Recreation Building

Recreation Building. Lewistown Satellite Airfield Historic District. Essential for maintaining morality and morale, the Recreation Building was one of the busiest spots on base. A host of activities provided wholesome entertainment to occupy the airmen's off-duty hours. Events included amateur nights on Mondays, movies on Tuesdays and Thursdays, dances on Wednesdays, boxing on Fridays, and religious services and sing-alongs on Sundays. Saturday dances, held downtown at the Civic Center, and regularly scheduled athletic competitions between the airmen and local high school teams filled out a recreational schedule designed to keep the men busy and out of trouble. Lewistown families, many of whom had sons serving overseas, embraced the young airmen and answered the Air Force's call for donations to furnish the Recreation Building's ""clubroom."" Young women of certified good moral character, escorted by senior USO chaperones, rode buses to the base on Wednesdays for the dances. Elsewhere known as ""Victory Belles,"" in Lewistown these patriotic dance partners dubbed themselves the ""bomba-dears."" Far from home, anticipating deployment into grave danger, and eager for distraction, the airmen welcomed such tangible signs of the community's support and goodwill.