Singer Jan Daley keeps Bob Hope's legacy alive 50 years after performing with him in USO tour of Vietnam

On this Memorial Day, singer Jan Daley is looking back on the 50th anniversary of performing with Bob Hope in Vietnam on those famous USO Tours.

She's also looking back 75 years to another military moment in her life that still gets to her today, so many years later.

"I think we should never forget Bob Hope and what he brought to the world and brought especially to all the servicemen and women," said Daley.

She witnessed it firsthand, traveling with Hope and the USO all over Vietnam.

Hope did 57 USO tours over 50 years. He always had Daley end their holiday shows in Vietnam with one particular Christmas song, "Silent Night."

Daley said that was Hope's idea because he knew the troops would sing along with her.

"When they joined in," she said, "it meant even more and it took that moment that it wasn't a sad thing. They were home at that moment."

At this moment, Daley, who's 75 now, is still taking the stage. She's also still enjoying a recent No. 1 album on the "Billboard" charts.

"It's never too late," Daley said, "Even though the odds are completely against you. I mean, who would think I would ever get a No. 1 jazz album? I didn't even know I was a jazz singer until they told me!"

Daley will be back on stage after the coronavirus pandemic.

Some of her songs will always have our military in mind. There's a special reason for that. Her father was an Air Force pilot "who didn't come back from the war."

The two actually never met because he was killed two months after she was born, 75 years ago last week.

Daley still gets emotional looking back. In fact, there is one story she hasn't shared yet, only giving us a glimpse. After 9/11, she was going through a box of her parents' belongings when she found an item that took things full circle.

"There was something that I pulled out that connected Bob Hope to my dad," she said tearfully.

That "something" is a story she says she will share another time.