USO Okinawa proudly announces that RTX will participate in a community beach cleanup on July 8, 2023, and sponsor a Military Appreciation Barbeque event on July 11, 2023.
ErikaRose Thomas is a proud island girl from Guam whose roots have played a pivotal role in shaping her identity. With family at the center of her heart, she draws strength from them during challenging times.
Scot Garner, General Manager of Construction for American Engineering Corporation (AEC), presented a Silver Sponsorship-level donation of $18,000 to J. Phil VanEtten, USO Okinawa Area Director, on behalf of the company.
Meet Melissa, a dedicated volunteer and animal lover who has called Okinawa her home for the past 2.5 years. Born in Monterrey, NL, Mexico, Melissa, and her family moved to the outskirts of Chicago when she was two years old before settling in Austin, Texas, eleven years later.
Serving the military community since 2008, Eugene Boudreault, Owner and President, and Hawari Habrawi, General Manager of AK Kogyo American Finance Service, recently presented yet another silver-sponsorship level donation of $10,000 to J. Phil VanEtten, USO Okinawa Area Director.
Celebrating 50 years of honoring service members, USO Okinawa once again presented Service Member of the Year awards to outstanding members of the U.S. military and Japan Self Defense Force branches.
USO Okinawa created the hugely popular Operation Birthday Cake program in 2007. To date, nearly 7,000 cakes have been delivered to service members stationed in Okinawa as requested by family and friends back in the states.
No one was more excited for 2021 to arrive than USMC Staff Sergeant Paul Pérez and his wife Michelle Pérez! They were expecting the birth of their second child and were grateful the plan was made for a C- section on January 1, 2021.
In Okinawa, the USO has assisted service members and their families in restriction of movement (ROM), quarantine, and heightened HPCON measures since the beginning of the pandemic.
As a kid, every New Year I would look forward to a sweet jelly called kouhaku kanten. Kanten is a jelly made from boiled tengusa algae and seaweed. It is known for being low-calorie and rich in fiber, so it is often used as a healthy alternative to regular sweets.
Turmeric, or “ukon” in Japanese, is a kind of ginger, known as a spice for Indian curry, and in Japan, it is mostly recognized as a food that can help avoid hangover.
It has been said that food is the soul of a country. This couldn’t be truer for Okinawa. A mix of favorable natural conditions and diverse foreign influences produced unique eating habits and a cooking style that is now known as “Okinawan cuisine”.
