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USO Gala Honors Military Members, Families
(October 11, 2010) |
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| WASHINGTON, Oct. 8, 2010 – Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, the
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was among the
military, government and community leaders and celebrities
who gathered to salute servicemembers and their families at
the annual USO Gala here last night.
Held at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, the event featured
entertainment, award presentations to five servicemembers,
and highlights of USO programs. Set against a backdrop of
glittering sequins, flickering candles, clinking silverware
and shifting spotlights, the evening focused on the bravery
and sacrifices of military members deployed far from home or
recovering in hospitals, and the parents, spouses and
children who support them. |
From left to right: USO President Sloan Gibson; Army
Sgt. Zachary C. Dispennette; Marine Corps Sgt. Eric B. Walker; Navy Petty
Officer 2nd Class Kenton J. Stacy; Kimberly Watkins, mother of award recipient
Air Force Staff Sgt. Gino P. Kahaunaele; Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class
Robert D. Emley; Edward T. Reilly, president of the USO Board of Governors; and
Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, pose for photos at
the USO Gala in Washington, D.C., Oct. 7, 2010. DOD photo by U.S. Navy Petty
Officer 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley |
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Mullen told attendees that the USO has connected military
members and the American people since its founding in 1941.
“Wherever our nation sends our troops, we can count on the
USO to be out in front with us, to serve alongside us,
providing its special brand of comfort in airports, foreign
ports and battle zones across the globe,” the admiral said.
“As we celebrate tonight,” he continued, “I ask all of us to
please remember the more than 200,000 young men and women
out in front right now: on point, serving and sacrificing
and making a difference around the world.”
After more than nine years of war, Mullen said, America's
troops and their families are being tested as never before.
“They're resilient, so they don't always show it. And
they're proud, so they don't always talk about it. But there
are hard realities that they face every day,” he said. “Not
a moment goes by that I don't think about the great
pressures on these young men and women, and the sacrifices
of their families. The challenges that will stay with them
for the rest of their lives -- challenges that all of us
must help them shoulder, as [they] have already shouldered
such burdens for us.”
Sloan Gibson, USO's president and chief executive, told the
gala's thousand or so attendees they were there to salute
the efforts of America's servicemembers and their families.
The USO's mission, he said, is “to lift the spirits of
America's troops and their families.”
Gibson extolled the courage of families of deployed troops
who run households and hold down jobs while supporting and
encouraging their far-away servicemembers; families of
wounded warriors, who are in hospitals often around the
clock providing care to injured loved ones; and the families
of the fallen.
The USO works to support military families, as well as
servicemembers, Gibson said, noting more than half of U.S.
servicemembers are married and another seven percent are
single parents.
USO-sponsored programs for children of military members, he
said, assists them to cope with “parents who come home
changed; or parents who don't come home at all.”
USO partners with many other organizations to offer
deployment and family support services ranging from free
phone calls at forward locations, to videotaping bedtime
stories deployed servicemembers can send home to their
children, to grief camps for the sons and daughters of
military members who die or are killed in action.
Gibson challenged the audience to join in the USO's efforts.
“Your first opportunity to join us is coming up this
Sunday,” he said.
That day, Oct. 10, will mark the kickoff of GiveBack10,
which Gibson described as a grassroots campaign to encourage
Americans' support to wounded warriors. The challenge, he
said, is to take 10 minutes to learn about the needs of
wounded servicemembers and their families, tell 10 friends
about the program, or donate $10 to a cause supporting
wounded warriors.
During the gala, five military members took the stage to
receive the USO's Servicemember of the Year award. A
soldier, a sailor, an airman, a Marine, and a Coast
Guardsman, each selected by their respective service's chief
enlisted advisor, were recognized for courageous actions
performed during the course of their duties. The Air Force
award was accepted by Kimberly Watkins, mother of the
recipient who is currently deployed.
Winners of the USO Servicmember of the Year awards are:
-Air Force Staff Sgt. Gino P. Kahaunaele, who is currently
deployed. During a mission in an undisclosed location,
Kahaunaele saved a teammate and a helicopter crew while
serving with the 24th Special Tactics Squadron. He sprinted
into a hail of gunfire to drag a pinned-down, wounded
teammate to safety, stabilized the patient and ensured a
quick evacuation, saving the man's life. In another
incident, he exposed himself to enemy fire to shoot and kill
two enemy combatants engaging an exposed assault team, and
fired on an enemy targeting a coalition helicopter, saving
the crew. His bravery in the face of direct enemy fire saved
eight lives.
-- Army Sgt. Zachary C. Dispennette, a medic who saved his
battalion commander in Baghdad when Lt. Col. Timothy
Karcher's vehicle struck four improvised bombs. Dispennette
rushed to the burning vehicle, applied four tourniquets to
Karcher's legs and began treating his shrapnel wounds. With
help from fellow soldiers, Dispennette extracted the
commander from the flaming vehicle and continued to apply
life-saving aid as they evacuated the site, single-handedly
saving Karcher's life.
-- Petty Officer 2nd Class Kenton Stacy, a Navy explosive
ordnance disposal technician, who participated in more than
50 combat missions while deployed to Afghanistan. He
destroyed improvised bombs, trained Afghan forces and U.S.
Special Forces members on route-clearing techniques, and
helped ensure the zero-casualty rate in the province where
he worked.
-- Marine Sgt. Eric B. Walker, who came under heavy fire
while on a personnel recovery mission with a team of Afghan
commandos and U.S. Special Operations forces serving in
Afghanistan. As Walker supervised his partner force on the
rooftop, a Marine was shot in the leg by a sniper. Braving a
barrage of bullets, Walker dragged the wounded Marine down
to the casualty collection point, then returned to the
rooftop to defend the compound. Walker called for medical
evacuation before moving the team to safety, traveling for a
mile under continuous insurgent fire.
-- Coast Guard Petty Officer Robert D. Emley rescued a
downed paraglider trapped inside a sea cave at Cape Lookout,
Ore., while serving as a rescue swimmer onboard a Coast
Guard helicopter. He disconnected from the rescue hook and
swam 100 feet inside the cave to reach the
parachute-entangled woman, swam her out of the depths of the
cave, cut away her entangled parachute and, as they were
pushed dangerously close to a jagged cliff face, carefully
placed the severely hypothermic victim into the rescue
basket, where she was hoisted to the safety of the
helicopter.
Stacy, the Navy EOD tech, said the award was a credit to
explosive ordnance professionals throughout the military.
“It's a great reflection on the leaders that have trained me
and taught me,” he said. “Hopefully it shines a light on the
EOD community and what we do for the bigger picture.”
Attending the gala, he said, was “overwhelming.”
“I'm not really used to all the glamour,” Stacy said.
The USO also presented awards to their volunteer of the
year, Herbert Carl Schmeling Jr., and retired Coast Guard
Adm. Thad Allen, the service's 23rd commandant, received the
Spirit of the USO award. | |
By Karen Parrish
American Forces Press Service
Copyright 2010
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