Saluting veterans everywhere – Island vets reach out to soldiers both near and far

Published 4:34 pm Monday, November 24, 2008

By Ruth Longoria

Retirement after decades of active duty in the military doesn’t mean the end of service for some Island veterans who spend their spare time volunteering to make for more pleasant travel and off duty time for our troops.

VFW post commander Mike Gazarek is one of a handful of Island veterans who spend an hour or more a week volunteering at the SeaTac Airport USO (United States Organizations), where off-duty service men and women are can have a snack, a shower and someplace to relax between flights to or from assignments or en route to their hometown.

“This is a way I can do some good and connect with the troops,” Gazarek said of his hours spent checking in the soldiers, talking with them, giving advice or sharing memories about locations he’s been where the troops may have just left or been sent.

“It always feels good to be able to share something I know about a place where a soldier is going, something that may set their mind at ease or make their trip a little easier,” he said.

In the basement of his Island home, Gazarek proudly displays medals, certificates, photographs and other memorabilia from his military career. The retired Naval officer spent more than 20 years in the military, including service in Vietnam. And, though he speaks boldly and proudly of his service to his country, the husband, father of four and grandfather of four, gets a tender look in his eyes as he speaks of his family, including his only son Charlie, who recently returned to the United States from military duty in the Gulf Coast. Naval Second Class Petty Officer Charlie Gazarek, 28, is a 1995 graduate of Mercer Island High School. He and his wife, Beth, live in California.

Mike Gazarek doesn’t hesitate to say he was proud of his son’s decision to join the military three years ago. “I’ve always said the military is a great way to do service and get a different outlook on life,” he said.

Gazarek began helping out at the USO about a year ago. His VFW buddy, Dean Quigley got him started in the activity. Quigley, 81, had volunteered at the USO a few days a week for about two years and, about the time Quigley was told to slow down on his volunteerism (due to a heart problem), he suggested Gazarek join him in the activity one day a week. “It was only supposed to be for one day, but I had so much fun I got hooked,” Gazarek said.

Although most folks know of the work of the USO primarily through old Bob Hope Christmas television specials, in which Hope and his celebrity guests went to remote locations to entertain the troops, the USO has been providing comfort, morale boosting and recreational services to service men and women since before the United States entered World War II. The totally volunteer and donation based organization is not a government agency, but is supported by each United States President (who serves as honorary chairman of the organization) and the Department of Defense.

There are 122 USO centers around the world, including two in the Seattle area: one at McChord Air Force Base and one at SeaTac International Airport. Volunteers around the world are said to donate about 317,417 hours of service each year, a few hundred of which are contributed by Island volunteers.

Quigley, who went into the U.S. Army Air Corps (which is now the Air Force) during WWII and served in Burma and India from 1943 to 1945, has lived on the Island for most of his adult life. He and wife, Donna, have three adult children. In addition to volunteering at the USO, Quigley serves his community as the secretary/treasurer of the VFW and Mercer Island Masons, as well as being an usher at the Seattle First Methodist Church. Since retirement from 40 years of work at the Boeing Company, Quigley also has helped restore historic airplanes for, among others, Seattle’s Museum of Flight.

Quigley said that helping make sandwiches at the USO, changing bed linen there, or spending some time talking with soldiers who need a listening ear or a little advice, gives him a sense of worth.

“At the USO, I went down there and saw a chance to work with people I knew about. I remember my own youth and what it felt like,” Quigley said. “I was just a Nebraska farmboy and a lot of these young people are in similar situations, they haven’t been away from home long and they may have some sort of problem, some way I can help them. That’s what I try to do.”