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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown
Salute to USO
Aired December 25, 2001 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, HOST: Good evening again, I'm Aaron Brown in New York. We are delighted you are with us tonight.
This is a special day, but for thousands of men and women it's going to be a day spent very far from home. This feeling was summed up best perhaps in that classic song from World War II, "I'll Be Home for Christmas, if Only in my Dreams."
Tonight on NEWSNIGHT, we are thinking of U.S. forces, and we will spend the hour looking at the legendary organization that has tried to bring them a little bit of home in...
(NEWSBREAK)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: As we said, we are going to spend the hour looking at the USO, and you can trace a lot of history, our history as a nation, by tracing the history of the organization. You can also catch a lot of great performances.
Our Beth Nissen has been working on all of this for us, and she joins us now to get us started.
BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In 1940, the U.S. had 50,000 in its armed fores. Just four years later, in 1944, there were 12 million men and women in the U.S. military. Most of the rapidly expanding armed forces were posted far from home without much to do when they were off duty or on leave. Across the country, civilian volunteer groups hosted dances and coffee hours for the soldiers, most of them young, single men, so they wouldn't get lonely and wouldn't get in trouble.
In 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt asked six civilian agencies, including the Salvation army, the WMCA and the WYCA to coordinate these volunteer efforts, and the USO, the United Service Organizations, took its first bow.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NISSEN (voice-over): The newly formed USO opened hundreds then thousands of USO canteens and clubs across the country, some as small as living rooms and others as large as dance halls. A legion of civilian volunteers staffed the clubs, did what they could to give those in uniform a little company, a little fun. And from its early days, the USO had star power. At the USO Hollywood canteen, servicemen could have their hats checked by Heady Lamarr, see Betty Davis in person, dance with Marlena Dietrich, and listen to a tune.
(MUSIC)
NISSEN: Radio and motion picture stars did radio show for troops stationed at bases in the U.S. and a growing number of troops overseas.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bob, why are men so crazy about sweater girls?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know, Judy. That's one mystery I'd like to unravel.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NISSEN: But early on, USO realized if the show was going to go on, the show had to go where the troops went. The USO started staging camp shows, bringing a variety of performers and acts to two new venues, the European theater at the Pacific theater.
The biggest camp shows were the Christmas tours, emceed by a man who was to become the voice, the heart and the soul of the USO: Bob Hope.
Hope soon fixed on a formula for a successful USO show: Do a little dancing, tell a few jokes, sing a few songs, and then bring out the pretty girls.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOB HOPE, ACTOR/COMEDIAN: Some night.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Some night.
HOPE: Some park.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Some park.
HOPE: Some moon.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Some moon.
HOPE: Some bench.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Some bench.
HOPE: Some grass.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Some grass.
HOPE: Some dew. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NISSEN: Some of the biggest talents of the day appeared on USO stages. Ray Bolger, Jack Benny.
(MUSIC)
NISSEN: Danny Kaye. Francis Langford.
(MUSIC)
BRIG. GEN. THOMAS N. NORMAN (RET.), WWII VETERAN, USO VOLUNTEER: Any time there was a USO show, everybody tried to attend. We would fight each other for a front-row seat. Of course, the officers got the front-row seats, but some of us sergeants have tried.
NISSEN: Not all of the USO camp shows featured the big names, the Andrews sisters, or pin-up star Betty Grable.
NORMAN: I didn't see Bob Hope or Betty Grable, unfortunately, but I remember some musical productions that the USO put on, and it was a great change of pace and something good for the soldiers to be able to sit and relax and watch some real musicians and dancers perform for us on the stage, on the makeshift stage.
NISSEN: The makeshift shows on the USO foxhole circuit were small acts -- a lone juggler on the dirt stage, a girl trying to tap dance on a warped piece of plywood. Large or small, the shows offered distraction and relief to the battle weary.
NORMAN: We had been under enemy fire, and I was on the signal assault company stringing field line telephone communications as fast as we can go day and night. And it was a great relaxation to come back and just sit in a chair or in a field, and watch some real civilians and some pretty girls. It was great to see -- it was great to know that the people back home cared enough about us to come over and try to give us a little relaxation and some entertainment.
