TROUPER'S FAREWELL GRANT GIVES FINAL SALUTE TO OVERSEAS GIS.

Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY 

HOLLYWOOD - The ``poor man's'' Bob Hope grabs a suitcase out of his closet and starts packing for another trip overseas to entertain American troops - his 55th and final USO tour.

Most of the country knows him from television as the honorary mayor of Hollywood - the smiling, laughing, familiar face always standing or kneeling next to famous personalities when they get their star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame.

But to the men and women who have served in the armed forces of this country overseas since World War II, Johnny Grant is simply a buddy - the guy who brought some laughs to them in faraway places and never forgot them.

Grant was a 19-year-old Army sergeant with a quick sense of humor back in 1942 when Bob Hope spotted him at a United Service Organization show and took him under his wing.

``I set Johnny off on a long career of USO overseas tours, and some of the press started referring to him as the `poor man's Bob Hope,' Hope said in a 1955 interview.

``He's done so well that on my last trip to the Far East, they started referring to me as the `rich man's Johnny Grant,''' the comedian quipped.

On Friday, the rich man's Johnny Grant paid his old friend, the poor man's Bob Hope, another tribute.

``Wherever our troops were, Johnny was there bringing laughs and a bit of home,'' Hope said from his home in Toluca Lake.

``I'm sure our guys and gals overseas will miss him. Dolores and I wish our old friend well as he unpacks his suitcase for the last time.''

It's a bittersweet trip, Grant says, this last 14-hour flight he's leaving on today to entertain the Second Infantry Division troops on the 38th Parallel between North and South Korea.

He doesn't want to retire from making these USO overseas tours, but at 78 he's slowing down some, and the long flights and visits have just become too physically grueling.

He knows it's the end of an era, and that worries him. Because when Hope retired, the USO still had a committed Johnny Grant to count on.

When Grant retires, though, there is no one in Hollywood waiting in the wings committed enough to make these annual overseas tours with some beautiful starlets to visit the troops.

``Johnny's dedicated his life to doing this, and didn't get paid a dime,'' said Mike Teilman, who was a major in Vietnam the first time he met Grant in 1962.

``He didn't have a big NBC show paying him millions of dollars. He did these tours strictly from the heart, and all the GIs he visited knew that,'' added Teilman, who is now a general in the National Guard Reserve and active in the USO.

``There's no one out there stepping in to fill the breach,'' he said.

Teilman points to an old, olive drab peach can Grant proudly displays in his penthouse apartment in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, where he has lived for nine years after moving from Toluca Lake.

Grant doesn't display the two Emmys he won for his television specials over the years, but he does prominently display this old peach can.

It was given to him by the Marines in Beirut with an apology because the guys felt bad they didn't have anything nicer to give this trouper who had come thousands of miles from Hollywood to visit them.

Scratched on the side of the peach can are the words, ``To Johnny Grant with love, from the U.S. Marines - Beirut, 1982.''

Last year, Grant spent his 78th birthday with some GIs in the trenches of Kosovo.

And at home, on den walls covered with plaques and accolades from presidents and generals, the one that means the most to him comes from a private first class.

``You did as much good in Korea as us guys with the rifles,'' wrote Pfc. Leland Sipes, a Korean War amputee.

That tells you all you need to know about the heart and dedication of this man, says Teilman and retired four-star Army General John Tilelli, who is now president of World USO.

``For years, Johnny Grant has been the GI's best friend, the primary person to keep the Hollywood community connected with our troops,'' Tilelli said.

``Personally, I hope he doesn't retire. It would mean one less voice of support for our men and women in uniform.''

Sometimes he can't remember what he had for lunch yesterday, Johnny says, laughing, but he can remember a young GI's face from Korea 50 years ago.

He can remember the kid lying in a hospital bed apologizing to a visiting general for letting him down.

``He said he'd be up and fighting again soon,'' Johnny said. ``The general and I just looked at each other and blinked back tears. The kid had lost both legs.''

He can't remember who got the last star on Hollywood Boulevard, but he can remember asking a young female soldier in Saudi Arabia in `91 who she would like to see come over to visit.

``I thought she'd say someone like Tom Cruise, but she said her year-old baby she had to leave back home,'' Johnny said. ``That got to me.''

He can't remember the last movie he saw, but he can remember the owner of a used military equipment rental shop telling him it wouldn't cost Johnny a dime to rent all the equipment he needed for a special Hollywood parade he was organizing for our returning Desert Storm troops.

You want to know why? the guy asked. His son had been a Marine in Vietnam, and he and his wife hadn't heard from the kid in awhile and were getting worried.

Things were getting kind of tense at home between him and his wife, the man said. Then one night the phone rang.

``It was you,'' the guy told Johnny. ``You said you had just seen our son in Vietnam, and he was well but very busy. You said he wanted us to know he was thinking of us.''

It was the best phone call he had ever received, the man said, so you take whatever you need for your parade. And put away your wallet.

And Johnny can remember as clear as day the Vietnam vets being invited to march in the Desert Storm parade because it had never sat right with him that the `Nam guys never had a welcome home parade of their own although they sure as hell deserved it.

He can remember one of the Vietnam vets yelling out to him, ``Johnny, you did something three presidents of the United States couldn't do. You gave me back my respect.''

But of all the things he remembers most, the one thing he just may miss the most is the applause and laughter coming back at him on stage from more than a million GIs over the years who wanted nothing more than for the people back home to remember them, Johnny says.

Hope knew what it was like. So did Martha Raye, Debbie Reynolds, Ann-Margret, Patricia Neal, Connie Stevens, Jane Russell, Angie Dickinson, and a whole generation of stars not too busy to pack a suitcase and fly across the world to say thank you in person.

And now the last guy still doing that is retiring, and no one is waiting in the wings to replace him.

``It's a damn shame,'' says the poor man's Bob Hope, catching his last plane to Korea.

CAPTION(S):

5 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Veteran entertainer, and buddy to American troops overseas, Johnny Grant packs for his final USO tour, leaving today.

Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer

(2) Johnny Grant and Bob Hope with soldiers in Beirut at Christmastime 1983, with Hope wearing some of the local headgear. Hope no longer makes the tours, and Grant is making his final trip.

(3) A young Johnny Grant, still in uniform during a recruiting trip in 1944, cracks jokes as funnyman Bob Hope, a pair of WAC recruiters and announcer Del Sharbutt, left, critique.

(4) In 1966 outside Da Nang, South Vietnam, Grant and Marine Lt. Gen. Lew Walt buddied up with a bunch of local youngsters.

(5) Grant, at the microphone, jokes with troops outside Da Nang, Vietnam, in 1970, as entertainer Bob Hope stands by.