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CHRISTMAS TIME IN LAI KHE, 1969

The Bob Hope Road Show, Viet Nam





     With Christmas and U.S. troops committed on foreign soil, Bob Hope's Christmas USO Show
was a natural, yearly event. It was the one thing we all looked forward to, next to our ETS (Esti-
mated Time of Separation) and DEROS (Date of Estimated Rotation Over Seas [HOME!]).
When asked why he went to such remote places, the comedian would shoot back with "Where
there's life there's Hope."  He seems to have spent his whole career trying to prove it.


     Christmas, 1969 was no exception. Bob brought his show to Lai Khe, along with Les Brown
("and his band of renoun"), Connie Stevens (singer and actress; from television's Seventy-
Seven Sunset Strip" and "Wendy and Me"), Theressa Graves, Susan Charney, Neil Armstrong
the first man and first American to walk on the moon,  just a few months earlier that year) and
the Gold Diggers (dancers and singers appearing on many TV shows at the time). I went home a
few days after the Bob Hope USO Show, then watched it, a few  weeks later on the Bob Hope T.V.
Christmas Special. It seemed a bit more like Christmas in Maryland than it did in Lai Khe, with
about a foot of snow on the ground and the temperature in the teens.




     Dubbed America's Ambassador of Goodwill, Bob Hope conducted more than 1,000 USO
shows between the years of 1942 and 1990. He has been given numerous honors by the services
and by various presidents. The VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) has given awards to Mr. Hope
on four occassions, beginning in 1946 and including “honorary veteran”. In fact, comedian Alan
King quipped, "he's got more medals than Congress."


* * * * * * * *
Check out the article about him and his forrays to entertain the troops
across the world and across the decades in the “VFW MAGAZINE”,
the December issue --- 1999, written by Stan Welli 

* * * * * * * *









Song: "I'll Be Home For Christmas"

(If this song doesn't hit a melancholy chord in
your heart, then, well, you just weren't there





     This page is, in a way, a means in saying "thanks for the memories" to one who repeatedly
sacrificed Christmas with family and friends in the comfort and safety of his own home, to bring cheer and encouragement to thousands he didn't know in the middle of a war. So, thanks to Bob Hope and the hundreds who accompanied him throughout the years. This, too, is service to one's country and he did more "tours" in Viet Nam than anybody else!

     The commanding general of Lai Khe Base Camp came onto the stage to thank the troupe of
actors and musicians for the show and to thank us for attending. He informed us that an L. R.
P. (pronounced lerp and stands for Long Range Patrol) team had been out the night before and
had uncovered and destroyed a number of rocket implacemnets. The devices were crude but ef-
fective and were aimed for the area in which the show would be held the next day. So great was
the morale factor the show brought to the GIs that the NVA and the Viet Cong thought it a
threat to be dealt with in such a manner.



Merry Christmas!

And thanks a lot for stopping by
and for sharing the memory.



This page was updated, August, 2003, after the passing of a grand entertainer 
and a great fan of our country, Bob Hope, July, of 2003, at age 100. This page
was originally created for Christmas, 1999, last updated, December 25, 2003.

     This Page and pictures copyright belongs to C. David Coyle


Photo: Sp/5 C. D. Coyle, 1971

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