The story of the intrepid young women who volunteered to help and entertain American servicemen fighting overseas, from World War I through the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The emotional toll of war can be as debilitating to soldiers as hunger, disease, and injury. Beginning in World War I, in an effort to boost soldiers’ morale and remind them of the stakes of victory, the American military formalized a recreation program that sent respectable young women and famous entertainers overseas.

Kara Dixon Vuic builds her narrative around the young women from across the United States, many of whom had never traveled far from home, who volunteered to serve in one of the nation’s most brutal work environments. From the “Lassies” in France and mini-skirted coeds in Vietnam to Marlene Dietrich and Marilyn Monroe, Vuic provides a fascinating glimpse into wartime gender roles and the tensions that continue to complicate American women’s involvement in the military arena. The recreation-program volunteers heightened the passions of troops but also domesticated everyday life on the bases. Their presence mobilized support for the war back home, while exporting American culture abroad. Carefully recruited and selected as symbols of conventional femininity, these adventurous young women saw in the theater of war a bridge between public service and private ambition.

This story of the women who talked and listened, danced and sang, adds an intimate chapter to the history of war and its ties to life in peacetime.

"[A] fascinating history." - Foreign Affairs

"[Vuic] expertly illustrates contradictions inherent in the military’s reliance, since WWI, on U.S. women to provide respectable recreational programs and at the same time alluring entertainment for soldiers." - Choice

"Besides illuminating women’s significance in military life, [Vuic] chronicles changes in assumptions about gender, sexuality, and race in American culture for the last 100 years…A fresh contribution to women’s history." - Kirkus Reviews

"This well-researched and well-written work delves into an aspect of women’s service in wartime that is not often portrayed." - Library Journal

"Vuic also examines the changing perceptions about gender roles in America’s social and military institutions, making this a useful read for anyone with an interest in American society over the past century." - NYMAS Review

"An outstanding example of the intersections of gender history, the history of sexuality, and military history as well the connections between the home front and the battlefront. Its lucid and engaging style, careful analysis, and thorough documentation will appeal to scholars and lay readers alike." - Home Front Studies

"A wonderful example of how scholars of war and society can interrogate the intersections of gender history, the history of sexuality, and military history…[Vuic’s] premise and treatment of the evolution of women military entertainers over time provides invaluable consideration and methodological approaches that can be employed by all scholars of the First World War." - First World War Studies