WE SAT IN THE MUD TRANSFIXED.(MAIN)

Byline: JOSEPH B. FRAZIER Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore. -- The echo was awful and it was dumping down rain high -- real high -- on a slippery hillside outside Danang. From where we sat the stage seemed about the size of a playing card, but none of it mattered.

``We got a 21-gun salute when we flew in here,'' Bob Hope quipped. ``I think 10 of them were ours.''

The joke probably went back a war or two. That didn't matter either.

If I ever knew who the ladies at his side were; I have forgotten. I'm sure they were lovely. A friend who got much closer than we did assured us later that they were.

This was about November 1968, fairly …