# Does the US military still put entertainers to use? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 31, 2011, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-us-military-still-put-entertainers-to-use/569682 "2011-01-31T19:44:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2011, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-us-military-still-put-entertainers-to-use/569682/1 "2011-01-31T19:44:49Z")
Whenever I read about various famous actors or musicians during World War II, it always seems like they volunteered for the military and then were given jobs in some official capacity involving entertaining the troops, such as being a bandleader or producing, directing and acting in films made to promote the war effort. Does the military still do things like this? Obviously the culture of America has changed drastically since the days of WWII and we don’t have public figures like musicians and actors volunteering for service. But what if we did? What if the Kings of Leon or Matt Damon decided to sign up for the Army? Would the military try to put their talents to use? ---
**Author:** ![GregH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@GregH](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GregH)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2011, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-us-military-still-put-entertainers-to-use/569682/2 "2011-01-31T20:33:13Z")
Reading the Wikipedia article on the USO will tell you much of what you’d like to know. The entertainers who enlisted during WWII most certainly did not entertain the troops. Jimmy Stewart, Robert Taylor, Clark Gable, etc, were treated as normal soldiers and fought for their country. Other entertainers who did not enlist [or couldn’t enlist] donated their time to the USO. For example, Frank Capra made propaganda films and Frank Sinatra recorded for the V-disc program. Many others donated their time to the Hollywood Canteen (see Wikipedia again). I believe Bette Davis founded it. As for today, the USO still exists and many entertainers have traveled to Afghanistan and Iraq, for example, to entertain the troops. ---
**Author:** ![Al\_Bundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@Al\_Bundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al_Bundy)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2011, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-us-military-still-put-entertainers-to-use/569682/3 "2011-01-31T22:58:58Z")
I thought Colon Powell was pretty good when he sold everybody on the idea of WMDs. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-us-military-still-put-entertainers-to-use/569682/4 "2011-02-01T00:02:08Z")
Elvis was drafted and spent 2 years in the Army, he mostly was a regular soldier. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-us-military-still-put-entertainers-to-use/569682/5 "2011-02-01T00:04:29Z")
Sure, the US military still provides mandatory entertainment for the troops. Well, it’s [mandatory](http://www.truth-out.org/troops-punished-after-refusing-attend-evangelical-concert62504) until someone notices it, anyway. Please note that this was paid for with public funds. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-us-military-still-put-entertainers-to-use/569682/6 "2011-02-01T00:14:58Z")
> [@GregH](#): > > As for today, the USO still exists and many entertainers have traveled to Afghanistan and Iraq, for example, to entertain the troops. For example, the USO sponsored the week of shows Stephen Colbert did in Iraq in June 2009. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-us-military-still-put-entertainers-to-use/569682/7 "2011-02-01T01:52:55Z")
> [@GregH](#): > > As for today, the USO still exists and many entertainers have traveled to Afghanistan and Iraq, for example, to entertain the troops. [USO Celebrity Profiles](http://www.uso.org/celebrity-profiles.aspx). ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-us-military-still-put-entertainers-to-use/569682/8 "2011-02-01T02:01:25Z")
I know what the USO is. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about what happened to Ronald Reagan: > [@](#): > > Upon the approval of the Army Air Force (AAF), he applied for a transfer from the Cavalry to the AAF on May 15, 1942, and was assigned to AAF Public Relations and subsequently to the 1st Motion Picture Unit (officially, the “18th AAF Base Unit”) in Culver City, California.[22] On January 14, 1943 he was promoted to First Lieutenant and was sent to the Provisional Task Force Show Unit of This Is The Army at Burbank, California.[22] He returned to the 1st Motion Picture Unit after completing this duty and was promoted to Captain on July 22, 1943.[19] or Pete Seeger: > [@](#): > > Seeger served in the US Army in the Pacific. He was trained as an airplane mechanic, but was reassigned to entertain the American troops with music. Later, when people asked him what he did in the war, he always answered “I strummed my banjo”. I know I’ve seen other examples of this, I just can’t think of the specific people at the moment. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-us-military-still-put-entertainers-to-use/569682/9 "2011-02-01T02:25:04Z")
I think Joe Lewis spent most of his time putting on boxing exhibitions and giving speeches; many of the celebrities who joined or were drafted served as combat soldiers, giving up lucrative careers to do so. I believe quite a number of MLB players served with distinction. ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-us-military-still-put-entertainers-to-use/569682/10 "2011-02-01T02:40:49Z")
The simple answer to your question is no, they do not. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-us-military-still-put-entertainers-to-use/569682/11 "2011-02-01T04:55:06Z")
There is one category of entertainers who do use their skills as their regular assignments in the military - the members of military bands. ---
**Author:** ![kidchameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kidchameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidchameleon)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-us-military-still-put-entertainers-to-use/569682/12 "2011-02-01T05:19:12Z")
The lack of a draft or declared war has really diminished celebrities from being in the military. NFL player Pat Tillman signed up to fight for the country, so that’s what they used him for. Sadly that turned very tragic. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-us-military-still-put-entertainers-to-use/569682/13 "2011-02-01T08:56:40Z")
