Arc Building Turns Back the Clock for USO Night

On Orchard Avenue, 1941 was back in style Saturday night during the “All Roads Lead Back Home” USO dance and fundraiser.

Couples dipped and danced to “In the Mood” and “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” while Inland Northwest Musicians performed and staff and volunteers from the Arc of Umatilla County served bottles of Coca-Cola and homemade desserts.

“I think it’s going great,” Jan Schroth said, in between adding Coke bottles to a cooler. “It looks like people are having fun.”

Now the home of the Arc, the building on Orchard Avenue opened in 1942 as the home of the local United Service Organization, or USO. People visited the USO more than 6,000 times in its first month for dances, ping-pong, card games, horseshoes and basketball, according to historian Ron Ingle. Over the next four years, it would host thousands of programs and activities, from galas to pet shows. The USO closed in 1946, when the city of Hermiston purchased the building and operated it as the Civic Recreation Center.

Saturday’s event served as a Veterans Day celebration and a fundraiser for both The Arc and Inland Northwest Musicians, two nonprofit organizations housed in the Arc Building.

“This building has so much history,” Schroth said. “People sometimes walk in, just off the street, because they had their high school dance here and want to see what it looks like or they had their wedding reception here and now it’s their 50th anniversary. It basically looks the same as it did in the 1940s, so something like this is really fun.”

On Saturday, Lt. Col. Jason Lambert, Hermiston High School teacher and commander of the Oregon Army National Guard 3-116th Battalion, served as guest speaker.

Lambert said he has a message for those he commands.

“I always remind them of a couple of things – I remind them that they are considered one of America’s finest, and, No. 2, that they represent all that have served before them. It’s something that can be easily forgotten, so evenings like this are very special because they remind us of that. It’s an honor to be here with the veterans and their families.”

Sixteen veterans attended the event. They served in World War II, in Vietnam and in Korea. They fought in Germany, Iwo Jima, in Afghanistan; they served in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and National Guard. Some were drafted, some volunteered. Some saw battle overseas, some served as medical technicians, and some defended the nation at home.

Irrigon’s Win Weston served in the Asiatic Pacific during World War II before settling in Eastern Oregon. He and his wife, Jane, attended dances at the USO building almost every Saturday for more than 15 years.

“He played, I danced,” Jane Weston said. “Win played with the dances for years, and also, we were involved with the fiddlers one night a month. This (event) is just really wonderful. It is exactly what the USO used to do.”

During the event, an Army National Guard tank stood guard in the center of Orchard Avenue and Chuck Nelson’s WWII in Artifacts – Traveling Collection brought in hundreds of hands-on, original artifacts.
A veteran himself, Nelson presents the large collection to schools and military events.

“I try to get a good mix of everything – the good, the bad – and 99.9 percent of my stuff is original,” Nelson said. “Some natural disasters change the world – some people do, too. Hitler changed how we look at things. Even countries have different shapes. I’d like people to see it.”