Word: uso
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Entertaining the troops has been a tradition among show-business folks ever since the USO first took performers overseas to perform for G.I.s during World War II. But the eagerness to participate has rarely been greater or more broad-based than it has been since Operation Desert Storm began. Energized by lingering guilt about the way Vietnam soldiers were treated, celebrities of all political stripes have been rushing to show support for allied forces in the gulf. Nearly 100 actors, singers and athletes, ranging from Meryl Streep to Mike Tyson, got together to record Voices That Care, a pro-troop...
...soldiers stationed in the region have access to radios, compared with just 50% during the Vietnam War. Some 3,000 television sets are also available to the troops, and more are on the way. Five major companies, % including ARCO and AT&T, each donated $500,000 to a USO fund that will spend some of the money to build mobile entertainment centers for the troops. Dubbed the USOasis, these vehicles contain large-screen TVs, VCRs, stereo systems, and cellular phones, so that soldiers can call home. The final touch: popcorn machines...
...doubt mingled with sheer weirdness and a sort of emergency-issue nostalgia, as if Americans were rummaging through old LIFE magazines, dipping back into the lore of World War II to discover the styles of leave taking, of sweethearts' goodbyes. Television-news shows offered small touches of the USO, airing video postcards from soldiers newly arrived in the gulf, grinning and sweating and reassuring Mom. Said a soldier, cheerful and earnest: "We're here fighting for America and our way of life. Airborne!" Will Bob Hope be in Riyadh for Christmas? ("Hey, guys, I wanna tell ya, that...