Thought I'd weigh in. From posts so far looks like 1964 will be
earlier than Hope encounters mentioned so far. I've attached
coverage from the Triad USMC 3rd Mar Div paper on the show too.
And some of the photos I took.
(PS: I note with interest the paper's reference to the Marines
as "Troops". I don't think it was in your newsletters but I
think in a LinkedIn USMC group a Marine took umbrage at
referring to Marines as troops, maintaining we don't call
ourselves as "troops". Looks like we do.)
In December of 1964 I was sent from Iwakuna based 1st MAW to
Okinawa for some language training (that's the source of a
couple of other stories). The school was held in a small Army
base (the name escapes me at the moment) and we were billeted
there.
It so happens that I ran across a friend from our mutual unit,
2nd Amtracs in Lejeune and he showed me around a bit As luck
would have it on Dec 20th 1964, Bob Hope made a stop in Okinawa
and put on a show at Camp Courtney. There were a lot of Marines
on Okinawa (the Rock) back in those days, and I think about all
of them showed up. I think I was nearby as I don't recall any
great trek to get there I got there early enough to get right up
to the stage, but in the right hand corner so I didn't have a
front view, but it still was pretty good. I'm a keeper, and in
my archive I found a copy of the 3rd MarDiv's newspaper (the
Triad. .Voice of the 3rd Marine Division) which covered the
show. So rather than try and recreate the show from memory I'll
share the Triad's article and photos. Also, I've included some
photos of mine. The only thing to add is I remember Jill St John
stopping in front of me leaning over and shaking my hand and
thanking me for my service.
Photos:
Hope arrival at HQ and moving on to the show
Marines assembling
the Audience close up
Hope of course
Anita Bryant
introducing Jill St John
It was interesting to see that there wasn't much ad lib, and
there was an assistant timing the show, bit by bit.
Don Harkness