ALI AL SALIM, Kuwait, - Soldiers from the 53rd  Infantry Brigade Combat Team of the Florida Army National Guard recently hosted  a grand opening ceremony for a newly built morale welfare and recreation room  here.
Maj. David H. Butler, executive officer for the Army Life  Support Area, said the project started as something totally different from  building an MWR room. The original plan was to operate and maintain a  functional self help office and tool room that was already in place, but needed  repairs.
After the planning started they found that permanent  party service members at the LSA were using half of the building as a  make-shift hang out spot. Previous camp commands had apparently allowed the  permanent residents to have keys to the building so they would have a more  relaxing place to play cards and hang out, due to the overwhelming amount of  transient personnel at the camp’s MWR facilities.
“We realized that there was no place for the permanent  party to gather, so people that don’t even smoke were hanging out at the smoke  shacks,” said Butler. “The decision was made to fix the problem.”
The project took about four months from inception to  completion, with all the manual labor being done by the IBCT soldiers of the  LSA camp command cell and volunteers from the camp. “The hardest part has been  getting materials,” said Butler. “We acquired our materials from every camp  that we visited for meetings, by going to their self help shops.”
Once the USO at the LSA heard about the project they  jumped behind the command with full support. According to Butler the USO spent  about $2,000 on the project by purchasing two poker tables, a big screen  television, surround sound speakers, and a hard drive full of music and movies.  On top of providing the funding for equipment and furniture to fill the new  room, the USO provided all of the food and drinks for the grand opening cook  out.
“The USO has been outstanding partners,” said Butler. 
The new facility will be available 24-hours a day to all  permanent party service members at the LSA. The planning and hard work of the  53rd soldiers along with volunteers from the camp has provided a new MWR area  complete with a picnic and patio area, a grilling area, an outside deck with  shading, and of course the room itself. 
“We started with a building in disrepair and turned it  into this,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Kenneth North, command sergeant major of the  LSA.