USO

At the request of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, six civilian agencies—the Salvation Army, YMCA, YWCA, National Catholic Community Services, National Jewish Welfare Board and National Travelers Aid Association—formed the United Service Organizations for National Defense, which became official on February 4, 1941.⁠[1]

The first USO club opened in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on October 13, 1941; all USO clubs and facilities closed on December 31, 1947.⁠[2]

At its wartime peak the USO ran more than 3,000 clubs, and Bob Hope began his USO tours in 1942.⁠[3]

More than 7,000 entertainers traveled overseas with USO Camp Shows to perform for the troops.⁠[1]

In July 1948 the USO was reactivated under a memorandum of understanding with the Department of Defense; on December 20, 1979, President Jimmy CarterJimmy CarterJimmy Carter (1924–2024) was an American politician and Democrat who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. His administration brokered the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel, signed the Panama Canal treaties and established relations with the People’s Republic of China, but he lost his reelection bid amid the energy crisis, inflation and the Iran hostage crisis; after leaving office he founded The Carter Center to work on mediation, election observation and disease control, and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.Open the full entry signed its congressional charter.⁠[2]

The USO opened its first combat-zone center in Vietnam.⁠[3]

In 2006 the House considered H. Con. Res. 322 on the USO’s 65th anniversary, which listed 124 USO centers worldwide and more than 5 million visits a year.⁠[3]

On December 17, 2024, the USO announced that CEO and president J.D. Crouch II would step down at the end of 2025. It said center locations grew by more than 40% under him and that he and his predecessor, Gen. George Casey, consolidated 19 independent chapters into one organization.⁠[4]

On August 15, 2025, the USO named retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Linnington chief executive officer, effective October 20, 2025. He served 35 years in the Army, was the first civilian director of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency and became CEO of the Wounded Warrior Project in 2016.⁠[5]

On January 7, 2026, the USO announced seven new members of its Board of Governors—Karen Dahut, Christopher Grady, Dietrich Kuhlmann, Erik Olstein, Bernd Peters, Manny Piñeiro and Marc Sasseville—while five governors stepped down. The release said the USO operates more than 250 locations worldwide.⁠[6]

Earlier in 2026 the Google Beam 3D video system began a pilot connecting military families between Trzebień, Poland, and Fort Bliss, Texas.⁠[7]

On October 26, 2026, GoogleGoogleGoogle is an American technology company founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin and incorporated in 1998. It became an Alphabet subsidiary in 2015. Its businesses include internet search, advertising, software platforms, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence.Open the full entry announced it was bringing Google Beam to 20 USO locations globally, expanding to Grafenwöhr, Germany, and Fort Hood, Texas.⁠[8]

The hardware, HP Dimension, built with HP, has a 65-inch screen and six cameras; as of October 28, 2026, Google had not named the remaining sites or given a timetable for completing the rollout.⁠[7]

Section 220107 of Title 36 of the U.S. Code allows the Secretary of Defense to make Defense Department resources available to the corporation, to the extent compatible with the department’s primary mission, including General Services Administration supplies and services, the latter added by a 2004 amendment.⁠[9]