Communiques : writing letters at USO

Creator

Manitowoc Herald-Times (Manitowoc, Wis.)

Date

• September 10, 1942

Summary

• Sailors Blaine Slater (left) of Berkeley, California and J. R. Greenly (right) of Minneapolis, Minnesota, write letters while seated at a small desk in the USO Club at 901 York Street in Manitowoc, Wisconsin in September 1942. Below the desk is a shelf of books. The clubrooms, open 4:00 p.m. to midnight and 2:00 p.m. to midnight on Sundays, had a lounge with a phonograph and a small library, a game room, and a kitchenette. Soft drinks, coffee, sandwiches, and cake were available along with other food donated by churches and community organizations. Sailors, stationed in Manitowoc while training aboard submarines built at Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company and on other craft built by Burger Boat Company, frequented the club, along with Coast Guard and Army personnel. In this case, Slater was a crewman on the Burger submarine chaser SS-660 and Greenly was serving on the submarine U.S.S. Pogy under construction at Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company. This photograph, which shows negative damage on the left side, was published in the Manitowoc Herald-Times September 19, 1942.