White House Honors Loyal USO Volunteers

Three USO-Metro volunteers were honored at the White House in August for their service to our men and women in uniform. DeAnn Malone and Susan Pulscak received the Presidential Volunteer Service Award for their volunteer service at local military hospitals, USO Airport Lounges and for Operation USO Care Package. Carlo DePorto received the President’s Call to Service Award, given to volunteers who donate over 4,000 hours in a lifetime. DePorto works every Thursday morning at the USO International Gateway Lounge at the Baltimore-Washington Thurgood Marshall International Airport and has donated over 9,650 hours of volunteer service since 1990.
DePorto's commitment to the USO began in 1942 when he met his wife Bette, a USO volunteer, at a USO dance in Ft. Lewis, Washington. His Army service spanned three wars (WWII, Korea and Vietnam) and 31 years. After his retirement, he served in the National Guard.
DeAnn Malone has volunteered over 735 hours with USO-Metro at the USO Lounge at Reagan National Airport, Operation USO Care Package, with patients at Walter Reed and National Naval Medical Centers and as chairperson of the USO-Metro Virginia Volunteer Fundraising Committee. Susan Pulscak began volunteering with Operation USO Care Package in 2004 and has donated 200 hours to the program. From the time Pulscak attended her first “stuffing party” at Ft. Belvoir, where care packages are assembled and readied for shipment, she was hooked.
“It was an honor and a privilege to be recognized for my volunteer work with a great organization like the USO,” DePorto said after the ceremony. DePorto decided to become a USO volunteer to repay the organization for their efforts during his military service. “I owe the USO a lot for everything they did for me during the war. I’ll never be able to repay the USO for how they looked after me as a GI during my 31 years of military service.”