Magic Carpet

We would never make light of the sacrifices that our boys in uniform were making during WWII and the Post-War Years (in fact, we greatly honor the service of everyone who has taken an oath of service and served our nation, from the Continental Army of the Revolutionary War to those serving in "the Sandbox" of the Middle East and beyond), but let's face it, many of our boys were a lot better off serving Uncle Sam than they were back home.

Military service could be a great equalizer. While there were plenty of recruits who gave up a "born with a silver spoon their mouth" existence for a life of screaming sergeants, long marches, early reveille, crowded sleeping conditions, even more crowded showers and bathrooms, and the gourmet delights of powdered eggs slopped onto a metal tray, there were just as many, if not more recruits who found conditions serving Uncle Sam an improvement on their life "back on the farm". In training companies across the land, there was, usually, at least one recruit who had never had a pair of shoes of their very own until they were issued a pair of boondockers during basic training.

Although some of the "benefits" of military service may have been lost of "city boys", at a time when home telephones, electrical service, even indoor plumbing was far from universal, the chance to hear some of the hottest acts in the country was a real benefit. Even if the boys never had a chance to go to a swanky nightclub, they could hear recorded "remote broadcasts" of acts like Xavier Cugat, Stan Kenton, Charlie Barnet, Bob Crosby, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Bennet, the Joe Richman Orchestra and others on shows like Magic Carpet over the Armed Forces Radio Service.

The recordings for Magic Carpet came from famous clubs all over the nation, but predominately from Southern California, presumably near the AFRS main studio. They included the Avedon Ballroom in Los Angeles, Hollywood's Club Morocco, The Meadowbrook in Culver City, The Casino Gardens in Ocean Park, as well as the Hotel Biltmore and Hotel Dixie in New York, the Asbury Park Convention Hall in New Jersey, and the Trianon Ballroom in Chicago. At the AFRS Studios, the recordings were edited into a quarter-hour program, usually featuring some commentary from the bandleader, but mostly they were fifteen minutes of music to lift the G.I.'s heart out of the foxhole or KP duty that he found himself in.

The Magic Carpet radio program was not related to the Navy's Operation Magic Carpet, which probably had an even greater impact on the morale of the average G.I. Joe. By mid-1943, there were more than 16 million in uniform, and about half of them were scattered overseas in the European, Asian, and Pacific Theaters. Folks in Washington began to realize that once Victory was achieved getting everyone home was going to be a big priority. At first, the Navy was left out of Operation Magic Carpet because of the major commitment in the Pacific. Plans were made to convert merchant Liberty and Victory cargo ships into troop carriers by welding in bunks wherever they would fit. After VJ Day, the Navy began a similar conversion on battleships, cruisers, hospital ships, even aircraft carriers. 369 combat ships were pressed into Operation Magic Carpet service, including 222 assault transports, six battleships, 18 cruisers, 57 aircraft carriers and twelve hospital ships. In December 1945 almost 700,000 servicemen were repatriated from the Pacific via Operation Magic Carpet.