Granted I’m an old fart, but the movies and the movie stars were conservatives, proud of America, and many of them had fought and bled for America both in WWII and Korea…
Sterling Hayden, US Marines and OSS. Smuggled guns into Yugoslavia and parachuted into Croatia .
James Stewart, US Army Air Corps. Bomber pilot who rose to the rank of General.
Ernest Borgnine, US Navy. Gunners Mate 1c, destroyer USS Lamberton.
Ed McMahon, US Marines. Fighter Pilot. (Flew OE-1 Bird Dogs overKorea as well.)
Telly Savalas, US Army.
Walter Matthau, US Army Air Corps., B-24 Radioman/Gunner and cryptographer.
Steve Forrest, US Army. Wounded,Battle of the Bulge.
Jonathan Winters, USMC. Battleship USS Wisconsin and Carrier USS Bon Homme Richard. Anti-aircraft gunner,Battle of Okinawa .
Paul Newman, US Navy Rear seat gunner/radioman, torpedo bombers of USS Bunker Hill .
Kirk Douglas, US Navy. Sub-chaser in the Pacific. Wounded in action and medically discharged.
Robert Mitchum, US Army.
Dale Robertson, US Army. Tank Commander in North Africa under Patton. Wounded twice Battlefield Commission.
Henry Fonda, US Navy. Destroyer USS Satterlee.
John Carroll, US Army Air Corps. Pilot in North Africa. Broke his back in a crash.
Lee Marvin US Marines. Sniper. Wounded in action on Saipan. Buried in Arlington National Cemetery , Sec. 7A next to Greg Boyington and Joe Louis.
Art Carney, US Army. Wounded on Normandy beach, D-Day. Limped for the rest of his life.
Wayne Morris, US Navy fighter pilot, USS Essex. Downed seven Japanese fighters.
Rod Steiger, US Navy. Was aboard one of the ships that launched the Doolittle Raid.
Tony Curtis, US Navy. Sub tender USS Proteus. In Tokyo Bay for the surrender of Japan .
Larry Storch. US Navy. Sub tender USS Proteus with Tony Curtis.
Forrest Tucker, US Army. Enlisted as a private, rose to Lieutenant.
Robert Montgomery, US Navy.
George Kennedy, US Army. Enlisted after Pearl Harbor , stayed in sixteen years.
Mickey Rooney, US Army under Patton. Bronze Star.
Denver Pyle, US Navy. Wounded in the Battle of Guadalcanal. Medically discharged.
Burgess Meredith, US Army Air Corps.
DeForest Kelley, US Army Air Corps.
Robert Stack, US Navy. Gunnery Officer.
Neville Brand, US Army, Europe. Was awarded the Silver Star and Purple Heart.
Tyrone Power, US Marines. Transport pilot in the Pacific Theater.
Charlton Heston, US Army Air Corps. Radio operator and aerial gunner on a B-25, Aleutians .
Danny Aiello, US Army. Lied about his age to enlist at 16. Served three years.
James Arness, US Army. As an infantryman, he was severely wounded at Anzio, Italy.
Efram Zimbalist, Jr., US Army. Purple Heart for a severe wound received at Huertgen Forest .
Mickey Spillane, US Army Air Corps, Fighter Pilot and later Instructor Pilot.
Rod Serling. US Army. 11th Airborne Division in the Pacific. He jumped at Tagaytay in the Philippines and was later wounded in Manila.
Gene Autry, US Army Air Corps. Crewman on transports that ferried supplies over “The Hump” in the China-Burma-India Theater.
William Holden, US Army Air Corps.
Alan Hale Jr, US Coast Guard.
Russell Johnson, US Army Air Corps. B-24 crewman who was awarded Purple Heart when his aircraft was shot down by the Japanese in thePhilippines .
William Conrad, US Army Air Corps. Fighter Pilot.
Jack Klugman, US Army.
Frank Sutton, US Army. Took part in 14 assault landings, including Leyte, Luzon, Bataan and Corregidor .
Jackie Coogan, US Army Air Corps. Volunteered for gliders and flew troops and materials into Burma behind enemy lines.
Tom Bosley, US Navy.
Claude Akins, US Army. Signal Corps.,Burma and the Philippines .
Chuck Connors, US Army. Tank-warfare instructor.
Harry Carey Jr., US Navy.
Mel Brooks, US Army. Combat Engineer Saw action in the Battle of the Bulge
Robert Altman, US Army Air Corps. B-24 Co-Pilot.
Pat Hingle, US Navy. Destroyer USS Marshall
Fred Gwynne, US Navy. Radioman.
Karl Malden, US Army Air Corps. 8th Air Force, NCO.