> [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](#): > > The simple answer to your question is no, they do not. What, they didn’t have [Tops In Blue](http://www.topsinblue.com/) when you were in? In any case, I don’t know if any celebrities were ever in Tops In Blue, but it is a special duty (special as in, “Not your normal job”, which includes postal workers, dorm managers, First Sergeants, recruiters, etc.) that you can pull in the Air Force. Mostly they do Glee-style mashup performances, I’m told. Haven’t made it to one of their shows yet. I DID make it to the USO show the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders did at our base for Christmas Eve. Happy Holidays indeed. 😃 EDIT: And since Jimmy Stewart was brought up, I would like to drop my absolute favorite bit of Hollywood trivia: Jimmy Stewart was Brigadier General in the Air Force Reserves, and served during Vietnam as well as WWII (he flew as an observer on a B-52, not sure how many times he did that though). Somewhere on the internet is a video about the old B-58 Hustler, and there is a quick shot of Jimmy Stewart taking off his helmet before climbing out of the cockpit of one near the end. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-us-military-still-put-entertainers-to-use/569682/14 "2011-02-01T09:34:42Z")
**Raguleader** brought up the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders coming out to entertain the troops, which reminded me of a question I always wanted to ask (please forgive the hijack). Do Chip and Dale dancers or other types of beefcake entertainers also come out to entertain straight females and (now) openly gay males in the military? ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-us-military-still-put-entertainers-to-use/569682/15 "2011-02-01T10:05:02Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > **Raguleader** brought up the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders coming out to entertain the troops, which reminded me of a question I always wanted to ask (please forgive the hijack). > > Do Chip and Dale dancers or other types of beefcake entertainers also come out to entertain straight females and (now) openly gay males in the military? What, you mean us straight military guys aren’t entertaining enough for them? :dubious: I keed :D, I know that not every female and gay male servicemember can be so lucky as to be stationed at the same base as me, so I suppose it is a legitimate question. I want to say that pro athletes and such do come out from time to time, but I’ve not seen any of them in Korea. To be fair, I haven’t exactly had my radar up paying attention to see if they were coming either. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-us-military-still-put-entertainers-to-use/569682/16 "2011-02-01T12:46:01Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > I know what the USO is. I’m not talking about that. > > I’m talking about what happened to Ronald Reagan: > > or Pete Seeger: > > I know I’ve seen other examples of this, I just can’t think of the specific people at the moment. Clark Gable, too; he spent a good portion of his time making a recruiting film for airplane gunners, eventually joining the same unit as Reagan. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-us-military-still-put-entertainers-to-use/569682/17 "2011-02-01T14:16:04Z")
Many professional baseball players who enlisted for WWII spent substantial portions of their time playing ballgames for service teams. Joe DiMaggio played for an Army airfield team, Pee Wee Reese for the Aiea Naval Hospital squad; Reese’s team beat Dimaggio’s for the 1944 Central Pacific Service Championship. The services generally felt that stars of this renown were most valuable as entertainers, and they saw no front line duties. Bob Feller’s military career began similarly, as a fitness instructor and pitcher at the Norfolk naval base, but he later asked for combat duty and led a gun crew on the battleship _Alabama_. Warren Spahn pitched for the Army 1850th Service Unit team and later the 115th Engineers Group team, but saw action in between, in the Battle of the Bulge and at Remagen. He received a Bronze Star, Purple Heart, and battlefield commission. Years later, somebody was asking him about the grind of the baseball season, and he said, > [@](#): > > After what I went through overseas, I never thought of anything I was told to do in baseball as hard work. You get over feeling like that when you spend days on end sleeping in frozen tank tracks in enemy threatened territory. More than one hundred minor league players were killed. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-us-military-still-put-entertainers-to-use/569682/18 "2011-02-01T17:49:53Z")
> [@Al\_Bundy](#): > > I thought Colon Powell was pretty good when he sold everybody on the idea of WMDs. [moderator note] Keep your political sniping out of GQ. [/moderator note] > [@madmonk28](#): > > Do Chip and Dale dancers or other types of beefcake entertainers also come out to entertain straight females and (now) openly gay males in the military? Nitpick: Unless you want to be entertained by [dancing chipmunks](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_GBezWuK7dzI/TPQTE9caQCI/AAAAAAAAAJc/-qU2jOlYj8o/s1600/CartoonChip+and+Dale.JPG), I think you mean [Chippendale](http://www.chippendales.com/) dancers. ---
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-us-military-still-put-entertainers-to-use/569682/19 "2011-02-01T17:52:15Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > There is one category of entertainers who do use their skills as their regular assignments in the military - the members of military bands. Right, that’s what I was going to say. I would guess they don’t just do marching songs, they might also have jazz bands, etc. (?) ---
**Author:** ![MindsEye\_Watering](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindseye_watering/32/3619_2.png) [@MindsEye\_Watering](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MindsEye_Watering)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-us-military-still-put-entertainers-to-use/569682/20 "2011-02-01T18:10:40Z")
> [@ratatoskK](#): > > Right, that’s what I was going to say. I would guess they don’t just do marching songs, they might also have jazz bands, etc. (?) Jazz bands, rock bands, concert bands, brass quintets and other various small groups. Not always terribly competent, though. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-us-military-still-put-entertainers-to-use/569682.md?page=2)