Thanks to Bob, our troops never lost hope

Today's crumb, contributed by a reader in Long Beach, CA, USA, is a touching 10-minute video about Bob Hope. Married to Dolores DeFina Hope for 69 years, he was 100 when he died in 2003. Six years earlier, the U.S. Congress passed an act declaring him an honorary veteran of the Armed Forces. Why? Because he headlined 57 tours over half-a-century, lifting the spirits of U.S. troops in combat. He called honorary veteran "the greatest honor I have ever received."

                                                                                                                                       Courtesy Photo

Of Hope's troop visits during WWII, John Steinbeck, serving as a war correspondent, wrote in 1943, "This man drives himself and is driven. It is impossible to see how he can do so much, can cover so much ground, can work so hard, and can be so effective. He works month after month at a pace that would kill most people." Years later in 1970, after Hope's annual Christmas visit to Vietnam, one Marine wrote home to his wife, "The waiting was well worth the effort. His show was absolutely great, but it was the last song that really got to you." To be reminded why our troops never lost Hope, and to hear his famous "last song," visit  www.youtube.com/watch?t=157&v=ppA4qYF7ARo