The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1942-06-11
Big Job To
Keep Soldiers
Entertained
USO Work Extends
From Iceland to
Down-Under Australia.

Fifty cents to have shirt laun-
deredl
A dollar for a haircut!
A two-dollar 'sbargainrate" for
dry-cleaning suit!
If you are a civilian in Alaska
such prices don't floor you; you
are used to them. And wages in
that area, where grocery clerks
make $50 a week, are scaled to
meet such costs. But if you are
member of Uncle Sans armed
forces, your pay is the same Wheth-
er you are stationed in Alaska,
China or the Canal Zone.
Each distant military area has
its typical need for the USO brand
of service overseas. In Honolulu it
might mean helping men who have
been under fire: in st. Johns, New
foundland, it might mean providing
comforts for a crew of a disabled
destroyer or for the members of
remote lookout post.
Wherever the war takes American
fighting men, the job of United
Service Organizations is the same:
to give these men home away
from home" so that they can get
the most enjoyment and relaxation
out of their few precious leisure
hours.
Clean Shirts Expensive
At a particular Coast Guard post
in Alaska the problem was to see
that the men got clean shirts with
out having to put Out major pof-
ton of their pay. Local laundries
were willing to cooperate by giving
service men a reduced rate, but this
still represented disproportionate-
ly large slice Of sailors earnings
USO solved the problem by i'm
porting a Bendix washing machine
from the States, complete with iron
ing board, electric irons and tubs.
Now the machine is frequently used
"a hours day. Every one OF the
Coast Guard unit operates it at some
time or other during the week.
Clothes are hung up in the wash
room of the USO clubhouse to dry.
This is safer than entrusting them
to the outdoors in climate where
the average rainfall is $50 inches a
year!
The same clubhouse provides
sleeping accommodations for serv-
ice men when they are in town.
The Coast Guard camp is 40 miles
away, and when the men come IN
they have to stay overnight. I'm
til USO came along, the cheapest
hotel accommodations were $500
night. Now the men can get clean,
comfortable beds in the clubhouse
dormitory for rs cents.
Lest it seem that this clubhouse is
running in competition with local
business. it should be said that the
townspeople are SO strongly behind
USO that 400 of them-or 10 per
cent of the entire population-at-
tended the official opening OF the
clubhouse. And last Christmas the
local housewives, banded together
as USO patronesses, baked $50 lbs.
of pastry for the service menl
On the morning of December 7th,
USO already was in Honolulu, look
ing after the leisure-time wants of
service men,. But the blltz Of that
date altered the picture completely.
It became necessary to have volun-
teer mobile units to entertain the
men who would henceforth be
spending most of their time in re-
mote parts of the Territory. AS
result, every encampment in Hawaii
is now ION the circuit of USO's mo-
bile units.
Entertainment on the Move
On some evening the men at a
lonely beach outpost hear the APP
proach of two trucks. The first I'M
loads movie protector, small pi-
ano and the men to operate them.
The other contains candy, maya
zines newspapers, cookies and writ
ing paper for the service men-be-l
sides a group of hula dancers who
are going to entertain after the
movie.
These evenings usually include
community sings. There may be
stunts and theatrical skits by tai
ented men in the camp When the
trucks pull out the boys from the
Bronx, Frisco and points between
are content to turn in. With the
USO on the job, they have lost that
feeling of being "a thousand miles
from nowhere"
According to Robert E. Straw