For Military Personnel Not Home for Christmas, a Revamped Center at the Airport Provides a Friendly Respite

The construction wall may still be up and the conference room chairs still covered in plastic, but for all intents and purposes, the new space for the Minnesota Armed Forces Service Center in the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport is open for business.

Several U.S. Marine recruits on their way to boot camp in San Diego lounged in recliners Monday watching “Seinfeld” episodes on a television while on a four-hour layover.

“It feels like a movie theater in here,” said Ethan Palmer, 18, from Spooner, Wis.

The 4,900-square-foot space is located at the entrance to Concourse A on the second floor, right next to Blue Door Pub. It’s nearly three times the size of its old location in the mezzanine above the ticketing level, which is being demolished as part of the airport’s major remodel.

Service Center Board President Rick Dale, a retired U.S. Air Force veteran, has been having fun showing it off.

“The number of times I’ve heard the word, ‘Wow,’ in the last five weeks is incredible,” he said. “They walk in the front door and they go, ‘Wow,’ and you take them through and you get about three more ‘wows’ as you go down the hall.”

The space was provided by the Metropolitan Airports Commission, which operates MSP. The center’s board paid for the furniture and appliances with funds donated by corporate and private sponsors. It’s run by nearly 200 volunteers ages 45 to 93, some with military backgrounds, some civilian.

“Our volunteers are all important to us,” Dale said, “But the ones who work the midnight to 4 a.m. and 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. shifts are pretty special. We couldn’t be open 24/7 without them. We are always looking for more volunteers.”

50 YEARS OF REST FOR MILITARY TRAVELERS

The center opened Nov. 22, 1970, born from a son’s last request and a mother’s grieving passion.

Maggi Purdum’s son Ralph “Scott” Purdum was a sailor headed to Vietnam.

He stopped at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport service center run by the Travelers Aid Society in 1969, and told his mother he thought the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport should have one like it.

Shortly after arriving in Vietnam, he was killed in an airplane crash that also took the lives of 23 other servicemen.

In her grief, Maggi Purdum worked to fulfill her son’s request by making the Armed Forces Service Center a reality

The center, formerly known as the Servicemen’s Center, started as a simple 600-square-foot room in the southeast corner of the main floor in the airport. It has never closed its doors since its opening.

The center will celebrate its 50th anniversary next year and its first year in the new digs.

BIGGER, LIGHTER AND SAFER

Positioned above a food court, which is currently under construction, and behind security lines, the new center has windows that look out at the airplanes and fill the rooms with light, unlike its previous windowless space.

Visitors must take the elevator up to the meet-and-greet area outside the center with large windows that overlook the concourse below. To enter, visitors must be buzzed in by volunteers who have them show ID and sign in.

Its services are only for active military members and their families, military retirees, Purple Heart recipients and disabled vets.

Inside the door is an array of flags from each branch of service, a display of 1,000 military patches, a welcome desk and a business center with five stations and plenty of outlets for charging devices.

Further in are two large screens displaying arrival and departure information, a large kitchen, a lounge area with four couches and six recliners, a big-screen TV, a playroom for kids with a cartoon-only TV and a dining room that seats 10.

Down the hall are four bathrooms, a shower room and two bunk rooms.

The women’s bunk room has 10 beds and the men’s has 30. Both have a crib and all the beds have reading lights and phone charging stations.

Farther down are a couple of offices for board members, space for volunteers, a laundry room and a conference room.

MORE THAN JUST A BREAK ROOM

Besides offering a secure space for traveling military families to rest, the center’s volunteers also meet new recruits from area Military Entrance Processing Stations and help them with their boarding passes and paperwork. For many of the young recruits, it’s their first time navigating an airport without their parents.

The center also provides a private space for families awaiting the returning remains of their loved ones who died in action, from suicide, or World War II and Korean War remains newly identified through DNA.

When a unit deploys, the volunteers will secure a gate and take a mobile canteen down for them, since they have to remain together and separated from civilians.

GRAND OPENING JAN. 9

All in all, the move behind security, while a hassle for volunteers and visitors, has been much more convenient for those with short layovers who normally wouldn’t have left the concourses to visit the old space, Dale said.

The center officially opened Nov. 8, although it wasn’t quite finished inside. To spread the word, the volunteers invited the airline employees and vendors in for cake, coffee and tours on Nov. 22. They’re now seeing a steady stream of military personnel finding their way up for some free food, rest and peer companionship.

Jan. 9 is the official grand opening. Dale was hoping the food court would be done by then, but it’s not looking likely.

“Once the construction walls come down it will be much more inviting,” he said.

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©2019 the Pioneer Press (St. Paul, Minn.)

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