Part 1
Thanks For the Memories, Bob
Nothing brings one down memory lane, like listening to the master of memories, Bob Hope sing the one song he was famous for, Thanks for the Memories.
Bob Hope, a Hollywood Democrat (of a time when the party was at least understood), went wherever the American Forces were engaged in the heat of battle.
With a number of uncles having served and being wounded, of course, I am proud of our Canadian World War II, Korean, and volunteer Viet Nam vets, who played their greatest historical role in World War II, critically aiding in staying off the conquering German Allies.
while awaiting the full American entry.
However, I would be a proud ‘ignoramus’ if I didn’t believe it was the Americans that ultimately kept the free world free from Nazi fascists, Imperialists, Communists and even today, from fundamentalist, or ‘by the book’ Islamists.
(Unfortunately, Marxist socialists don’t have armies, but do understand the failings of the human condition including desired government control, greed and sloth and conquer societies and liberal parties in easy, if subversive ways).
One can always get a kick out of viewing Bob Hope’s military tours and the spark he always ignited in the young brash and brave good young men and women who were right to know their cause was just and honourable in saving life and liberty of the thousands of civilians who did not want to be subservient to the violent and vicious communists and Nazis of the times.
The same, innocent citizens and free wannabe, who risked their lives leaving their homelands when the American political establishment failed them, as they fail Cubans who risk and risked their lives to leave their homeland, conquered by communists.
What other great army can we say the same of... for at least putting up a fight to the communists, and defending life and liberty?
There was plenty of sentimental, home sickness, and love forlorn, that Hope’s celebrity troupe drew out of the men, after he administered the best medicine for us all, laughter, and joy, in the face of dire work to be done where good and evil clash, but two things that were never apparent were fear or despair as cameras panned the thousands of personnel at each stop.
When one thinks of the joy, laughter, sentimentality, and deep appreciation Hope went through at each stop, secured or dangerous, as he encountered America’s young brave sons and daughters, one understands why he did it so often and must have enjoyed more than with any ‘home’ audience, he encountered. If it wasn’t for the hard work and dangers Bob’s crew had to endure, who wouldn’t be envious of his work and joy?
Of course, there were good natured digs at the military leadership and the political leadership...often hilarious, but there was never undermining of the troops efforts and mission, so common today, nor was there a serious effort on Bob’s part to divide the Country back-home using the troops as a disposable tool to a political fortune.
What a difference today? Liberals are even more emboldened as to call military personnel stupid individuals for even joining the military, and the military (with in fact, higher levels of education available to them) for their part, are even more eager and courageous to win the battles for the U.S. and the free world, (defacto dwindling as it is).
May God Bless these men and women of today with a speedy decisive victory against the terrorists undivided or undermined by cowardly socialist political correctness, and self-opportunistic politicians and ‘entertainment celebrities’ of modern day.
Paul Gordon
Pickering Ont.
Canada