LAWTON – Members of the Military Welcome Center at Lawton- Fort Sill Regional Airport were named Citizens of the Month for February by Mayor Stan Booker.
The welcome center was established 12 years ago by five military wives who wanted to “give the troops some motherly – and grandmotherly – attention” upon their arrival in Lawton for basic training at Fort Sill.
Since many of the arrivals are new recruits “and often very young,” far from home and sometimes scared, the founders wanted their Welcome Center to be “a place for Soldiers to get information and assistance from friendly and welcoming faces from our community,” the mayor’s proclamation explains.
The center provides a special seating area for military personnel “coming or going in the airport,” and the volunteers furnish them with coffee, water, and snack bags “for their journey to their next destination.”
The welcome center is open for military flights at 6 a.m., 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., seven days a week, and the volunteers provide assistance and service to all of them. I f flights are canceled or delayed, team members “stay as long as possi ble” to drive the troops to hotels, if needed.
The organization has grown over the years to approximately 40 volunteers today, many of whom donate “between 6 and 10 hours per week” of their time to “welcome Soldiers to Lawton-Fort Sill,” the proclamation relates.
Volunteer Nan Mazza said that because Vietnam veterans were treated so shabbily upon their return home to the U.S., the Lawton-Fort Sill Welcome Center volunteers were determined that recruits heading to Fort Sill for basic training, or Soldiers returning from military service in Iraq or Afghanistan, would be greeted with open arms.
According to the 434th Field Artillery Brigade, 13,000 men and women from the U.S. and several foreign countries attended basic training at Fort Sill and became U.S. Army Soldiers in 2023.
When all types of training at the post are considered, such as the basic off icer’s leadership course, advanced individual training, etc., “We hosted 40,000 in 2022, the latest year we have those numbers for,” Keith Pannell, deputy director of public affairs for Fort Sill and the Fires Center of Excellence, told Southwest Ledger.