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40 3 1943 Consolidation Private Keith Winston from Pennsylvania had been drafted into the army and would go into combat as a medic with the 100th Infantry Division in Europe. While in basic training at Camp Blanding, Florida, he found himself alone on Easter Day 1944. Somewhat homesick, he gravitated to the Service Club, and he wrote to his family, “I took a walk around and ended up here in the Service Club--a beautiful place with a balcony where the boys can write letters. Downstairs is a lounging room, cafeteria exchange etc.”1 Winston also found that the Service Club was the best place to try to telephone home. There were a number of telephone operators who took the soldier’s name and the number he wished to call. Once a line was clear and the call was in process, the operator called the soldier to a bank of telephones where he could take his call. It had taken a year for Osborn’s Special Services Division to construct clubs in every post in the United States. By 1943 Special Services not only had arranged the construction and staffing of the clubs, but also had a working relationship with Bell Telephone Company to install large banks of telephones and supply operators for each club. Within one year, the Special Services was established as a vital part of the American war effort. By June 1942, the army formally addressed its own massive and rapid expansion with a regulation that stated the obvious: “Morale underlies all aspects of military life.” The War Department published MR 1-10 Morale, which was a rewrite of a manual issued in 1939 before the outbreak of war in Europe. This new edition incorporated the Special Services Division and 1943: Consolidation 41 defined its mission for the army, dealing with the establishment of Service Clubs, libraries, publications, movie theaters, athletics, and nonmilitary education and with the relationship of the Army Exchange System and the Special Services Division. The document also provided for Service Club hostesses to oversee the maintenance of the clubs and their cafeterias as well as programs for enlisted men. They were also able to carefully screen all activities where “women participate.” In other words, the clubs were to provide wholesome leisure and entertainment for the troops. Of importance was the recognition that the post movie theater was to be a vital part of the offerings for GIs simply because movies were a major part of the civilian entertainment that they had enjoyed before entering service.Armed with an official status by regulation , Osborn and the expanding Special Services Division could move forward aggressively to provide for the troops. What were not clearly addressed were the functions of the Special Services in overseas theaters of operations. The regulation did shield the Special Services from the chaotic conditions caused by thousands of civilian groups trying, with the best of motives, to provide the troops with everything from dances to sandwiches to cigarettes. The only coordination allowed for the Special Services was with the USO and the Red Cross, and this would make life much easier for Osborn and his staff. One of the factors that contributed to the expansion and the successes of the Special Services Division and the Army Exchange System was the consistency of fundamental philosophies held by Osborn and Byron. The foundation of Osborn’s thought was the report prepared by Fosdick and the Commission of Training Camp Activities. He recognized that the soldier of World War II was quite different from the Doughboy of 1917–18 because of technology such as the radio and talking and color motion pictures and the expectations he had about consumerism and advertising. Every soldier could see a first-run movie for fifteen cents or buy a lower-cost book of tickets, and the Motion Picture Service of the Special Services Division did not cost the taxpayer anything. It was self-supporting and made a profit that was then given to Special Services’ expansion for the soldiers’ benefit. The Hollywood moviemakers reached out to Osborn and promised that they would make first-run movies available to the Special Services theaters. Only soldiers, their dependents, or families visiting sons or husbands could attend the post theaters . The constant stream of first-run Hollywood movies was popular with the soldiers, and many were shown in the field, serving as a welcomed break for intensive training. Private Arthur Jacklewski, from Buffalo, New York, was in training with the Medical...

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