TriWest Contributes $250,000 to Build a USO Center at Fort Carson

PHOENIX (June 27, 2007) — Soldiers at Fort Carson are getting a USO center with the help of a $250,000 contribution from TriWest Healthcare Alliance, which administers the military’s health care plan in Colorado and 20 other western states.

The USO center will be built by renovating an existing building that Fort Carson used as a Welcome Center, which will be taken down to the studs and rebuilt into a 5,000-square foot facility to serve as a home away from home for Fort Carson soldiers.

"I have visited USO centers like the one we are starting to build today and I know how important they are to those wearing our nation’s uniforms,"said TriWest President and CEO David J. McIntyre, Jr., who is a member of the USO’s Board of Directors. "We owe our freedom and security to this special population and we are proud to make this contribution to build this USO center for them."

A begin-construction ceremony took place at 3 p.m., Wednesday, June 27, at the site attended by McIntyre, USO Worldwide President and CEO Edward A. "Ned"Powell, Jr., and Fort Carson Garrison Commander, Colonel Eugene B. Smith.

Construction is scheduled to begin in early July and take six months to complete. The new center will have computers with Internet and email access, big screen and plasma television sets, gaming and pool tables, a kitchen and library, a play area for children, and more.

"This new center will help us provide vital support to Service members and their families at Fort Carson and in the Colorado Springs area,"said Powell. "USO is the way for Americans to support their troops and we are grateful for TriWest’s generous contribution to make this center a reality.”

TriWest also is a major contributor to the post’s Carson House refurbishing going on now.

TriWest in 2006 was a significant contributor of an extensive expansion of the USO center at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, where troops bound for and returning from Iraq await air transportation home or to new duty stations. TriWest also sponsors USO concerts by the Lt. Dan Band headed by actor and musician Gary Sinise of Forest Gump movie fame.