NISSEN: By 1945, the USO was putting on 700 performances a day, big and little.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's all the music I have. I don't know what else I could possibly do for you fellows.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NISSEN: Between 1941 and 1947, the USO staged more than 425,000 camp show. All of them were meant to cheer up and cheer on the troops.
(MUSIC)
NORMAN: It was a great morale booster. A lot of us needed a lot of morale boosting. They were tough days, hard days. Anytime you can boost morale, the troops are motivated and ready to go again.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOPE: I just want you boys to see what you are fighting for, that's all.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GEN. JOHN H. TILELLI, JR., PRES. & CEO, USO: The fact is, morale is important. It contributes to the inner strength of the individual. That inner strength that makes an individual do much more than he or she think they are capable of, and much more than we expect.
NISSEN: The American troops in World War II did just that, and the USO thanked them for it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In liberated Paris, Marlena Dietrich opens a servicemen canteen, and salutes the troops with her favorite barroom ballet.
(MUSIC)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NISSEN: The USO had a mission, to bring fighting men a little touch of home.
(MUSIC)
NORMAN: They made me think of home. Made me think of home.
(MUSIC)
NORMAN: Most of us didn't think we would ever see home again, really. We had a job to do, and apparently, according to the history books, we got it done.
(MUSIC)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For the men and women who endured four harrowing and uncertain years, it is finally over. They have done their job, and in its own way Hollywood has too. For millions of GIs, Hollywood found songs enough to ease loneliness, and dreams enough to sustain men until this day, when no dream is needed.
(MUSIC)
(END VIDEOTAPE) BROWN: Coming up, the USO takes the show to Korea. This is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Welcome back. Tonight, we are looking at the history of the USO. After World War II, the battlefield changed and so did the stars, but the mission remained the same. The next chapter now. Again, here is Beth Nissen.
NISSEN: With the end of World War II, the USO lost its primary purpose. Those millions of returning soldiers no longer need a home away from home. By 1947, the USO had basically ceases operations.
But in 1950, the United States entered what was officially called a police action in Korea. The U.S. military quickly remobilized, and so did the USO. By the end of the Korean conflict, 3.5 million servicemen and women would have served in Korea, and most of all would have been entertained by a new set of USO recruits.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Super-fortress bombers take to the air. It's a dark day for the reds, but for some lucky GIs and Marines on the front lines, things are bright almost at the same time. A few moments of cheer within gunshot of the lines, thanks to a visiting Hollywood troop.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NISSEN (voice-over): Once again, Bob Hope led USO troopers to the troops.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOPE: Well, we got a lot of wonderful people on the show, and I hope you enjoy it. We have this wonderful band, Les & the Boys (UNINTELLIGIBLE). It's kind of cold here, and it's rough on the musicians. No matter what they blow, white Christmas comes out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NISSEN: Once again, Hope and the USO shows brought warmth and laughter to thousands of military personnel short on both, especially at Christmas in a frozen Korea.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOPE: You look familiar. What were you in civilian life?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Happy.
(END VIDEO CLIP) JOHNNY GRANT, USO EMCEE: The important thing if you are an emcee or a Bob Hope is to know when their concerns are, or as we said when we were in service, our gripes, and do jokes about them.
NISSEN: As a young GI, Johnny Grant met Bob Hope on a USO stage.
GRANT: I introduced him once when I was a sergeant in the Army Air Corps, and decided to tell some jokes. And he liked them, and we became friends, and he encouraged me to do the USO shows.
NISSEN: Grant would become one of Hope's key lieutenants and a veteran USO performer himself. Over the years, he would do 55 USO tours overseas. In Korea, he served as emcee for the USO's Operation Starlift, which brought stars Jane Russell and Terry Moore to troops in the frozen hills.