Earl Holliman, US Navy. Lied about his age to enlist. Discharged after a year when they Navy found out.
Rock Hudson, US Navy. Aircraft mechanic, the Philippines .
Harvey Korman, US Navy.
Aldo Ray. US Navy. UDT frogman,Okinawa .
Don Knotts, US Army, Pacific Theater.
Don Rickles, US Navy aboard USS Cyrene.
Harry Dean Stanton, US Navy Served aboard an LST in the Battle of Okinawa.
Soupy Sales, US Navy. Served on USS Randall in the South Pacific.
Lee Van Cleef, US Navy. Served aboard a sub chaser then a mine sweeper.
Clifton James, US Army, South Pacific. Was awarded the Silver Star, Bronze Star, and Purple Heart.
Ted Knight, US Army, Combat Engineers.
Jack Warden, US Navy, 1938-1942, then US Army, 1942-1945. 101st Airborne Division.
Don Adams. US Marines. Wounded on Guadalcanal, then served as a Drill Instructor.
James Gregory, US Navy and US Marines.
Brian Keith, US Marines. Radioman/Gunner in Dauntless dive-bombers.
Fess Parker, US Navy and US Marines. Booted from pilot training for being too tall, joined Marines as a radio operator.
Charles Durning. US Army. Landed at Normandy on D-Day. Shot multiple times. Awarded the Silver Star and Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts.Survived Malmedy Massacre.
Raymond Burr, US Navy. Shot in the stomach on Okinawa and medically discharged.
Hugh O’Brian, US Marines.
Robert Ryan, US Marines.
Eddie Albert , US Coast Guard. Bronze Star with Combat V for saving several Marines under heavy fire as pilot of a landing craft during the invasion ofTarawa .
Cark Gable, US Army Air Corps. B-17 gunner over Europe .
Charles Bronson, US Army Air Corps. B-29 gunner, wounded in action.
Peter Graves, US Army Air Corps.
Buddy Hackett, US Army anti-aircraft gunner.
Victor Mature, US Coast Guard
Jack Palance, US Army Air Corps. Severely injured bailing out of a burning B-24 bomber.
Robert Preston, US Army Air Corps. Intelligence Officer
Cesar Romero, US Coast Guard. Participated in the invasions of Tinian and Saipan on the assault transport USS Cavalier.
Norman Fell, US Army Air Corps., Tail Gunner, Pacific Theater.
Jason Robards, US Navy. Was aboard heavy cruiser USS Northampton when it was sunk off Guadalcanal. Also served on the USS Nashville during the invasion of the Philippines, surviving a kamikaze hit that caused 223 casualties.
Steve Reeves, US Army, Philippines .
Dennis Weaver, US Navy. Pilot.
Robert Taylor, US Navy. Instructor Pilot.
Randolph Scott. Tried to enlist in the Marines but was rejected due to injuries sustained in US Army, World War 1.
Ronald Reagan. US Army. Was a 2nd Lt. in the Cavalry Reserves before the war. His poor eyesight kept him from being sent overseas with his unit when war came so he transferred to the Army Air Corps Public Relations Unit where he served for the duration.
John Wayne. Declared “4F medically unfit” due to pre-existing injuries, he nonetheless attempted to volunteer three times (Army, Navy and Film Corps. so he gets honorable mention.
And of course we have Audie Murphy,America ’s most-decorated soldier, who became a Hollywood star as a result of his US Army service that included his being awarded the Medal of Honor.
Would someone please remind me again how many of today’s Hollywood elite put their careers on hold to enlist in Iraq or Afghanistan? The only one who even comes close was Pat Tillman, who turned down a contract offer of $36 million over three years from the Arizona Cardinals to enlist in the US Army after September 11, 2001, and serve as a Ranger in Afghanistan , where he died in 2004. But rather than being lauded for his choice and his decision to put his country before his career, he was mocked and derided by many of his peers.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I submit to you that this is not the America today that it was seventy years ago. And I, for one, am saddened. My generation grew up watching, being entertained by and laughing with so many of these fine people, never really knowing what they contributed to the war effort.
Like millions of Americans during the WWII, there was a job that needed doing they didn’t question, they went and did it, those that came home returned to their now new normal life and carried on, very few ever saying what they did or saw.
They took it as their “responsibility”, their “duty” to Country, to protect and preserve our freedoms and way of life, not just for themselves but for all future generations to come. As a member of a later generation, I’m forever humbly in their debt!
COMPARE WITH HOLLYWOOD TODAY! I really feel for the coming generations… And the whole ‘take a knee’ thing…
This one covers my response, and I don’t even have to use four letter words…
Keep those who are in the military in your thoughts, as they are forward and protecting US interests around the world, so we don’t have to do that here.
