[caption id=“attachment_3945” align=“aligncenter” width=“500” caption=“A Moving Tribute: Dignitaries announced the future USO site, to move from Terminal 2 to Terminal 4 in 2011. (Photo courtesy of SkyHarbor.com)”][/caption]

Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport welcomed some special guests this week to announce USO Arizona, a new facility expected to serve tens of thousands of troops and their family members traveling through the airport.  The new center will open in 2011 in Terminal 4, replacing the current facility in Terminal 2.

“To have the USO in the main terminal in Phoenix is going to be amazing,” Maj. Gen. Hugo Salazar, adjutant general for the Arizona National Guard, told The Arizona Sun. “When you walk into a USO, after you show your ID, you get a warm embrace.”

For the last four years, the airport supported troops and their families through the Military & Veterans Hospitality Room in Terminal 2.  With the coming of the USO many more troops and their families will have this same opportunity in a larger, modern facility.

“Today is an exciting day as we welcome the USO to one of the ten busiest airports in the US and America’s Friendliest Airport™,” said Aviation Director Danny Murphy to a crowd that included Sloan Gibson, President and CEO of the USO; Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon; Dave McIntyre, President and CEO of the TriWest Healthcare Alliance; Congressman Harry Mitchell and Congressman John Shadegg; and Phoenix Councilmen Bill Gates, Michael Johnson, Claude Mattox and Sal Diciccio.

For more information about the current offerings for members of the military and their families, please click here.  And we’ll see you at the new center next year!