The Korea Christmas tours were tough on USO entertainers. Temperatures were often well below freezing. Later, there were jokes about how they didn't call it the start of the Cold War for nothing. When it didn't snow, it rained, hard, but performers gamely carried on, and took wet curtain calls from audiences whose spirits were never dampened. GIs would go to extremes for just a few hours of USO entertainment.
GRANT: They hitchhiked, they walked -- I mean, for miles. And they'd sit and wait. They'd wade through rain, hail, snow, and enemy gunfire.
(MUSIC)
NISSEN: They would have waited through all of that and more to see Marilyn Monroe when she toured through. In one of the most legendary USO appearances of all time, Marilyn Monroe walked on stage into a light snow in a black slip of a dress, and enchanted a valley full of troops. Later, almost every GI who served in Korea would seem to remember being there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARILYN MONROE, ACTRESS: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) for the soldiers. I still got up on an open stage, and it was cold and snowy, but I swear I didn't feel a thing, except good.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRANT: Well, I'll tell you, any GI that saw Marilyn Monroe, his dog tags were panting. Those guys waited almost all day and all night to be just a little closer, and everyone of them had a camera. And Eastman Kodak was sponsoring the war.
NISSEN: There were other stars to see. Debbie Reynolds was a favorite.
DEBBIE REYNOLDS, ACTRESS: I went to Korea three different times, six-week tours at a time. I sang a song, "I want to be loved by you." And I would always have a boy up from the audience and sing to him. In Korea, of course, there are no stages. So the boys would build a stage out of rough wood. I had splinters up my -- a-huh -- a lot because I did the jitter bug, and I did splits and all of that. So I was always picking out splinters out of my -- my legs. And then at night, we did shows that shined the jeep lights on, and that's how you did that show. Not that they could see so well, but they didn't care. The important thing was to be there, to share that time with them.
NISSEN: USO entertainers made it a point to share time with the wounded at hospitals and MASH units. Actress Piper Laurie could comfort even the gravely injured.
GRANT: We were at a hospital and a nurse came over and said, "Ms. Laurie, there's a young man in here who knew you were coming, and he is in very bad shape, and we don't think he is going to make it." She went in and sat and held his hand all night. When he went to heaven, he was a happy GI.
NISSEN: USO performers who went to units near the front saw the horrors and cost of war.
REYNOLDS: This handsome boy was dying, and there was no way they could save him. He had been crushed. His -- shell had just -- just passed through his entire head, and somehow he had lived for this long. And he wanted me to sing and to hold him. So that was the hardest for me. Which I did, but it's not anything you can talk about.
NISSEN: By 1952, U.S. entertainers were doing a show a day for troops in Korea, some for audiences that filled hillside amphitheaters, and some for a handful of GIs in a remote shed.
GRANT: I have taken small units and had plywood stages and worked off of the back of trucks. Wherever you go, somebody is waiting for you.
NISSEN: Somebody who needs a little diversion and a laugh almost as much as a pair of clean socks and a hot shower, somebody who isn't sure how or if he's going to live through the day.
GRANT: Nothing makes a GI feel better than a USO show. And if you feel really good, there's nothing you can't do.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: We will be right back. This is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: When the Korean war ended, the USO again closed down its camp show operations. Back home, as the nation entered the prosperous, peaceful years of the late '50s, it didn't seem there'd ever again be a need to entertain fighting troops in faraway places. We know what comes next. Again, here's CNN's Beth Nissen.
NISSEN: Well, 1960s were difficult for the U.S. military and all the organizations connected with it, including the USO. As the United States committed more and more troops and resources to Vietnam, the USO followed. In 1963, a USO club opened in Saigon, the first time such a club had ever opened in a combat area. It was instantly popular with the troops, in part because it was one of few fully air- conditioned buildings in country.
The next year, 1964, Bob Hope brought the first USO Christmas show to Vietnam. He would do one show a year there for eight years.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOPE: And everything is going up at home -- prices, taxes and mini skirts.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
HOPE: Mini skirts are bigger than ever. Even some of the fellows are wearing them.
Don't laugh. If you had thought of it, you wouldn't be here.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NISSEN (voice-over): That punchline hit home. Few Americans wanted to be in Vietnam, few soldiers and few entertainers.
