BOB HOPE USO SHOW
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"Drive On" Troops Journey to Hope |
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| FIREBASE TOMAHAWK
- It isn't as significant as Plato’s allegory of the cave. It isn't as
long as the journey of progress of Bunyan's pilgrims. And it will
probably never gain fame as an exodus. But the story of the faithful
trek of a small group of soldiers from the 101st toward the lights of
Firebase Tomahawk, enroute to Hope, ended with charity.
Though the Yuletide season is past and Bob Hope and his crew have gone, 15 men of Co. A, 2nd Bn. (Ambl.), 501st Inf. will never forget the show. "We know Bob Hope is being thanked by a lot of people, officials and representatives," said SSG Mark Hawk, Lafayette, Ind., “but we just wanted to write to him and let him know that we’ve adopted the motto: ‘We’d walk miles for Hope.’” And they did. “The day before the show, we received the message that we were going,” explained SP4 Wilson Scheirer, Whitehall, Pa. “We weren’t near a landing zone (LZ), so we couldn’t get a ride back to the firebase on a helicopter.” In late afternoon the platoon started the slow three-mile journey through thick jungle across streams, and over mountains. At dusk, they set up a defensive position in a bomb crater. |
With two miles to
go through thick vegetation, and with the fog setting in, limiting
visibility to a few feet, the crew was on the move before dawn.
“So that we could keep track of each other and not get separated, we put shiny-backed leave on every man’s rucksack,” said PFC Mike Nehl, Lemmon, S.D. The luminous-backed leaves grow wild on low shrubbery in the mountains. After hours of chopping and trudging, the men heard the sound of trucks traveling on Highway QL-1, near Firebase Tomahawk. “I called the firebase on the radio,” said SP4 Scheirer, “and told them I could hear them, but couldn’t see them because of the clouds.” Within a few seconds the firebase came to life, truck lights blinking and horns sounding to guide the crew in. The men got front row seats and considered the singing of “Silent Night” as the highlight of the show. “I think we’re all looking forward to calm silent nights, concluded PFC Nehl. Screaming Eagle, Feb 71
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Baseball
great, Johnny Bench, with Bob Hope.