The USO in Paris in 1969

I’m a military brat (my dad was U.S. Army), and I spent four years in the Air Force, so I’ve always known and appreciated what the USO does. But my fondest memory of the USO by far occurred on Bastille Day (July 14) in Paris in 1969. I was stationed at Ramstein Air Base, and a friend and I drove to Paris for the July 14 festivities. I had graduated from high school in Paris in 1965 and knew the city well. We slept on the ground in the Bois de Boulogne, and I told my friend, who had never been to Paris, that we could go to the USO on the Champs Élysées to take a shower and get some coffee and donuts, which is what we did. We watched the big parade from the windows of the USO and saw Charles de Gaulle go by standing in his limousine. We visited Paris a couple more times before getting out of the service and stopped by the USO on the Champs each time, always getting great hospitality.