GRANT: Vietnam was not a popular war anywhere in America after about the first year. Afraid it wasn't even popular then, especially out here in Hollywood.
NISSEN: The USO cobbled together a few tours and tried to put the best face on it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Today the battle zone looks almost like the back lot of a Hollywood movie studio. Kathleen Nolan (ph) brought two other girls with her, Lois Roberts and Jill German (ph). Three girls on stage at one time, the GIs thought it was a mirage.
This is former light heavyweight champion Archie Moore. He talked to the guys about boxing. He refereed fights, and got big laughs with his gags about Cassius Clay.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NISSEN: The USO had its own heavy hitter, Bob Hope.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOPE: Here I am in Danaim (ph), better known as Dodge City.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NISSEN: No USO audiences appreciated Bob Hope's wry and often lewd humor more than those he entertained in Vietnam.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: That was one of his great strengths. He makes them laugh. And sometimes when it's really cold and it's really tough and you are losing your friends, it's really a wonderful experience to be able to laugh.
NISSEN: And get a look at a chic in a thigh-high skirt.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOPE (singing): Even when I'm old and gray -- this is going to make me gray today.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NISSEN: While Bob Hope brought name stars like Raquel Welsh to Vietnam once a year, Johnny Grant toured year-round.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRANT: I overheard two GIs talking, and one of them said to his buddy, he says: "You know, I thought Bob Hope was coming over, he couldn't make it, so they sent Johnny Grant. What do you think about that?" And the other kid says, "well, it's like waiting for Ann- Margaret and Phyllis Diller shows up."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NISSEN: Troops did want to see Ann-Margaret. Grant brought the red-headed entertainer an invitation from the GIs of the 1st Division, the Big Red One.
ANN-MARGARET, ENTERTAINER: I received some papers with 3,000 signatures from men, requesting that I come over. And I was there three months later.
(MUSIC)
ANN-MARGARET: I remember one time coming over this big hill. There were 10,000 Marines sitting there, and some of the gentlemen had been waiting for six or seven hours. I will just never forget any of the shows that I did.
NISSEN: Few other USO performers played before such large audiences in Nam.
WAYNE NEWTON, ENTERTAINER: We actually hit places that had seven American people that were simply advising, advisers to the Vietnamese, and we would sit around a table like this -- or not this nice of course -- but around a table, and play songs and sing and talk. NISSEN: Like Korea, Vietnam was a tough USO tour, but for the opposite reason. It was miserably hot. Makeup melted. Teased hair went flat. Performers wilted in the steamy jungle heat.
GRANT: I saw two privates saluting each other just to get the breeze, that's how hot it was over there. But you get out there, you forget that. You know, you don't care if it's cold, you don't care if it's hot, the show must go on. And if that was ever true, it was in Korea and Vietnam.
(MUSIC)
NISSEN: Performers in Vietnam faced dangers -- mines and snipers were everywhere. More than one USO plane was hit by sniper fire.
GRANT: Quite often, your performances would be interrupted, either by incoming and you would hit the bunker, or if you were around the hospital area by them bringing in the wounded. And all of a sudden, the chopper would come in, and you would lose your audience just like that.
NISSEN: The performers would wait and do their acts later -- even at 2:00 a.m., even on holidays, even at Christmas.
It had always been the USO's goal to give the troops at war a diversion from the awful business of fighting, give them what emotional and comic relief could be found in a war. That was mission critical in Vietnam.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I understand the enemy is all around. So please laugh it up. You wouldn't want them to think we have a morale problem, would you?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCCAIN: Late -- in the later stages of the war, there were morale problems and discipline problems, but the one time that it seemed that they were all enjoying themselves was when they had the opportunity to attend the USO shows.
NISSEN: A USO performance could make even a burned-out draftee feel better, feel appreciated, feel a sense of purpose.
GRANT: If I was a commanding general, I would have a USO show before every battle, because they are so motivated when they leave there. I know in Vietnam, a general told me, he says: "I think my troops would walk to Hanoi tonight."
