Hello from California

Welcome to to the forum. Now that is a career I would have loved.

 

Welcome Aboard Ryan!

 

Well played Sir

 

Welcome to the forums. My Dad thought the VD movies were pretty funny,and the posters. He wrote about them in his service journal when he was going through basic training.

 

*Clears Internet history after looking up, "what is a VD poster?"*, Thankyou for ruining my childhood.

 

Never google VD anything....ever,

 

Welcome from a native Angeleno. Where are you from in California?

These unglamourous and discreditable sides of the Allied armies in WWII are absolutely essential if you really want to get a true picture of the war instead of a false, sugar-coated one. I wrote about courts martial in the British and Australian armies, and reading the records on that sort of thing will cure you of any illusions about the so-called Greatest G. I wish you all the best with your research and your book.

Some tidbits for you. First, if you haven't already done so you should dig into Phenix City Alabama. This little burg was (is) right across the river from Fort Benning and during the war it was the most corrupt town in the country, commercial sex being a big part of it. There were some murders, too, and after the war a noteworthy noir film called The Phenix City Story was made about the place.

Second, from my reading in other contexts it seems clear that it was WWII that really started the sexual revolution in this country. The queer and lesbian communities, which had been small and very submerged and discreet before Peal Harbor, became much more visible during the war and remained so after it. The war was the boom time for burlesque and striptease, too, and much of Alfred Kinsey's research was conducted during WWII. Some of the young Beats (including Allen Ginsberg) participated in his surveys, and if you want a sense of what the sexual atmosphere was like in New York at that time then Burrough's Junky is worth a look. Thanks to Audrey Hepburn we associate Breakfast At Tiffany's with the 50's or early 60's, but Capote's book is really about a wartime joy girl.

On a lighter note, the late great Tony Randall was in the army and found the VD films very funny. I remember him doing a great hilarious bit about them many years ago on a TV talk show. I really should try to find it on youtube.