Mainers hold fond memories of Hope Local veterans recount how comedian’s USO stints raised troop morale

BANGOR – Wedged among thousands of U.S. troops on a Czechoslovakian hillside in July 1945, 19-year-old Norm Rossignol of the U.S. Army had a prime patch of ground to watch the shows by USO legend Bob Hope.

Nearly 60 years later, Rossignol still beams about the comedian’s two-hour show as if the grass were still under foot.

“It was quite a morale-booster,” Rossignol said Monday. “He put on a show that was unreal.”

Like other veterans around the state who took in one of Hope’s countless foreign performances, the Brewer resident felt a heavy loss Monday after learning of the comic’s death at age 100.

“I doubt there’ll ever be another one like him,” Rossignol said. “That’s one of a kind right there.”

Remembered by military fans for his quick wit and his preference for poking fun at generals and other top brass, Hope had a way of sending energy through the room, according to Dick Gifford, an Army veteran who saw two of Hope’s foreign shows in his 28 years of service.

In 1959 in Berlin, Germany, the Brewer man watched a few hundred troops in an auditorium-sized hall erupt in hollers and screams when they caught sight of him.

“He didn’t have to say anything,” Gifford said. “Every time he walked onstage he got a standing ovation.”

After the excitement of that day subsided, it was Hope’s dedication that stuck with Gifford. Whether on a base, in the jungle or on a ship in the middle of the ocean, Hope would find a way to put on a show, Gifford said.

“Not everybody will do things like that,” Gifford said. “Some people do things to get noted, but he did it from the goodness of his heart.”

The first and only nonveteran to be given veteran status by the federal government, Hope received similar recognition in Maine this past Memorial Day. Hope was the only nonveteran to receive one of 1,800 maple walking sticks from a program started by World War II veteran Galen Cole, who saw Hope in his only Bangor appearance in 1978.

Engraved with the words “Maine World War II Veteran” on the enlarged knob, the walking stick was accented with red, white and blue reflective bands.

While Cole never spoke to the comedian personally, Hope’s son Kelly said the gift brought a smile to the 100-year-old’s face when it arrived at his California home.

“He was a true American,” Cole said. “The world needs more patriots of his caliber.”