Historic Photo Found: Bob Hope In Casper In1942

So Bob Hope was in the Casper Wyoming area in 1942?

Here is photo & video proof of it.

Well, that makes sense. WWII was on and Bob was touring and entertaining the troops.

The Army had built an airport to train pilots in everything from fighters to bombers.

Even Chuck Yeager trained at that airport.

This photo was recently uncovered at the Natrona County Airport archives.

I edited it down so you could see Bob Hope.

Here is the uncut photo.

From the Casper Natrona County Airport:

Going through some old photos and came across this one. This is a photo of Bob Hope taken at the Casper Army Air Base's Officer's Club on December 16, 1942. Mr. Hope is signing something for Mrs. Mary Haigler (Dr. Haigler's wife). She's identified in picture as "Helen Rian" but it is in fact Mrs. Haigler. We have no idea who the other woman is, but she is possibly the wife of another base officer. Jerry Colonna (the man with the mustache on the left of the women) is the other celebrity in the picture. Colonna was Mr. Hope's sidekick and partner for many years. His mustache was part of his trademark appearance.

Thank you to the Wyoming Veterans Museum staff for the history of this photo.

The Wyoming Veterans Museum is located at the airport and is open to the public on scheduled days.

Bob Hope would pay a visit again to Casper Wyoming in the mid 80s.

In this video Mr. Hope remembers being in Casper/Nartona back when "they had a B-17 base here."

The video starts silent, but then audio kicks in. In the video Mr. Hope thinks he was here in 1944.

OH WOW - is that an escalator in the background at the airport? Wyoming has never had many of those. There isn't one there now.

The base trained B-17 and B-24 combat crews during the Second World War. Between 16,000 and 18,000 trainees passed through Casper before seeing service overseas. After the war, CAAB transformed into the modern Casper/Natrona County International Airport and served as a regional Air National Guard base. (Wyoming Veterans Museum).

The airport is now used for commercial and private aviation, as well as emergency and fire fighting.

Much of the old parts of the base can still be seen if you drive or walk around the area.