Fallen Warrior Room

ORF Center Director Len Friddle is never satisfied. And I mean that in the best possible way. He and several of his volunteers were not comfortable with the sparse, barely comfortable conditions of the room adjacent to his USO center where the families of fallen service members waited for their flights to and from Dover AFB. So he initiated a grass-roots effort to raise funds to purchase furniture and other needed items to create a warm, nurturing space for these families. To date, thousands have been raised by Len’s leadership, and the project is almost complete, awaiting only a few more items to make it beautiful. It is a multi-purpose space, with comfortable furniture, soft lighting, a conference table, food and coffee area, and moveable walls for desperately needed supply storage. Len collaborated with Christina Wyman, our Director of Business Operations, to find sources for furniture and supplies. Christina’s impeccable taste and design sense was instrumental in creating the end result, one of only two such rooms in the USO system (the other is at Philadelphia International Airport). Our hope is it will never actually be needed for its primary purpose, but when it is, we can rest assured the families who have just received the most dreaded news imaginable will also receive the absolute best we can provide for them.