NISSEN: But in the end, Saigon fell. The U.S. military and the USO went home with more questions than answers about their missions in the future.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Our special look at the USO continues in just a moment. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Peacetime, strange as it may sound, has proven to be tough times for the USO. But as we know from American history, peacetime never seems to last very long. Again now, Beth Nissen.
NISSEN: After the U.S. military left Vietnam and the draft ended, it once again seemed as if the USO had completed its mission. In 1974, the Department of Defense and the United Way did a study to determine if the USO was still relevant. Their conclusion: If there were no USO, a similar organization would have to be created.
The USO was the most established civilian influence on the U.S. military, and a key military supplier, of encouragement to those in uniform, those in service.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NISSEN (voice-over): Throughout the mid-1970s and the 1980s, United States was at peace, but much of the world, especially the Middle East, was not.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOPE: But I want to tell you, tonight we're in a part of the world where Santa uses the tail gunner on his sleigh.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NISSEN: More and more U.S. troops were stationed on long tours around the globe, and every year the USO would recruit volunteer entertainers to go out and perform for them. Loretta Lynn did four tours, two at Christmas.
LORETTA LYNN, SINGER: I spent two Christmases away from my kids. I felt that they needed me more than my kids did.
NISSEN: Family-friendly USO performers like Loretta Lynn were ideal for America's new military. Those in the American armed forces were no longer primarily single males. Most were married. More than half had children.
USO shows continued to make service members feel like someone understand them, appreciated them.
TILELLI: It's all so very important to our service members who are far away from home, who are in harm's way, who are serving this country and not asking much to do it, and who deserve more than we ever can give them for their service to America.
NISSEN: Many of the most grateful USO audiences were those with long tours of duty on board aircraft carriers and other ships.
NEWTON: Those guys and girls worked 12-hour shifts. And so, we literally would do two shows a day. We would try and catch one shift right after it broke to give them time to sleep, you know, eight, 10 hours, and then time the next one where it would work the same way, so that you could entertain all 5,000 people.
NISSEN: More than one USO performer has done a shipboard show seasick, although USO veterans say shows at sea also have their advantages.
GRANT: There's one good thing about that, your audience can't walk out. You know, you got them. They're going nowhere.
NISSEN: Yet there were risks to being on a warship.
NEWTON: I was aboard USS Guam when the captain informed me that there was a torpedo coming at us and that I should go below. And I thought to myself, is that really where I want to be?
NISSEN: Loretta Lynn was on board a U.S. Navy ship off Beirut in 1983 when the Marine barracks was attacked.
LYNN: There was a missile coming toward the ship, and they threw me a life jacket, and said "every man for himself." And my husband was on one end of the ship, and I was on the other, and it scared me to death. So, we went out 150 miles into the ocean that night and hid. And we stayed up all night long, we played music, we sang. Every boy in there sang.
NISSEN: In the last decade of the 20th century, the USO brought more top talent to the troops. Billy Joel toured the Philippines.
But the U.S. camp shows were a thing of the past until 1990, when Iraq invited Kuwait. The U.S. was again at war, and the USO was again with the troops.
The Gulf War was so short that the USO had time enough to recruit only a handful of entertainers and celebrities for handshake tours.
GRANT: There's nothing that pleases a GI more -- or almost more -- than just showing up in his work area or her work are and saying hello.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How long have you guys been out here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Too long.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ninety-two days.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRANT: They got a chance to have their picture made with you, and I can tell you five minutes after that celebrity leaves, they are on their laptop e-mailing it back to their family in the States.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRANT: Ladies and gentlemen, I ask to you welcome Bob Hope! [
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NISSEN: That Christmas, an elderly Bob Hope came to the Gulf to do one last USO Christmas tour before retiring.
GRANT: I introduced Bob Hope on that last show, and I had the feeling that would be the last Bob Hope Christmas tour. And it was.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOPE: Now there's sand everywhere. Didn't anybody ever think of paving this place? The men wear long robes, and the women are completely covered. The wedding nights must be full of surprises, I'll tell you that.
