HOUSES OF ILL REPUTE

When we arrived in Tlemcen, Algeria, we were the only troops in this town for several months. There was not even a military police detachment, just the local French civilian police. Fortunately, our unit had a well behaved group of enlisted men and the officers were not a problem either. However, it did not take long for our troops to find out that there were three houses of prostitution in town. One was called "The La Belle" staffed by Arabs, and another "The La Favorite" run by the French. I do not recall the name of the third.

Of course, I never was one of their customers, because in basic training we were bombarded with all kinds of lectures and movies about the consequences of infection with venereal disease, and this farm boy was a good listener. Also, by the time we were operating in Tlemcen, my co-workers became my friends and we were like a family. I was dating some of the nurses and had very friendly relationships with many of the officers and enlisted men. I was not about to ruin my health and damage my reputation by doing something foolish. However, some of our boys threw caution to the winds and became customers on a regular basis.

 As an enlisted man, I had to take my turn as CQ (Charge of Quarters) at our enlisted men's hotel. This required that I check passes, and keep a record of those who were out for the evening.  If someone was missing at 10 o'clock bed check, the CQ was to report this to the 1^st/Sergeant. I hesitated to do this because it would have meant extra duty and other punishments for the guilty party. One night when the Officer of the Day came by, I had to tell him we were missing three of our men. He thought they might be at "The Favorite". He and I went there and found our men in the downstairs bar talking to a very pretty bleached blond who was known as "Daisy Mae", after the cartoon character in the "Lil Abner" comic strip. The OD had a 45 caliber pistol in a holster strapped to his side and did not have to say much to get our men to come home with us.

The "Favorite" had a nice rustic look. It had a bar on the ground floor with a small dance floor, and a stairway to the second floor where there was a balcony with a railing.  Looking up, you could see men coming and going from the rooms with the girls.  The place looked like a barroom in a western movie. The madam sat at the cash register with her poodle. Our men told the story that the madam also had a set of buttons which were wired to the rooms, and if a customer was staying too long she hit the button and a loud bell would ring in the room and  the man would have to leave.

Daisy Mae made friends with some of our enlisted men. Our troops had the run of the town until the war in Tunisia was over. Then many combat men were gathered in our area to get ready for the invasion of Sicily and Italy. That is when all hell broke loose in our town. Military police had to take over law enforcement and our hospital set up a "pro station" to treat troops who were in the areas of the "houses". If any men were caught within the boundaries of these houses they got the "treatment" before they could proceed out of the area. Our troops stuck close to quarters, because these war weary men were not happy with the medics. When we arrived in Naples in December, 1943, Daisy was at the dock when we landed.  How she made it from North Africa to Naples is anyone's guess.

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