Time certainly have changed.
And because I’m old (like you), I find that the leading men who are so admired today fall short.
And when we’re gone, nobody will understand the difference.
sic transit gloria mundi
And you can blame the Letists and the journalists of the 70’s/vietnam era for this.
There are not many. Why? Uh. I dunno. Maybe full of liberals who detest the thought. Or are scared? Interesting post. I get amused every time I find out an actor or actress served. I wish I had served. I went to college. Then I became a cop.
Here are some sorta newish Hollyweirds who have served: Zulay Henao-3 years Army, but she didn’t like it. Drew Carey-US Marines for 6 years! My favorite…Chuck Norris who went into the Air Force and served in Korea where he got into his martial arts. Bravo! Oh, and another favorite…NRA member James Earl Jones who served in the Korean War in the US Army. I might want to look back at my dad’s pics to see if he was in there. THAT might be something. Wait. Clint Eastwood was drafted also and served in the US Army during the Korean War. I better dig out those slides. Dad captured EVERYTHING. Now…don’t be shocked, but even ICE-T, a member of the Crips..and now famous actor…joined the US Army for 4 years to support himself, but never saw combat. Apparently, he received a lot of slack from commanding officers that he could not cut it in real life. He used his financial stability to launch his career after serving. Robert Duvall joined the Army during the Korean War. He is the son of a Rear Admiral and descendant of Robert E. Lee. I wonder what he thinks about the statue thingy? I better search my dad’s pics. There might be some famous people in there. About the new young bucks? I think there are some, but not many. Not sure how many served in combat.
Doing away with the draft caused much of it. We KNEW we were going when we turned 18, so many of us joined the Navy and Air Force to keep from serving in the Army. But we knew we were going to serve somewhere. Not so now. Plus, the Dr. Spock generation also pussified the young ones, too. Bring back the draft and in a few years or generations, we will have brave young men again.
Oh and my dad is dead, so the Army can’t come after him for taking all those pics. LOL
And perhaps it’s my diminishing (alright, diminished) youth, but I don’t recall ANY of those making any big deal of it. They did it and that was that. Which only makes them all the MORE impressive.
1) Lee Marvin was no sniper. He was an ordinary grunt, wounded in action at Saipan twice, Purple Heart.
2) Jack Palance was a student pilot. The “injured bailing out of a burning bomber” story was entirely Hollywood-contrived PR.
You missed a couple others:
A) Victor McLaglen – joined the British Army (at 14) to fight in the Boer War. Served in the (mounted) Life Guards at Windsor Castle instead, until he was found out underage, and booted.
Enlisted again in WWI, rose to the rank of acting Captain in the Middlesex Regiment, served in France, and was also the heavyweight boxing champion of the British Army.
b) David Niven – Graduated Sandhurst (Britain’s West Point). Resigned his commission in 1933 to pursue acting; returned to service the day after Britain declared war in 1939. Served with commando training units, did film work, and served in France after Normandy, as well as during the Battle of the Bulge. Reached the rank of Lt. Col.
c) Peter Ustinov – served as a private in the British Army during WWII. Because he couldn’t associate with Lt. Col. Niven, he was made Niven’s batman (personal orderly) while they worked on a movie together for an army media unit.
d) Anthony Hopkins – two years National Service in the British Army, 1957-1959.
e) Gene Hackman – lied about his age at 16 to join the US Marines, Corporal, radio operator from ’46-51, served in China between end of WWII and Communist revolution in 1949
f) Donald Bellisario (producer Battlestar Gallactica, Airwolf, Magnum PI, Quantum Leap, JAG, NCIS) – US Marines ’55-59, rank of Sgt. Actually met Lee Harvey Oswald during his enlistment.
g) Tom Selleck – CA NG infantry – ’67-’73
h) John Hillerman (“Higgins”) – USAF ’53-57, maintenance sgt. with SAC for B-36 wing
i) James Garner – Merchant Marine, then US Army – 5th RCT, Korean War, 2 Purple Hearts
Dan Rowan of “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In” was a P-40 pilot in the Pacific Theater with two kills. Was shot down and seriously wounded over New Guinea. Earned DFC with oak leaf cluster, Purple Heart, and the Air Medal.
All- Thanks for the comments and corrections. I ‘knew’ the list was missing a few folks.
Posted from my iPhone.
Adam Driver of Star Wars Last Jedi USMC
Scott Brown, Scooter Brown Band USMC combat in Iraq
Matt Bledsoe, Scooter Brown Band, US Army.
All three active in support of veterans groups.
