page_title: Gilla Gerzon
section_title: Haifa USO
hierarchical_section_title: Gilla Gerzon / Haifa USO
caption_attribution_description: English: USO Haifa (Israel) welcomes officers and sailors from two U.S. Navy ships. The first line on the banner includes the word "Shalom" in Hebrew and English: the second line reads "Welcome to Israel"; and the third (in red) reads "U.S.O. Haifa."
context_page_description: Gilla Gerzon, known to many United States military personnel as the "mother of the 6th fleet," is an Israeli who served as director of the Haifa, Israel USO for almost eighteen years, from the time it opened in December 1984 until it closed in September 2002 when U.S. security concerns for the region led to a sharp decrease in U.S. ship visits. In 1993, she was brought to Somalia to establish a temporary USO for U.S. service personnel deployed in support of Operation Restore Hope.
  Gerzon is the first Israeli citizen to receive the United States Navy Commendation Medal.
context_section_description: The recommendation to open a USO in Israel was made by U.S. Navy Vice-Admiral Edward Martin, Commander, U.S. Sixth Fleet, when U.S. ship visits to Israel began to increase after the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing in Lebanon. Beginning in 1979 five to ten Sixth Fleet ships began to visit Haifa each year, but by the mid-80s, after the bombing, the annual number of port calls by U.S. ships had grown to 40–50. Two officers on Admiral Martin's staff, Public Affairs Officer Captain Peter Litrenta and Assistant Sixth Fleet Chaplain Rabbi Arnold Resnicoff, had worked with Gerzon during her time at the Dan Carmel, and recommended her as director for the proposed USO operation.
  The new Haifa USO opened on December 2, 1984, before a crowd of hundreds of Navy personnel from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) and the USS Mississippi (CGN-40). It was located near the entrance to the Dan Panorama Hotel on Mount Carmel. Working with a team of volunteers, Gerzon worked to welcome military personnel and provide them with opportunities to explore and get to know Israel. Under her leadership, the Haifa USO became "one of the best-loved facilities in the USO system." Referred to as "a one-woman whirlwind" and "inexhaustibly hospitable," Gerzon's "take-charge approach won her renown among the officers and enlisted men of the 6th fleet," and made the USO "not a sad hangout for lonely sailors, but more like the busy office of a camp's activities director."
  A USO article noted that the Haifa USO under Gerzon's leadership epitomized "forward deployed
  hospitality for U.S. forces overseas."  Open 24 hours a day when U.S. ships visit Israel, her USO operation served as "an unofficial base of operations to American sailors and Marines forward-deployed to the Mediterranean." Gerzon was able to augment her small staff with 200 English-speaking volunteers so that the USO could function as a "bridge between visiting U.S. service personnel and the Israeli people," answering questions, arranging visits,making hotel and tour reservations, and sponsoring a program for local residents to "Adopt a Sailor" during U.S. Navy ship visits. Buses for "liberty parties" from the ships took officers and sailors from the port to the USO door.
caption: USO welcomes officers and crews of two U.S. Navy ships visiting Haifa
exif: {}