USO cheers troops, but Iraq gigs tough to book

Hard to find Christmas entertainment for troops
by Martin Kasindorf and Steve Komarow, USA Today

In the Christmas tradition of the Andrews Sisters wowing World War II GIs with Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, comedian Al Franken is headlining USO shows at military bases in Iraq this week. Franken’s troupe is touring the desert circuit from Baghdad to Balad, putting on a show that he calls very Bob Hope.

Like Hope, the entertainment legend who died in 2003 at age 100 and was the mainstay of USO shows for three generations, Franken opens with a monologue about Army chow. Two Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders follow with dance routines. Country singers Mark Wills, Craig Morgan and Keni Thomas then belt out odes to patriotism.

It’s the best thing since I’ve been here, Sgt. Thomas Harvey, 25, of Scranton, Pa., said after seeing the show Wednesday with 500 soldiers at Camp Victory, the U.S. base near the Baghdad airport. Those guys gave up their time and came over here, and serve (the nation) with us.

Comics Robin Williams and Drew Carey also have performed in Iraq. However, many prominent entertainers are resisting overseas trips for the nearly 65-year-old United Service Organizations as fighting in Iraq continues, said Wayne Newton, the Las Vegas singer who succeeded Hope in 2000 as head of the USO’s talent-recruiting effort…

Newton said the dangers in Iraq, along with some stars’ disagreements with the Bush administration’s war policies, have limited show-business volunteers for USO tours.

That wasn’t the case just after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, when some of the biggest names in show business rallied to help the USO. Jennifer Lopez and hip-hop star Ja Rule joined rap-rocker Kid Rock for a concert at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, telecast on MTV, in December 2001. Other top celebrities visited troops that month in Turkey: Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Matt Damon.

After 9/11, we couldn’t have had enough airplanes for the people who were volunteering to go, Newton said. Now, with the war being up one day and down the next, it becomes increasingly difficult to get new people to go.

Hope was among 7,000 performers who played the USO foxhole circuit during World War II. In contrast, Franken and Williams are on a relatively short list of stars who are paid $50 a day and who are sent to overseas bases by USO President-CEO Ned Powell.

Franken, 54, is making his third December tour of war zones. I think I may be the only comedian who’s played Abu Ghraib, he said, referring to his visit to the prison near Baghdad where U.S. guards had abused Iraqi detainees. Williams, 54, said he’d like to return to the Middle East this spring for what would be his fourth visit since 2002. The star of the 1987 film Good Morning, Vietnam starts his comic riffs at U.S. bases with Good morning, Al-Asad, or whatever the location.

Hollywood studio system different

Hope wouldn’t fully recognize today’s shows by the USO, which is trying to update how it entertains today’s armed forces. Performers such as Kid Rock and rapper 50 Cent have been on the bill at some events. The USO now gives some leeway to comedians who use blue language.

Williams said he’d like to see more comedians in their 20s entertaining the troops, most of whom are that age. Williams who like Franken has been an outspoken critic of Bush’s management of the war and Newton, a Republican who backs Bush, say some stars have turned down the USO because they thought such performances would amount to endorsing the war.

And I say it’s not, Newton said. I tell them these men and women are over there because our country sent them, and we have the absolute necessity to try to bring them as much happiness as we can.

Newton said the fear of danger, and pressure from wives and kids, more than the politics keeps many celebrities out of today’s war areas. Newton said one National Basketball Association star he would not identify asked: How safe am I going to be? After Newton assured the player that you’ve got the entire U.S. military around you, the player agreed to visit Kuwait and Qatar, Newton said.

Williams said he tells stars, Go, man. You won’t forget it. You’ll meet amazing people.’

The Vietnam and Korean wars also were unpopular in show-business circles, said Johnny Grant, 82, a retired Hollywood radio disc jockey who made 56 trips overseas to emcee USO shows. During the Vietnam War, I’d see a celebrity and they’d run to the other side of the room, thinking, Oh, God, he’s going to try to recruit me.’

Changes in show business also have hindered USO recruiting. In World War II and Korea, the USO had the head of the powerful William Morris talent agency, Abe Lastfogel, in charge of finding celebrities to entertain troops. Abe would just tell his clients, Look, you’re going to go,’ Grant said. The studio system has changed. I can’t get stars for the Hollywood Christmas parade.

Powell, 57, an official in the Department of Veterans Affairs in the Clinton administration, said that during the Vietnam War, Bob Hope had a unique ability to pull shows together under an NBC contract for his (Christmas) television special. Hope’s TV specials from Vietnam during the 1970s were at a time when network broadcasts often were the best way for stars to get publicity. Today, the Internet, MTV and other publicity outlets have lessened the appeal of shows in war zones.

