THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES CHAPEL'S NEW NAME WILL HONOR BOB HOPE.

Read the letters from the GIs and you understand why this honor Bob Hope is receiving on his 99th birthday Wednesday had to happen.

Why it was fated that a small veterans chapel at Los Angeles National Cemetery, where 85,000 veterans are buried, had to be named after their best friend.

It couldn't be any other way.

It's the final chapter in a love story that's spanned 60 years, and is the heart and soul of what Memorial Day is all about.

A love story about a young comedian with a ski slope nose and sharp wit who helped young GIs fighting in far-off lands forget their fears and loneliness for a few hours, and laugh again.

Now they're back together, in spirit - the comic and his GIs - in the Bob Hope Veterans Chapel, where families come to pay their final respects and celebrate the lives of the men and women who served this country.

``Dear Mr. Hope: I'll never forget the thoughts that ran through my mind when you walked out on that thrown together stage on the dusty field near the airport in Algiers.

``I could see our living room at home, and my mother sitting by the radio laughing at one of your gags. For a few seconds, I was back home and that did me more good than anyone will ever know.''

``Dear Bob: Every Tuesday night at 9 p.m. the barracks are filled with laughing. You mean more to us than being able to go through the chow line twice.''

``Dear Mom and Dad: I'm trying to get all my letter writing out of the way before supper so we can hustle right down to the station theater. Bob Hope is visiting us tonight. There'll be two shows so we have hopes of seeing one of them. If there was only one, we wouldn't have a prayer.''

``Dear Bob: What a real boost those laughs are to all of us over here. You've made more friends than any man can ever hope to make, and, better still, you'll keep them.''

``Dear Mr. Hope: The fighting is over for most of us, but for the thousands who are still fighting their greatest battles from hospital beds and convalescent centers you are still doing what medicine cannot do to speed their recovery.''

``Dear Bob: A sailor laughed so hard during your show at the Canteen Thanksgiving afternoon that he split his pants. I know, I'm the girl who sewed it back.''

``Dear Bob: It was here in a hospital ward that men, who had casts all over their bodies, laughed and roared after each joke. Then, silence, as though it was a chapel. They had eager looks written all over their faces, waiting for your voice to make them laugh, again.''

There are thousands of similar letters written to Hope that stretch across six decades of GIs who just wanted to say thank you.

``These letters mean more to Bob than all the awards, accolades and honors he's received,'' says his friend and personal assistant of 30 years, Ward Grant.

Hope said as much himself in 1997 upon receiving the title of ``Honorary Veteran'' from Congress.

``I've been given many awards in my lifetime, but to be numbered among the men and women I admire most is the greatest honor I have ever received,'' Hope said.

Grant offers some added insights to that point. ``Bob never traveled with an entourage; it was just the two of us for a long time.

``When we'd get to the airport our standard procedure was to keep moving and not stop because we'd never make it to the plane on time with all the people who recognized him.

``Bob would keep moving until he saw a veteran in uniform,'' Grant said. ``Then he'd stop to shake his hand and talk. He couldn't help himself. He just loves them.''

And the letters say the feeling is mutual. As the young GI said, Bob Hope has made more friends than any man can ever hope to make, and better still, he's kept them.

``Naming this veterans chapel after my dad means so much to him because it's yet another symbol of the bond between our country, the men and women who fought to preserve it, and dad, who loves them both,'' Linda Hope said Friday.

So, on one more Memorial Day weekend, and only a few eves from his 99th birthday, the veterans of this country want to say thank you and Happy Birthday one more time to the man who replaced fear and loneliness with laughs for a few golden hours.

As Bill Livingston, director of the 114-acre Los Angeles National Cemetery, put it Friday, ``It's an honor to have Bob Hope's name on a chapel that was built to honor all vets.''

The comic and his GI pals back together again for the final chapter of a beautiful love story.

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 2) On Wednesday, his 99th birthday, the veterans chapel at Los Angeles National Cemetery is being renamed in honor of comedian Bob Hope, who performed countless shows for GIs during World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and Operation Desert Storm.

(3) no caption (Bob Hope)