Ursula Andress was "hot" as the stereotype goes, but the hottest blonde girl of all time has to be Ann Margaret. She toured with USO nineteen straight months, planned most of the shows, and took the lead with the other girls. Most of the girls came and went because that was no picnic. Note also that Ann Margaret is married to a disabled man and is utterly loyal to him. That is why he gave her his blessing to do the USO shows.
No one drafted the USO troupe. They came on their own, bought airline tickets to civilized dropoff points, and then traveled by C-130s to the southeast corner of northwest hell. That's Quang Tri.
Ann Margaret isn't the hottest woman on the planet for the reason you might presume. Bullets fell like rain, 105 degrees and 95% humidity. They did three shows for Second Marines 2-Corps. We had to guard the show, the firebase 1.3 klicks past the arena had to keep operating, and the third team got to watch the show or go to sleep for our 3 hours a day. I watched the third show.
One guy said that the October jungle heat must have gotten to the girls because they were sweating so much. There were nine onstage, not just Ann Margaret. Another guy said that they must have gotten bugs in their clothes, because they kept taking them off -- down to nothing. Ann led the way.
I couldn't help but notice that the show was only halfway through, and the girls never put their clothes back on.
You might call it immoral. But the sight of that many utterly goegeous completely naked women gave our morale a boost that got us through the next twelve firefights. None of us would have survived any other way. They did their job. They did it magnificently.
Immoral? Hardly. Bob Hope called himself a coward -- as he put on show after show inside hostile fire zones. That cowardly playboy had more grit than a sandpaper factory. So do the USO girls today.
Any young woman with that much brass has my undying admiration.
