WORLD WAR II - USO

The first peace time draft barely passed Congress. On the eve of another global war, the Army was ill equipped to received the draftees and there was little support for the military. The new Army Sprung up overnight and overwhelmed many small communities. Soldiers wanted social contacts, like home. However, those communities were ill prepared to provide for them. This led to the birth of the United States Dervices Organizations (USO), in February 1941.

The War Memorial Civic Center was the first building built for and donated to the United Services Organization (USO) in 1941. It was one of the largest of five different sizes of Type A buildings designed for USO's by the Quartermaster Corps. Off-duty soldiers from Camp Polk and DeRidder Army Air Base made it a home away from home.

Under the leadership of a social director imported from New York, dozens of volunteers from DeRidder flocked to man the kitchen, aid in writing of letters and provide dancing partners for the hoard of displaced servicement. After meeting that someone special at the USO there were a number of girls who entered marriages made in heaven (no divorce).

The USO was open to any enlisted man in 'good standing' - no drinking or fighting was allowed. Dances were held three nights a week, and local girls were carefully chaperoned to and from each event. Dances lasted until twelve and the people would be wall to wall. You had to come by yourself or with your parents and leave the same way. Nobody left with a soldier. It was a place to have good, clean fun, that continued to serve the military throughout the Korean Conflict era. The structure, exterior and interior, is preserved on its original site and in its original condition. The shower house still exists to the south of the building and dances are still held on the original wooden floor. The builder was LeBlanc Brothers (Baton Rouge) who completed the building in 39 days for a cost of $57,480. It was ready to be used for the recreational and spiritual welfare of our armed services, Army and Army Air Force in the area on Nov. 27, 1941.

Artifacts are on display, which commemorate the DeRidder Army Air Base, Camp Polk, the big Louisiana Maneuvers and the USO. Original WWII posters line the wall of the main drawing room. Plaques commemorate Generals Bradley, Mark Clark, Eisenhower, Marshall, and Patton, that mark meeting rooms named in their honor.

The USO was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 25, 1992.

The DeRidder USO Building is locally significant in the area of military history because of its close association with the massive military buildup that occurred in west-central Louisiana during WWII. While sections of Fort Polk survive to best represent a World War II era military base, USO buildings at nearby DeRidder and Leesville remain to remind us of that organization's contribution to the war effort.

When war erupted in Europe, no one in rural, sparsely populated west-central Louisiana could have imagined that the region would soon have no less than five military installations and that tens of thousands of soldiers would be all over the countryside engaged in mock warfare. Military maneuvers were first held in the region in 1940. The largest peacetime maneuvers in American military history were held here in September 1941. Involving about a half million troops, these maneuvers proved to be a significant testing ground for equipment and tactics that would be used successfully in the war. Famous WWII generals such as Eisenhower and Bradley "cut their teeth" so-to-speak on the battlegrounds of west-central Louisiana. Construction on a large military base, then called Camp Polk, began in January 1911. South Camp Polk was finished in about six months, with North Camp Polk being completed by mid-1942. During the war there were seven divisions at one time or another at Camp Polk. Training maneuvers from Polk involving from 61,000 to 106,000 troops were held in the surrounding countryside in 1942 and '43. Other large military installations established in the region during WWII were Camps Livingston and Claiborne near Alexandria, each with about seven hundred buildings. Camp Beauregard also near Aleaandria, was established during WW I, later used by the National Guard and the Civilian Conservation Corps, and reactivated upon America's entry into WWII. A fifth military installation in the area was the DeRidder Army Air Base, which apparently had about sixty buildings.

The need for off-duty recreational centers in towns such as DeRidder became abundantly clear during the massive September 1941 maneuvers. The small community of about 3500 was literally teeming with soldiers, and a small recreation center was set up at the city hall which provided much appreciated shower facilities and various entertainment opportunities. Because of the extreme need, the USO Building at DeRidder was among the very first authorized to be constructed by the Government.

Chartered in February 1941, the United Services Organization (USO) actually represented the pooling of resources of six organizations: the Young Men's Christian Association, Young Women's Chjristian Association, National Catholic Community Services, National Jewish Welfare Board, Salvation Army, and National Travelers Aid Association. The stated purpose of the organization was "to serve the religious, spiritual, welfare and educational needs" of soldiers stationed at bases around the country. Located in an adjacent community, they provided a much needed off-duty "home" for troops. As Eisenhower noted at the time, USOs boosted morale by convincing the armed forces that the country was behind them. Facilities ran the gamut from buildings constructed by the government specifically to be USOs (like the one in DeRidder), to a USO club located in a given building to mobile units. DeRidder's USO was particularly popular with the thousands of troops on maneuver in the area in 1942-43. Often in the field for weeks living in tent cities, soldiers flocked to the USO to take a shower, attend a dance, see a movie, get a home-cooked meal and perhaps celebrate a birthday. Historic photographs show the auditorium filled with hoards of people and wall-to-wall dancing to the Big Band sounds of the period.

Preservation Div. of LA Dept of Culture, Tourism, and Recreation

Bingham, Dave, Fort Polk Historian

Sanson, Jerry, LSU, Alexandria, Dept of History

Dorian, Alan, Archaeologist, Kisatchie National Forest

Smith Velmer, "A History of DeRidder USO."

Casey Powell A. Encyclopedia of Military Installations in Louisiana 1700-1981, Baton Rouge: Claitor's Publishing Division, 1983

History of Beauregard Parish, Curtis Media Corp. 1986