There also are limits to the types of stars that Newton, 63, can attract to USO shows. There are entertainers that Wayne doesn’t know and can’t get to, Powell said. As a result of all these factors, USO shows often are an odd mix of whoever’ll go, Franken said. He’s done trips with country music star Clint Black and pop singer Jewel. Joining Franken on his current nine-day tour of Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan is a Christian hip-hop group, SoulJahz.

For regulars such as Franken and Williams, it’s just a matter of a phone call to book them, Newton said. Newton has made 12 USO tours since 2000, including four trips to Iraq. Wayne Newton is the Bob Hope of this war, but nobody can replace Bob Hope, Franken said. Other current regulars include rock musician Henry Rollins, CSI: New York’s Gary Sinise, comedian Tom Green and model and Fox sports commentator Leeann Tweeden.

Political views set aside

Political views don’t play a role in determining who is part of a show, Powell said. Besides Newton, the USO’s entertainers include conservatives such as country singers Darryl Worley, Toby Keith and Neal McCoy. Their political opposites include Bush critics Franken, Williams and Rollins.

The USO welcomes them, and the Pentagon authorizes their travel. As Williams said, I’m there for (the troops), not for W, referring to Bush.

Powell and Newton said they warn performers to avoid political comments while onstage. We are an apolitical organization, USO Vice President Donna St. John said.

Powell said he’s received complaints about having Franken, a Democrat with a radio show on the liberal Air America network, entertain the troops. Franken said he confines his political gibes to his books and his radio show.

Sergeant Major of the Army Ken Preston, the service’s senior enlisted soldier who hosts the tour, said he often is asked why he allowed Franken in the show with his left wing politics. What he says to the soldiers is: Even if there are different views the American people are united in our support for you, Preston said after Wednesday’s show as the performers signed autographs.

Rollins, 44, has made six USO tours. The former lead singer for the punk-rock group Black Flag said he generally keeps his antiwar views to himself at USO shows. The troops, they’re my heroes. You don’t need me out there like some Tokyo Rose. I wouldn’t go on a tear on Bush out there.

Rollins said he breached his own no-politics rule in 2004, causing a stir at a U.S. base in Kyrgyzstan. He said the base commander briefed soldiers on how to re-adjust to life back home, then gave the microphone to Rollins. Your commander would never lie to you, Rollins told the crowd. That’s the vice president’s job.

Rollins recalled, I watched the USO people and some officers go, Ohhhh, boy.’ Some people laughed. Some glared at me. I couldn’t help it, because (Vice President) Cheney makes me mad.

Sometimes, actions from the right also make the USO cringe. Powell said rock musician Ted Nugent, a gun-rights activist, carried a Glock handgun to shows in Iraq in June 2004. Nugent also bragged in a radio interview that he had manned a machine gun on a Humvee. The incident embarrassed the civilian USO, Powell said.

Williams said he’s never been censored, but the USO has asked him to tone down off-color jokes. He said his stage banter is something from home that’s kind of wild, not your standard USO show. He did a few jokes about Bush’s brainpower at a base in 2003 and got a chilly red state reception, he said. So he turned to a milder joke about Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld: He kind of sounds like my dad after a couple of gin and tonics.

The USO originated in 1941 after President Franklin Roosevelt asked six organizations the YMCA, YWCA, National Catholic Community Service, National Jewish Welfare Board, Traveler’s Aid Association and Salvation Army to help boost morale in the military. The groups formed the USO. Congress chartered it as a non-profit charity. Every president since then has been honorary chairman.

During World War II, the famed Hollywood Canteen was one of 3,000 USO clubs worldwide. Marlene Dietrich opened one in Paris after the city’s liberation. Bing Crosby, the Marx brothers, Humphrey Bogart and thousands of others were in various USO shows.

Today’s 123 USO centers offer services such as e-mail access and places at airports for military personnel to change their babies’ diapers. That’s 80 percent of what we do, Powell said. The USO’s budget this year was $120 million, most of it from donations and corporate sponsors.

Of all the benefactors, no one has been bigger than Hope. From his first USO radio broadcast at California’s March Field in 1941 to his final bow at age 87 in Bahrain on the eve of Operation Desert Storm in 1990, Hope was the USO for millions of Americans.

The troops are grateful to any entertainer who travels to a dangerous post. It really helps getting through all the stressful times in Baghdad, said Spc. Emily Wilsoncroft, 23, of Syracuse, N.Y.

Powell said he followed Williams down a line of service members as the comedian left Baghdad in 2003, three weeks after Bush had been there for Thanksgiving. Powell overheard a reporter asking a soldier to compare Williams’ visit with Bush’s.

Powell said the soldier replied: The president’s visit was really cool, but you know, sir, he had to come. And Robin Williams didn’t.

And that, Powell said, is the point.

Kasindorf reported from Los Angeles; Komarow from Baghdad.

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