Special Services was the entertainment branch of the American military. The unit was created on 22 July 1940 by the War Department as part of the Army Service Forces. Special Services not only used its own specially trained and talented troops but also would often engage local performers. Among its activities were staging plays and stage acts, holding concerts, filming documentaries, and providing recreational opportunities for servicemen.
Special Services were one of the few U.S. Army units to be racially integrated during World War II. Special Services opened their first Recreational Officer school at Fort Meade Maryland on 1 April 1942.
Within the United States Marine Corps, the Special Services Division was the forerunner of today's Special Services Branch. It was formed on 1 March 1943, to provide morale maintaining recreational and informational services to Marine Corps personnel. As of at least 2004, the Special Services Branch was still active within the USMC.
Roles
Roles within the Special Services (defined as Military Occupational Specialties) included that of Entertainment Specialist (03B), Physical Activities Specialist (03C), Crafts Specialist (03D), and Recreation Service Senior Sergeant (03Z).
Special Service members
Some personalities who served in the Special Services include actors Burt Lancaster, Leonard Nimoy, Mickey Rooney, Don Knotts, and Sammy Davis Jr.; film director Anatole Litvak, bandleader Glenn Miller, tenor Mario Lanza, folk singer Peter Seeger, and baseball slugger Hank Greenberg.
Expanded (partial) list
In popular culture
In The Dick Van Dyke Show, the back story of the main character, Rob Petrie, played by Dick Van Dyke, included a post-war stint in Special Services stationed in Texas near the Mexican border. Several episodes dealt with this time period in flashbacks, showing how he met his future wife Laura (Mary Tyler Moore), who was a dancer with a touring show, their dating, their wedding, and their close encounter with a Mexican divorce.
References
Notes
Further reading
- Baird, Nancy Disher. "'To Lend You My Eyes...': The World War II Letters of Special Services Officer Harry Jackson." Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 88.3 (1990): 287–317, a primary source online
- Cooke, James J. Chewing Gum, Candy Bars, and Beer: The Army PX in World War II (2009).
- Cooke, James J. American Girls, Beer, and Glenn Miller: GI Morale in World War II (U of Missouri Press, 2012).
- Kane, Liam. "Paving the Way to a 'Good Understanding': Recreation and Australian-American Army Cooperation in the South West Pacific Area, 1941–1945." Australasian Journal of American Studies 37.2 (2018) pp 27–52.
- Rorke, Margaret Ann. "Music and the wounded of World War II." Journal of Music Therapy 33.3 (1996): 189–207.
