"ian maclure" wrote:

Strictly speaking this is, I suppose, off topic, but they also serve who
only stand and deliver one liners.

Strictly *on-topic.* This is another reason I, for one, am tired of
the likes of Art Kramer's constant namecalling and berating anyone on
RAM who wasn't a "combatant." Granted, I have no clue what it's like
to be shot at, but he has no clue what it's like to lay awake at night
listening to your mother weep while the father of her three boys and
newborn girl is flying combat missions over Vietnam in his A-1E.

I was only in the first grade at the time, but I distinctly remember
how Bob Hope's (and Ann Margaret) USO tours brought us and
many others who "weren't there" desperately needed relief from the
near-constant fear and dread that your loved one had been shot
down and killed, or taken prisoner and was being brutally tortured.

Bob Hope died last night.
He had a good run and could fairly be said to have served his
country long and well.

Amen.

-Mike (subject header sez it all) Marron