Download American Girls, Beer, and Glenn Miller: GI Morale in World War II AudioBook Free
As World War II dawned in Europe, Standard George C. Marshall, the new Army Chief of Personnel, had to acknowledge that American culture - and the individuals who soon become soldiers - had significantly changed in the previous few decades. Nearly every home acquired a radio, movies could speak, and driving within an automobile to a nearby soda fountain was part of day-to-day life. A product of recently created mass consumerism, the soldier of 1940 acquired expectations of materials comfort, even while at battle. Historian Adam J. Cooke presents the first complete check out how Marshall's efforts to cheer soldiers definately not home led to the long lasting morale services that the Army provides still today. Marshall grasped that civilian soldiers provided particular difficulties and wanted to increase the subpar morale services that had been provided to Great War doughboys. Frederick Osborn, a civilian intellectual, was called to brain the newly produced morale branch, which quickly became the Special Services Division. Hundreds of on-post concert halls showing first-run movies at reduced prices, service night clubs where GIs could relax, and inexpensive cafeterias were created. The Army Exchange System required route under Brigadier Standard Joseph Byron, offering comfort items at low prices; the PX sold from cigarettes and razor rotor blades to low-alcohol ale in extremely popular beer halls. The fantastic civic organizations - the YMCA, the Salvation Army, the Jewish Welfare Table, among others - were brought together to create the United Service Organizations (USO). At USO Camp Shows, adored entertainers like Bob Expectation, Bing Crosby, and Frances Langford brought home-style entertainment to soldiers within the battle areas. The Special Services Division, PX, and USO were essential elements in keeping GI morale, and Cooke's work makes clear the lasting legacy of the efforts to improve the common soldier's spirits almost a century ago.
