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‘You knew some weren’t coming back’

AMY M. FERRARA | FLORIDA CATHOLIC STAFF

Published: 11.09.07

Although nearly every wall in his house is decorated with military awards and photos, retired Air Force Col. Bob Gates’ WWII memories begin with his best friend, Bob Hope.
AMY M. FERRARA | FC

FORT WALTON BEACH | Although nearly every wall in his house is decorated with military awards and photos, retired Air Force Col. Bob Gates’ WWII memories begin with his best friend, Bob Hope.

“He gave me the nickname ‘Growing Pains’ when I flew him for the USO tour,” Gates said. It was 1942 when, as an aviation cadet, he took the famous comedic actor around to the Alaskan and Pacific theaters. “He looked at me and said, ‘How old are you, son?’” Gates remembered. When Gates told him he was 22, Hope said, “You’ve still got growing pains.” Over the next 61 years, the two men shared a close friendship.

“I was his best friend.” From his chair, Gates touched his hand to his forehead. “I talk to him every night.”

Even without hearing the stories, it’s easy for any visitor to see how inseparable the two men were. On one hallway wall and rounding the corner of another, there is a montage of black-and-white and color photographs, most of them of Gates and Hope. Interspersed in these pictures are photos of Gates with other celebrities, whom he flew during WWII.

“I guess the military figured anyone who can fly Bob Hope and keep him happy can fly the rest of them.”

But Gates’ pilot experience included more than flying celebrities during the war. In fact, he flew the plane that dropped the first parachuters in the Battle of Normandy. Then in 1968, after living in six or seven states and various countries, including Vietnam, he became Hurlburt Field’s 1st Special Operations wing commander.

“I’d love to start over and do it all again,” he said without hesitation.

It would be quite a feat for the 89-year-old military retiree who also served as the Fort Walton Beach mayor from 1979 to 1983. In the past 11 months, he has battled MRSA, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, in one of his legs, which caused a five-month hospital stay.

“I learned one thing: patience. I never had that before.”

He is home now and grateful that four of his five children live in the area. One day a week, Deacon Charlie Wolf of St. Mary Parish also visits to bring him Communion. Though he was born a Methodist, Gates’ first wife was Catholic. After she died in childbirth with their third child, Gates married another Catholic.

“I finally gave up and joined them.” He smiled.

It was another thing he shared with his friend. Hope’s wife, Dolores, was Catholic, and three years before he died at age 100, Hope also joined the church and became a regular communicant.

During the war, Gates said it was easy for him to maintain his Christian faith. “You know the saying, ‘There’s no atheist in a foxhole’? Well the same applies to a pilot compartment. There’s no atheist in a pilot’s compartment when getting shot at either.”

There were many chaplains in the military, he continued, who held prayer sessions. Devout is how Gates described the services.

“You knew some weren’t coming back,” he said.

But Gates did, and the walls of awards in his house reflect his passion to fly away and the skills that helped him return time after time to his family. And to his friend, Bob.

This year, the 705th Training Squadron at Hurlburt Field nominated Gates for the 2007 Spirit of Hope award because of his work on behalf of the USO. He received the award at the Bob Gates Visitor Center of the Bob Hope Enlisted Widows Village and Theresa Village, which Bob and Dolores Hope built. Appropriately, the honor is named for his best friend.

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