Bob Hope was there, along with Dorothy Lamour and even Jimmy Durante.
And for some 200 seniors in a packed auditorium, it was wonderful to relive years that were terrible yet inspiring.
The USO Show 2009 gave members of Fairway Village in east Vancouver a chance to be stars and salute veterans and those at home who helped in the World War II years.
Songs included “As Time Goes By,” “Bell Bottom Trousers,” “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend,” “God Bless America” and “Thanks for the Memories.”
“Oh, how it brings back memories,” said Ruth Hurst, 87, of Vancouver. “My husband was flying in the Pacific, bringing back wounded in the Army Air Corps, flying C54s.”
While the Sunday show was in the Sherman Auditorium at the Washington State School for the Blind, the audience was asked to imagine the show was at Hickam Field, Hawaii, in 1945.
The show opened with an honor guard, the pledge of allegiance and memories from two WWII vets.
In the audience, Harold McCarty of Salmon Creek said he got misty remembering serving as a gunner on a B24, flying missions with the 15th Air Corps over Italy.
Three other vets took time to remember their service:
The Iowa sailor
Jim Christian, 92, looked fit in the uniform issued to him in 1943. He had been married just two months when he shipped out with the Navy. “I didn’t see my wife until 28 months later,” he said. “It seemed like an eternity. Missing people back home was the main thing.”
He ended up serving 44 months in the Pacific.
Christian served as a chief motor machinist on the attack and ammunition ship USS Fomalhaut in the Pacific.
He remembered being home on leave when his family had saved gas rations so he could drive his wife to see her sister in Spencer, Iowa.
When the war was over, he went home to Waterloo, Iowa, and became a livestock buyer.
While the show brought back some good memories, he said, “Some memories you don’t want to remember.”
The soldier
“All I’ve got is war stories,” said Frank Van Valkenburg, 86, who rose to 2nd lieutenant in the Army. He fought in France, Belgium, Holland and Germany and in the Battle of the Bulge.
“I was in combat for six solid months. Very, very fortunate to be here,” Van Valkenburg said. “I saw everything that can happen in combat. You never forget. Everytime I hear ‘Taps,’ I start crying.”
After the war, he became the owner of an auto parts store in Mount Vernon.
The yeoman
Harry Van Sandt, 86, yeoman 3rd class, spent three years on the USS Markab, a destroyer/tender. His service included time in the Aleutian Islands and the Philippines.
“We had a crew on the tender that could repair anything,” he said. “And we had a hospital, a dentist.
“We had welders, shipfitters. It was nothing to have five to six ships tied up alongside of us (for repairs in port).”
He said there were 1,500 on the Markab and they would tend to anything hit by a bullet.
After the war, he had a career with the Eastman Kodak Company.
Major production
Fairway Village’s Marianne Reid sang in the USO show and played Margaret Truman at 13 next to her father, the president. She was in the U.S. Marine Women’s Reserve in New York City during the war.
“I gave speeches and did publicity work … mainly to recruit Marines,” she said.
She noted a tremendous amount of work went into putting on the USO show that was hosted by Terry Robertson (Bob Hope) and his wife Marilyn (Dorothy Lamour).
“I worked for nine months on the show,” said Mary Van Sandt, who co-produced and co-directed the show with Marilyn Robertson. The show has been put on for a decade. Proceeds from the show go to support efforts of the Columbia Crest Lions Club, which sponsored the show.
Each act in the two-hour show received a warm response.
Lyle Williams had them eating from his hand with his impression of Jimmy Durante (complete with fake nose). It seemed fitting when he told the members of the greatest generation, “Good night, Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are.”
