By Rita McInerney

The United Service Organizations (USO) is focusing on support for military families as well as service personnel in these tense days of conflict in the Persian Gulf.

The USO offers family members and friends of military serving in the Gulf area the chance to send a special message to their loved ones. The five-minute free tapings will be made Saturday, Feb. 2 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the lobby of the Hyatt Regency Ravinia in Dunwoody. Tapes, taping and mailing are being donated. Interested families can call 551-6103 for more information.

Among other support group activities for military families is a potluck lunch on Saturday, Jan. 26 at noon in Building 46 of the Community Activity Center at Fort McPherson.

Helping service personnel get where they’re supposed to be and advising fearful relatives on how to get information on their loved ones has taken on an added urgency at the USO unit at Hartsfield International Airport.

Mary Lou Austin, executive director of the USO of Georgia, said the big challenge on the night of Jan. 16, was helping service personnel whose overseas flights were canceled because of the U.S. military action against Iraq. An example she gave was that of a couple bound for Germany who were separated in the confusion of the night. The wife made the flight while her husband, left behind in the Atlanta airport, sought USO aid in getting information about her.

USO volunteers, Mrs. Austin said, are handling a greatly increased number of calls from worried spouses and parents fearful as to whether their loved ones are in combat. They refer such callers to military hotlines where they can receive specific information if it is available.

The office is receiving “hundreds of calls and letters,” many from children, asking for maps of the Persian Gulf area, she said.

The USO is funded through United Way and by contributions from individuals, groups and corporations. It is always grateful for monetary gifts and coffee and baked goods.

Around Christmas time, Mrs. Austin disclosed, the children at her parish school, St. Jude in Sandy Springs, presented the USO with a check for $750 during a special “Red, White and Blue” patriotic assembly. The amount was raised by the school children in several fundraising activities. Mrs. Austin’s son Rick is a student at the school.

The pastor, Father Dan O’Connor, a staff chaplain with the U.S. Army Reserves, Third Army at Fort McPherson, donned his military uniform for the assembly.

Another school contributing to the USO at Christmas was St. John the Evangelist in Hapeville. There students collected stationery, books and fruit to be distributed to service men and women.

The USO lounge at the airport offers members of the military and their families a place to relax, watch television, read, or snack while awaiting their flights.