Deploying to the Middle of “Nothing Hill” Can’t Stop Service Members in Kosovo from Finding Something Great with the USO

From the moment I had my feet on the ground in Kosovo, I knew that I had arrived somewhere special. Fellow USO Joint Expeditionary Team member Casey Pizzuto and I were warmly greeted by Robert (Rob) Edwards Jr., a retired command sergeant major and chief of MWR operations in Kosovo, and his colleague, Capt. Adrian White. There was only one word for the feeling that these two gentlemen brought with them – “excitement.” They were so incredibly excited to have the USO in Kosovo!

When we arrived at the first base of our trip, Camp Bond Steel, the area was on the tail-end of a snowstorm. Everything we could see was covered in a blanket of snow and ice, and the wind was cutting through our clothes. We quickly realized that spending a winter in Kosovo was not for the faint of heart. Yet, when we walked in the DFAC (AKA, the U.S. Army dining facility) for dinner and the service members there saw the USO logos on our jackets, there were nothing but smiles.

It is worth noting what Casey and I were doing in Kosovo in the first place. We are both members of the USO’s Joint Expeditionary Team (JET), a team of USO staff members who volunteer for missions that take us around the world, delivering USO goodness to service members deployed to austere locations that lack traditional USO facilities.

As one of the nation’s leading military support nonprofits, the USO prides itself on the far reach of our support for our service members, with more than 250 USO Centers on bases, ships and airports worldwide. However, for those locations too remote or dangerous for a brick-and-mortar Center, the USO’s commitment to the people serving in these places still endures.

That’s where our USO Joint Expeditionary Teams come in, traveling thousands of miles each year – both at home and abroad – to support service members wherever they’re serving and provide a morale boost and connection to home that helps ease the stress of a deployment.

In this case, we were there to support KFOR 34 RC-E, the 34th deployment rotation of the NATO-led Kosovo Force Regional Command East, tasked with supporting a safe and secure environment for all communities living in Kosovo. The U.S. component of KFOR 34 is comprised largely of soldiers from the Oregon and Idaho National Guards.

Our mission during our week-long trip was to visit all bases in Kosovo that have a U.S. military presence: Camp Bond Steel, Camp Nothing Hill, Film City, Novo Selo and the United States Embassy in Kosovo.

There was a uniqueness to each base we visited, from the bustling downtown-like atmosphere of Film City to the almost eerie quietness of Camp Nothing Hill, a remote base with a name well-earned that sits at the Serbian border. What remained constant, though, was the sense of joy and appreciation among service members for the USO’s presence there.

At Camp Bond Steel, we joined in on an early-morning circuit training workout, providing much-needed energy bars and snacks to service members. Despite the intensity of the session, everyone made a point to thank us for being there. We made visits to the hospital and flight line, bringing candies and other goodies to the medical teams and aviation crew members on duty.

“You’re like a real-life Santa Claus!” one smiling UH-60 Black Hawk crew chief said to us as he loaded his hands with well-loved American snacks, even grabbing some to share with his buddies. That feeling was shared throughout the rest of his unit. When asked to sum up the USO in one word, Capt. Brant Rast, a Black Hawk pilot with the Idaho National Guard said “excited!”

Our journey to Camp Nothing Hill continued to highlight just how much joy a bit of USO goodness can bring. The unstaffed USO Center there was opened in the fall of 2024, serving as a respite to service members from the monotony and isolation of what is the most forward-deployed base in Kosovo. After restocking the Center with lots of sodas, snacks and other goodies, Casey and I spent our evening hosting some much-loved USO Gaming programs, including BINGO and trivia, offering a quick break to soldiers in between their nightly patrols of the border area.

Something like walking into a USO Center that’s freshly stocked with familiar foods may seem like a relatively simple way to boost morale, but when you’re several months into an almost-year-long deployment far from home, seeing your favorite American brand-names is an incredibly powerful way to help service members feel like home is just a little bit closer.

At both Camp Bond Steel and Novo Selo, we also brought with us everything needed for the USO Reading Program, a long-standing USO program that allows service members to record themselves reading a book for a son, daughter, sibling or any other child in their life. Then, the USO has that recording and a copy of the book sent home to the child, ensuring that their service member is part of story time, even from the other side of the world.

After recording a book for his children, Staff Sgt. Ronnie Webber reminisced with us about other times in his 17-year military career that the USO had been there for him. He shared a story about the kindness a USO staff member showed him while deployed to Iraq from 2010-2011. He had been trying to get home to the U.S. for the birth of his first daughter, but a sandstorm had kept his flight from departing. Despite the late hour, the USO team there kept the Center open past their normal operating hours so that he could video call home on the USO’s internet connection and still experience the important family milestone from thousands of miles away. When asked what he misses most about home during his current deployment to Kosovo, Ronnie quickly said: “The babies. Babies and family …home is home.”

True to the rapid-pace nature of USO JET missions, we spent the full next day on the road. With a goodie-bag drop and local area orientation at the KFOR Headquarters in Film City, a hot chocolate and cookie bar at Novo Selo and a swag-bag delivery to service members supporting the State Department at the U.S. Embassy, it was a long, busy and unbelievably rewarding day of bringing the USO to the front lines of an almost 30-year-old mission.

Saying goodbye to the new faces we met throughout the week wasn’t easy. Despite the isolation of many of the bases we visited, the genuine connection between the service members deployed there was all but impossible to miss.

“The USO is just a good place to come unwind and be able to gather with your folks, your friends, your brothers and sisters in arms,” Ronnie said to Casey and me before we departed Camp Nothing Hill.

Bringing the joy of the USO to service members deployed to an incredibly austere environment can not only improve their well-being, but also strengthen the connections between both themselves and their families. The opportunity to deliver this support is a facet of the USO’s mission that I personally will be forever grateful to have been a part of.