By Jerome Mapp
With an audience of military officers and enlisted , government leaders and tourists looking on, comedian Bob Hope, 94, was honored by the Congress with the title "Honorary Veteran of the United States Armed Forces" during a October 29 tribute in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. It seemed a fitting moment for the man affectionately known as 'GI Bob', whose brand of patriotism brought entertainment to U.S. troops during four wars and a number of peacekeeping missions for more than half a century.
Hope and his wife Dolores, accompanied by family members and personnel assistants, entered the Rotunda to the U.S. Army Band's version of "Thanks for the Memories." Former House Leader Bob Michel, who emceed the event urged veterans and active duty members to stand and be recognized as the band struck up rousing renditions of each service's hymn.
For nearly an hour, Hope's legacy of boosting troop morale was illustrated in the words and praises of House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Senators Arlen Specter, Trent Lott, Max Cleland, Strom Thurmond, and Congressmen Bob Stump and Lane Evans.-
Retired Marine Corps General Carl E. Mundy, Jr., a former Commandant and now president/CEO of World USO, referred to Hope as "this magnificent soldier in greasepaint" who had a way of bringing a little bit of home to troops in faraway places. Mundy recalled a rain-soaked day in Vietnam 30 years ago when Hope and his tour group brought some of that home feeling and laughter to a Marine Corps firebase.
The award was one of a couple thousand (according to the Guiness Book of World Records) the legendary comedian has received from U.S. presidents, Congress, the military and major veterans organizations during a lifetime of show business that began on the vaudeville stage. The Navy has dedicated the USNS Bob Hope (T-AKR300) - lead ship in a new class of Strategic Sealift vessels - in the comedian's honor.
Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope was born in Eltham, England in 1903, the fifth of seven sons. His English father, William Henry Hope, was a stonemason, and his Welsh mother, Avis Townes Hope, was an aspiring concert singer. In 1907 the Hope family moved to America and settled in Cleveland, Ohio. Thirteen years later, the Hope brothers became U.S. citizens by virtue of their father's naturalization. After graduating from high school, Bob briefly worked as a dance instructor, newspaper reporter and amateur boxer who fought under the name "Packy East." He later performed in a string of Broadway musicals and comedies that eventually led to his first movie role, "The Big Broadcast", in 1938.
Hope began his love affair with the military in May 1941, when he and a several Hollywood performers entertained airmen at March Field in California. "GI Bob's" first foray into a combat zone occurred in 1943 during World War II when he and a small USO troupe performed for battle-weary troops in England, Africa, Sicily and Iceland. In 1948, then Secretary of the Air Force Stuart Symington asked the comedian to put on a Christmas show in Germany for U.S. troops involved in the Berlin Airlift. For nearly forty years thereafter, Hope would spend Christmas entertaining military men and women somewhere in the world.
As he accepted the framed resolution from Senator Thurmond and Speaker Gingrich, Hope waved to the audience and said, "I've traveled all over the world and I've never seen a better audience."
