EDITORIAL AN AMERICAN PATRIOT AFTER NEARLY SIX DECADES, AMERICA'S HERO TO THE HEROES RETIRES.

JOHNNY Grant is a special kind of patriot - dedicated, loyal and funny.

Best known in these parts as the honorary mayor of Hollywood, Grant has a reputation the world over for bringing laughter and joy to American servicemen and -women stationed overseas.

He's been traveling and performing around the globe since he was a GI in 1942, when Bob Hope discovered him and brought him into the United Service Organization.

To this day, he's known as the ``poor man's Bob Hope,'' every bit as generous and kind as his more famous mentor. He's made it his life's work to give back to the men and women who are willing to give it all for their country.

And he does it for free.

As the Daily News' Dennis McCarthy recently reported, after nearly six decades spent traveling and performing with the United Service Organization, Grant is retiring. At 78 - he spent his last birthday with GIs in the trenches of Kosovo - the rigors of military show business have become too much for him.

He's now on his final tour of duty - bringing his routine and his joy to the Army's Second Infantry Division, stationed along the 38th Parallel between North and South Korea.

When he returns home, America's hero to the heroes will be calling it quits.

He will be greatly missed.

There's no shortage of veterans and active-duty military personnel to offer testimonials on his behalf.

There are the Desert Storm vets he honored with a welcome-home parade, the troops in Vietnam to whom he brought a little bit of escapist relief, wounded soldiers he's visited in the hospital.

By boosting morale and bringing comfort to the armed forces, Grant has served his country well. It is patriots like him - ordinary people who do extraordinary things - whom we should remember on this Independence Day.