Yellow rose of Texas
Houston’s Military Entrance Processing Station is tucked into the historic U.S. Customs House in the heart of downtown.
Since 1966, the facility, at 201 S. San Jacinto, has handled all the details required to enlist recruits into the armed forces. And for the past few years, Shirley Logan Gustas, 72, has been there, waiting to give pep talks and advice whenever necessary.
“We call her the den mother,” operations officer Capt. John Black said. “Every Monday, she’s there without fail.”
Recently, he presented Gustas with the Yellow Rose of Texas Award, granted by Gov. Greg Abbott. The honor is one of the highest in the state.
“Shirley is just a wonderful woman,” Black said.
Ann Liggio agrees. She volunteers with the Red Cross and works alongside Gustas at the Military Entrance Processing Station. “She walks on water as far as we’re concerned.”
For 13 years, Gustas has donated her time, energy and enthusiasm at either the Houston Military Entry Processing Station downtown or USO’s Houston Hobby Airport location.
“I do it because I love the kids,” she said.
Gustas credits her father, Richard Temple, for her sense of humor, interest in helping others and love of the military.
Temple fought in the Battle of the Bulge when he was only 17 years old and before that built bridges and roads for the Civilian Conservation Corps.
“My love of the military started with my daddy,” Gustas said.
He also took her to watch all of the old war movies and treated her to popcorn, hot dogs and a dill pickle in her hometown of Jackson, Tenn. She clearly recalls him taking her to see the 101st Airborne from Fort Campbell march in a parade.
“That did it for me, right there,” she said. “The military has my heart, and I feel honored and privileged to help.”
Gustas became an even bigger fan of the armed forces through her devotion to her first husband, the late Freeland Logan.
“He was in the military and the love of my life,” Gustas said.
They married at 18 years old, and in 1963, Logan went off to the Vietnam War.
In the meantime, Gustas volunteered with the Red Cross in Memphis. Her son would also enlist at age 17.
After her husband died at a young age, Gustas took a job in a credit union and later moved to Houston for a job with Brown & Root, now KBR.
In 1982, she met Stanley Gustas and remarried. “He loved to travel,” she said. “We just decided we’d see the world together.”
Gustas followed Stanley’s career to faraway places. Whenever they stopped, she found an opportunity to volunteer.
When they lived in Nigeria, she helped at a health clinic. In Egypt, she joined forces with a French charity and a church on a mission to build schools.
“You can have all the money in the world and be a lonely person,” Gustas said. “You’ve got to keep your heart full. That’s what volunteering does. It fills my heart.”
She especially likes working with the USO, spending a full day of work there each Monday. One of her main jobs is seeing off armed forces before they are sworn in and shipped off for boot camp or basic training.
“A lot of the kids come from very poor backgrounds, and what I tell them is it doesn’t matter where they are coming from, once they swear in and take their oath, they’re on the road to becoming the men they want to be,” she said. “And I’m hoping that will stick.”
She gives tips on everything from their love lives to their educations. “I always tell them how honorable what they’re doing is,” she said. “I’m just there for them.”
Gustas also spends time comforting parents who are saying goodbye to their children.
“It’s a very emotional time,” she said. “I make it a point to sit down with them. I know exactly what it’s like, because my son left when he was 17.”
In addition, Gustas arranges for annual birthday parties in the USO lounge for all branches of the military, complete portraits of heroes for inspiration.
She also decorates for every holiday, often out of her own pocket.
Houston’s Military Entrance Processing Station has become a second home for Gustas, and the volunteers there are both her team and her family.
She recently completed orientation at the VA office — and plans to extend her duties to helping older veterans there, volunteering on Fridays and Saturdays.
“The VA is where I need to be,” she said. “I still have a mission to do.”