Abstract: Prior to U.S. involvement in WWII, the First Presidency asked Hugh B. Brown to initiate and serve as coordinator of a program that would reinforce the spiritual welfare of the increasing number of Latter-day Saint men entering the military. Brown initially answered the challenge by organizing religious services at training camps along the West Coast because of the large number of Church-member men training there. However, following Pearl Harbor, he expanded the program to 65 training camps in many parts of the country. He also created USO-type facilities in Salt Lake City and San Diego, distributed pocket-size scriptures, wrote faith-strengthening articles, and answered requests for spiritual support from Latter-day Saint servicemen. In 1943, Brown’s program enlarged with the addition of assistant coordinators and became part of the newly formed Servicemen’s Committee chaired by Elder Harold B. Lee. In 1944, Brown was recalled as the British Mission president and left 13 assistants to manage his program through the conclusion of the war. Interviews with veterans who experienced Brown’s program suggest that the pocket-size copies of the Book of Mormon carried everywhere, even in battle, may have been Brown’s most significant contribution to their war-time spiritual maintenance.

It is the army’s job to armor-plate with steel. I have found the kind of armor-plating that is stronger than any metal…What finer gift could a man receive than the armor of the gospel of Jesus Christ? Such a man is prepared to live and be prepared to die.1

[Page 144]Anticipating WWII, Latter-day Saint men began joining the military. In 1940, the United States’ first peacetime military draft was instituted, and additional Latter-day Saint men became servicemen. At that time the Church had no official contact with Latter-day Saint members in training camps.2 To support member servicemen, in early 1941 the First Presidency appointed Hugh B. Brown to be coordinator of servicemen’s Latter-day Saint activities in training camps, and in 1942 Elder Harold B. Lee was appointed chair of an expanded Church Servicemen’s Committee that incorporated Brown’s coordinator program.

The Church History Library has no database for the existence, organization, function, or accomplishments of the Church’s activities with Church servicemen in training for WWII. This article describes and examines Brown’s program to coordinate Latter-day Saint activities at training camps during the war years. Sources for this study include interviews with WWII veterans who experienced some part of Brown’s program, the war-time Improvement Era and Church News, archived reports on WWII military meetings, miscellaneous Hugh B. Brown folders in the Church History Library, and information from several biographies.

Organizing to Support Latter-day Saint Servicemen in Training

With large numbers of Latter-day Saints joining the U.S. military, Church leaders looked for ways to furnish spiritual support for the men while they were in training. Hugh B. Brown was the obvious choice to organize a program because of his military training-camp experience with the Canadian Army during World War I. From 1914 to 1916, Major Brown directed training in Canada and then took troops to England and France. He later returned to Canada, directed more training, and returned to Europe.