deployment\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":658,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2011\/10\/janes-addiction-pensacola-airport.html","url_meta":{"origin":2138,"position":2},"title":"Jane’s Addiction @ Pensacola Airport","date":"16 October 11","format":false,"excerpt":"Dave Navarro, me, Perry Farrell, Steve Perkins, & Chris Chaney.I've seen other friends do it -- they post pictures on Facebook of celebrities they've seen at airports, or on their flights, or at a store. \u00a0The pictures are taken from afar, zoomed in, etc. \u00a0I have a couple of Michael\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"air force reserves\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-4KedcB-O7Fw\/TptBwXRew_I\/AAAAAAABadY\/1oQ6gg0uPSQ\/s640\/photo.JPG?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":249,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2008\/10\/where-do-i-begin-with-this-one.html","url_meta":{"origin":2138,"position":3},"title":"Where Do I Begin With This One????","date":"09 October 08","format":false,"excerpt":"First of all, I realize that I'm part of a very small American population. I'm an (almost) stay-at-home Mom who likes airplanes. And the things I've had to learn about American airpower are pretty nit-noid. An F-22 brings a different capability to the fight than an F-16, F-18 or F-35.I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"air force\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":432,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2010\/05\/nebraska-discoveries-4-historic-fort-crook-sac-chapel-offutt-afb.html","url_meta":{"origin":2138,"position":4},"title":"Nebraska Discoveries 13: Historic Fort Crook & SAC Chapel, Offutt AFB","date":"05 May 10","format":false,"excerpt":"Today I'm sharing some of the history on Offutt AFB. \u00a0Unfortunately, everyone can't just get onto Offutt. \u00a0You need to have a military ID card to get onto the base freely, or make a friend with a military member who can sign you in as a guest. As mentioned before,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"nebraska\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/z.about.com\/d\/usmilitary\/1\/0\/W\/I\/4\/housing.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":650,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2011\/09\/home-again-home-again-jiggity-jig.html","url_meta":{"origin":2138,"position":5},"title":"Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig","date":"26 September 11","format":false,"excerpt":"I got home from Air Force Reserve duty Nebraska last Wednesday night. \u00a0It was my birthday, and the boys picked me up at the airport and we went out for Korean food at our new favorite Korean restaurant, called Okie Dokie in Fort Walton Beach. \u00a0It was a good week\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"air force reserves\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-Z1uTbLe6m_g\/Tn_utLRP6VI\/AAAAAAABaCI\/iRB0L9GM7-Y\/s640\/IMG_5616.JPG?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2138"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2138"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2141,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2138\/revisions\/2141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}