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Highlands Today

Remembering The USO

Kathy Waters/Highlands Today

World War II sergeant Clarke Steele of Avon Park looks at a 1945 newspaper article which had a story about Bob Hope and the U.S.O. "That was such a moral booster." He sailed to the U.S. from Hawaii on a ship which had a USO troop on it. Nearly every day, the actors and actresses would put on a show to break up the boredom of traveling home on such a slow boat.

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By Gary Pinnell | Highlands Today

Published: February 11, 2008

SEBRING — Mention the USO, and most people, well, those of a certain age anyway, think of Bob Hope.

So does Clarence Neeley, 63, lately of Lake Placid.

"I was in the Army at Long Binh," he recalled. "It was 1969. Just prior to the Christmas show."

Acting Sgt. Neeley was driving a Jeep for a screw-up second lieutenant in public relations. They were going to USO headquarters. "So maybe that's what he was there for. To get literature. To make flyers for the USO show."

"I was just awed to see that kind of setting during a war," Neeley remembered. "We were at a presidential palace in Saigon.

"I talked to all the pretty women there, while he was making his story," Neeley said. That only took 4-5 hours, then Neeley returned to his regular job, installing and repairing communications cable.

So there was Neeley, about 25 at the time, in a bucket truck, right at the gate where Bob Hope's limousine entered.

"He saw me up in the bucket truck, and he opened the back door, and there were four or five pretty young women. What I remember was those legs. They were just absolutely gorgeous.

"So he said, 'Eat your heart out, sonny.'

"And I said, 'Ah, come on, Bob. Leave one.'"

"And he just laughed and went on through gate."

That show was filmed for a documentary, and Neeley has spotted himself, in that bucket truck. "There were lots of bucket trucks in the air. Mine is the first one to the right."

It was a huge event, Neeley recalled. "They came from miles around. It was jam packed. An ant couldn't have gotten in there."

Who were the other stars?

"The only thing I can remember is the pretty young girls," said Neeley, who lost a leg and an eye to Agent Orange and an insecticide. " But I remember the show was fantastic. Once you saw Bob Hope, you can never forget. He gave his all. He interacted with the soldiers and the crowds."

Sebring Canteen

The USO wasn't just star-studded Christmas shows. The organization was chartered by President Roosevelt in 1941 to provide moral support and recreation for American servicemen and women, to take their minds off their awesome responsibility, at least for a short time.

More than 3,000 centers were started in churches, barns and off-base clubs. GIs could socialize with each other or civilian girls, watch movies, or just drink the coffee and eat the free doughnuts.

Back when the Army Air Corps had a base in Sebring, there was a USO show at the city pier, in what is now Highlands Little Theatre.

The city spent $20,000 on a recreation building.

"It was for all the airmen at for Hendricks Field," said Pete Pollard, a Highlands Little Theatre volunteer. It was a B-17 bomber training base back then. Renovations there have removed a drop ceiling and exposed the original outline of the club.

The enlisted men lived on base or with their families in the Highlands Homes subdivision, along Kenilworth Drive.

"The officers lived at Snob Hollow," Pollard said. That's a stretch of Lakeview Drive from Villa Road to Southgate.

The airmen had their own newspaper, Hi-Life. Under the headline USO-grams, the March 13, 1943 edition had this note about a Chicago airman:

"Thursday bingo (at USO). Sgt. Lewis Caraville won the long distance phone call." There were also spaghetti dinners, wiener roasts, gypsy tea dances, a hobo party and Army wives luncheons.

Volunteers

By the end of World War II, more than 1.5 million volunteers had staffed USO clubs.

It was 10 years later, during the Korean War, that Judy Mooar, 16, and her best friend, Noni Markert, began going to the USO at Fort Benning, Ga. That's where the Army trained paratroopers.

"My stepfather was stationed there," Mooar said. Now she's Judy Phillips, 69. Noni's dad ran the USO club, so Judy and Noni spent most of their nights there.

"I was there seven nights a week, dancing. We loved to dance." Phillips said. Her voice was laughing and merry, just thinking about those nights.

"It was a roller skating rink, and they had an open area for TV, and a writing room for soldiers," Phillips said. "And the guy who ran the music, Ed, he had an unbelievable record collection. The way it was back then, you couldn't play that kind of music at home. We packed the place, all the time."

So, did Judy meet anyone special there?

"My ex-husband, Al Schoenfeld," Phillips giggled at the thought.

What she didn't tell Al was that her stepfather was a sergeant major. Al's sergeant major.

"We didn't think he was going to survive that one," Phillips said.

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