Stealth bomber. That's a big deal -- flies in undetected, bombs and flies away. Hell, I have been done that all my life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TILELLI: You can never describe in words the impact that Bob Hope has had not only on the USO, but more importantly on the troops, on the men and women who serve. Sixty years of service to America, to America's armed forces, in faraway places, during holiday periods. He's the model for today's entertainers, and in the great spectrum of things, he's the mode for future entertainers.
NISSEN: In a somewhat dated version of a signature song he'd sung during World War II, Hope summed up the USO message to those in the service, pure gratitude.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOPE (singing): Thanks from America to all our men in blue, our boys in khaki too, our tough Marines, our Coast Guard, our Army nurses too. We thank you so much. And thanks to our brave allies, the gallant Russian bear, the British everywhere, the free French and the Chinese and you Latins way down there. We thank you so much. The best, the best from USA. So long.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: September 11 brought an outpouring of generosity from every kind of American celebrities included, and the USO found itself with a new cast for a new and different war. Beth Nissen again brings us up to date. NISSEN: At the turn of the century, Americans in the military were deployed around the globe, keeping peace, not fighting wars. Although that would change on a sunny September morning in New York City.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NISSEN (voice-over): Wherever Americans in uniform have been stationed in the years bridging the 20th and 21st centuries, there have been USO performers. Clint Black playing unplugged for U.S. troops in Somalia.
(MUSIC)
NISSEN: Two of the Gutland (ph) brothers singing for U.S. peacekeepers in Haiti.
(MUSIC)
NISSEN: Sheryl Crow on a USO tour in Bosnia, playing remote guard post barracks and mess halls.
(MUSIC)
NISSEN: Veteran USO organizers have tried to bring on tour the performers and celebrities the troops will most appreciate.
GRANT: I do a survey. I go out and ask the people who they want to see, and they not only mention the big Hollywood stars, sports celebrities, but -- like Warren Buffett and Jimmy Buffett, Bill Gates -- they are all into computers and things. It's a whole different world out there. The GIs are different now than when I started.
NISSEN: Although the sight of a well-constructed young women in revealing garments still seems wildly popular. So are comedians and jokes. Even old jokes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You didn't drop any bombs tonight.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRANT: You can use some of the old jokes. They know, you know, I was a big hero during World War II. Matter of fact, I saved my entire regiment -- I shot the cook. And you know, that's from World War II, and it still gets a big laugh.
NISSEN: Yet the U.S. troops of today are a new breed.
GRANT: Our GIs today are better educated, they're more sophisticated, they're focused.
NISSEN: They are going to have to be to fight America's newest war on terrorism. Within hours of the September 11th attacks on New York City and Washington, U.S. troops around the world were given new orders, we're mobilized. And the USO too quickly mobilized for a new round of tours on American military bases and installations. With headliners such as Kid Rock...
(MUSIC)
NISSEN: Rap artist Jarul (ph)...
(MUSIC)
NISSEN: And J.Lo.
(MUSIC)
NISSEN: The newest USO performers to try to sing in the cold warm up an audience far from home for the holidays.
NEWTON: The service that the USO is providing today is more important than ever before maybe in the history of our country, simply because prior to this particular war we knew who our enemies where. In this one, we don't.
We as Americans really have to back our military and the people who are out there giving our lives for us.
(MUSIC)
NISSEN: USO performers are again doing what they have done for 60 years, using their talents and energies to tell those in the U.S. armed forces that America knows their value, appreciates their sacrifice, and is profoundly grateful to them for their service.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NISSEN: We must thank the USO, Bop Hope Enterprises, Johnny Grant and Lou Rita Productions (ph). We'd also like to thank MTV for giving us some of their USO footage from their January 1 and January 2 specials. And also thanks to NEWSNIGHT producers Sarah Quyole (ph), Catherine Mitchell (ph) and Joanna DeVane (ph) and to CNN editors Liz Saba (ph) and Dave Butz (ph).
BROWN: And we would also like to thank you for joining us. Good night from all of us at NEWSNIGHT.
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