The United Service Organizations (USO) strengthens America's military service members by keeping them connected to family, home, and country, throughout their service to the nation. Therefore, this book is dedicated to the countless volunteers, of many nations around the world, who give so freely of their time, to support our American soldiers. It is dedicated to private and corporate sponsorships that make the USO possible. But most of all, this book is dedicated to all the service volunteers that lost their lives, while serving American soldiers.

Throughout World War II, when Saturday nights came around, servicemen and hostesses happily forgot the war for a little while as they danced together in USO clubs, which served as havens of stability in a time of social, moral, and geographic upheaval. Meghan Winchell demonstrates that in addition to boosting soldier morale, the USO acted as an architect of the gender roles and sexual codes that shaped the "greatest generation." Combining archival research with extensive firsthand accounts from among the hundreds of thousands of female USO volunteers, Winchell shows how the organization both reflected and shaped 1940s American society at large. The USO had hoped that respectable feminine companionship would limit venereal disease rates in the military. To that end, Winchell explains, USO recruitment practices characterized white middle-class women as sexually respectable, thus implying that the sexual behavior of working-class women and women of color was suspicious. In response, women of color sought to redefine the USO's definition of beauty and respectability, challenging the USO's vision of a home front that was free of racial, gender, and sexual conflict. Despite clashes over class and racial ideologies of sex and respectability, Winchell finds that most hostesses benefited from the USO's chaste image. In exploring the USO's treatment of female volunteers, Winchell not only brings the hostesses' stories to light but also supplies a crucial missing piece for understanding the complex ways in which the war both destabilized and restored certain versions of social order.

In 1973, not long after the last American combat troops returned from Vietnam, President Nixon fulfilled his campaign promise and ended the draft. No longer would young men find their futures determined by the selective service system; nor would the U.S. military have a guaranteed source of recruits. America’s Army is the story of the all-volunteer force, from the draft protests and policy proposals of the 1960s through the Iraq War. It is also a history of America in the post-Vietnam era. In the Army, America directly confronted the legacies of civil rights and black power, the women’s movement, and gay rights. The volunteer force raised questions about the meaning of citizenship and the rights and obligations it carries; about whether liberty or equality is the more central American value; what role the military should play in American society not only in time of war, but in time of peace. And as the Army tried to create a volunteer force that could respond effectively to complex international situations, it had to compete with other “employers” in a national labor market and sell military service alongside soap and soft drinks. Based on exhaustive archival research, as well as interviews with Army officers and recruiters, advertising executives, and policy makers, America’s Army confronts the political, moral, and social issues a volunteer force raises for a democratic society as well as for the defense of our nation.

The U.S. Army's Transition to the All-Volunteer Force is a compelling analysis of the process by which the Army responded to the requirements of creating an all-volunteer force, reestablished in the United States at midnight on 30 June 1973 when induction authority expired. That the transition from virtual dependency on the draft to a manpower system based on volunteerism was accomplished nearly simultaneously with the withdrawal from Vietnam is all the more remarkable. Robert K. Griffith Jr. takes us through the turbulent years of transition from 1968 to 1974, examining both the broad context in which the end of the draft occurred and the less well-known perspective that Army leaders brought to bear on the challenge they faced. In spite of an environment of fierce opposition, those charged with developing and implementing the Army's three-phased program to achieve all-volunteer status persevered and approached the task with a determination to succeed. Griffith's history shows the key role played by the Army staff and Army secretariat in shaping the Army as it underwent deep alterations in the very foundations of its structure. It provides both a glimpse into the dynamics of the reciprocal relationship between the Army and society, and is a useful case study of the successful management of fundamental organizational change.

Papers prepared by members of the Commission.

The all-volunteer force, the historic norm in peacetime America, was reestablished in the U.S. on 30 June 1973, when induction authority expired. But never before had the U.S. attempted to field a standing Army in peacetime -- based on voluntary enlistments -- with the worldwide responsibilities that faced this force. Since the mid-1980s the ability of the armed forces to recruit and retain quality volunteers has not been seriously questioned. This book takes us through those years of transition, examining both the context in which the end of the draft occurred and the perspective which the Army's leaders brought to bear on the challenge they faced.