An officers' club, known within the military as an O club, is an establishment similar to a gentlemen's club for commissioned officers of the armed forces. Few officers' clubs have survived the end of the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

Origins

Officers' clubs are an artifact of the

feudalism Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was a combination of legal, economic, military, cultural, and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe from the 9th to 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of struc ...

recognizing officers from the aristocratic European landowners as different from the peasants they commanded in military campaigns. Enlisted personnel recruited or inducted into military service remained ineligible for the privileges enjoyed by their officers while commissions awarded to graduates of officer training programs replaced commissions once given by royalty to the sons of their

vassal A vassal or liege subject is a person regarded as having a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch, in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. While the subordinate party is called a vassal, the dominant party is called a suzerain ...

s. This social distance was maintained to prevent officers from perceiving their enlisted personnel as friends. Warfare requires expenditure of lives, and officers responsible for ordering enlisted personnel into high-risk situations find it easier to risk lives they don't recognize as friends.

20th-century

Maintaining the separation between officers and enlisted personnel is difficult in the remote places where military bases are built and battles are fought. There are few commercial recreational opportunities, and the financial resources of a few officers cannot match income possibilities these businesses realize from the larger number of enlisted personnel ready to pay for food, drinks, and sexual companionship. So the base facilities would include an officers' club where officers might relax in isolation from their enlisted personnel, and where intoxication might encourage tolerance for deviation from the customary deference of conversations between senior and subordinate officers.

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic b ...

was a bleak time for officers' clubs in the United States. A bar was the essential element of most officers' clubs. Some served meals as an alternative to the rigid schedule and customs of the mess, and a few clubs on the larger bases hired musical entertainment during their busier hours. Most officers' clubs paid operating expenses from the sale of

alcoholic drink Drinks containing alcohol (drug), alcohol are typically divided into three classes—beers, wines, and Distilled beverage, spirits—with alcohol content typically between 3% and 50%. Drinks with less than 0.5% are sometimes considered Non-al ...

s. The most important part of their operating schedule were the happy hours beginning when the base work day ended. The end of Prohibition restored normalcy to US officers' clubs, and was especially important on naval bases because the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

continued to prohibit alcoholic beverages aboard ships. Unlike officers of the other armed services, officers living aboard ship could not drink in their quarters while off-duty. The best days of the officers' clubs began as mobilization for

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

funded construction of bases with officers' clubs sustained for half a century by military staffing levels maintained through the Cold War. These bases often included separate enlisted clubs, but the officers' club was usually built in the location with the best view and air circulation distant from noise, odors, dust or mud, while the preferred social distance often put the enlisted club in a significantly different location. The protected environment of an officers' club offered refuge from public disapproval of the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

; so drinking at the officers' club became a preferred off-duty social activity for career officers.

Decline

The civil rights movements focused on the perceived inequalities preserving that refuge, and the Tailhook Scandal of 1991 brought public attention to the problem of

alcoholism Alcoholism is the continued drinking of alcohol despite it causing problems. Some definitions require evidence of dependence and withdrawal. Problematic use of alcohol has been mentioned in the earliest historical records. The World He ...

within the military while

dissolution of the Soviet Union The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Declaration No. 142-Н of ...

encouraged reduced military spending. United States military policy changes in response to political criticism included discouraging alcohol consumption and opening the officers' clubs to enlisted personnel. Many officers' clubs closed as they became unable to compete with civilian restaurants after a sharp decline in revenue from alcoholic drink sales.

Sources

{{Drinking establishments * Clubhouses Officers' clubs Drinking establishments