They were never famous, but I’m proud of their service anyway:
Marion Emery, WWI, US Navy radio operator. All he had to sleep on were bare boards; no mattress. He never complained.
William Emery, WWII, US Coast Guard. He enlisted, but whenever he was examined his blood pressure would go up, so he got the family doctor to do the examination. The doctor let him calm down before checking his blood pressure – 2 or 3 times. He said that being in the service wasn’t much fun.
Bud Stauffer, WWII, OSS. He helped organize the French resistance, was captured several times, and was never a POW. Figure it out for yourself.
Bob Huart, WWII, Intelligence. He completed his mission, then had to walk through the Alps to escape the enemy. His shoes disintegrated, so he hiked for three days barefoot.
Zazette Huart, WWII, Intelligence. Bob’s wife. She barely escaped the enemy and spent three more years never knowing if her husband was still alive or not. The enemy captured some friends of the Huarts, and what the enemy did to these people gave Zazette nightmares for years.
Some nameless idiot got into an argument with me recently about dropping the atomic bomb on Japan. She said it wasn’t necessary and offered justification for the Japanese attack on Pearl. I would have dropped a third bomb on Japan just on general principles.
People are much different today. It’s nothing I can summarize into a single paragraph or two, but I consider much of the current behavior to be selfish and self-centered. The incessant whinging of “I matter! I matter!”, the national debt, the lack of education, all of these things make me wonder just where we’ll be in 25 years.
You want to blow someone’s mind when they argue that the bombs weren’t necessary, tell them that the bombs SAVED at least 1 million Japanese lives. If we’d invaded it would have been a blood bath for both sides as civilians were being taught to resist with bamboo spears. If we’d have blockaded Japan into submission, millions would have starved to death. Even with the bombs there was a large faction of the Army that wanted Japan to go down fighting. So, even knowing what we know now about the aftereffects of the bombs, I believe it was the right call!
The bombs saved at least 1 million US casualties, at least.
Studies in late 45 and 46 showed that the Japanese were far better prepared than we ever expected. More planes, more and better tanks, many more artillery pieces, manned torpedoes, the whole nine yards.
A ground war would have ended the Japanese people. The bombs were totally the most humane thing we could do to them.
And remember, the planned invasion of the Japanese Home Islands also included an extensive chemical warfare component, with stockpiles being built up in the Marianas. Even as the first atomic bomb was exploding at Trinity, bomb drops were being conducted to test dispersing defoliants (same active ingredients that eventually wound up in Agent Orange) from bombs that had been designed to disperse biological weapons.
Oh, it was going to be a full-court press. More of Lemay’s fire bombs scouring every building that could be found. Complete naval blockade and round-the-clock shelling. Defoliants and other agents not as nice to be spread all over any growing field.
If the invasion had happened, Admiral Halsey would have been correct. Japanese (as a national language) would only have been spoken in Hell.
How bad was the invasion originally going to be? We (the USA) are still issuing Purple Hearts that were minted for the invasion. And further research after the war showed they underestimated casualties by at least 50%, if not more.
A friend of mine took a martial arts class from a little old Japanese lady who was taught to kill us with a spear, and she was in charge of a bunch of kids with bamboo spears and grenades.
We were lucky. It would have destroyed us as a country, think 2-4 years of Saipan. And would have destroyed our ability to fight the socialists/communists. The world would have fallen with us.
Read the book: “Hell to Pay”, by DM Giangreco, for info on the intended invasion, and what the Japanese actually had waiting for us. The Japanese were expecting to lose 20+ MILLION of their people to repel the Allied Forces. Gen. Marshall wanted to use our entire atomic bomb inventory to clear the invasion areas prior to our soldiers arriving. Nice, an entire army irradiated. Those injuries would have gone really well for the home front.
I drank beer with a coworker one night in Italy.
Found out he was a former nazi U-boat commander in Japan who was married to a Japanese woman.
They both agreed the bombs were necessary for the reasons above.
Admiral Daniel Gallery thought we should have blockaded and starved them out. I’m pretty sure that women, children, the aged, and the infirm would have gone first, with food directed to the army and navy men, and the ruling classes. Far, FAR more than those who died from the two bombs.
Agreed, my Dad fought in Europe, purple heart, bronze star. His division was rotated to the states soon after VE day. Not because they earned a rest, but to train for the invasion of Japan. Don’t ever tell him or me the atomic bombs were unnecessary.
The late Don S. Davis, who among other roles played General Hammond in Stargate SG-1, had been a captain in the United States Army.
Kris Kristofferson https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0khSvMpKgFA
I was born in 1945, last year of WWII and spent my first six months at Camp Wolters TX where my dad was an Army Major and helped shut it down in 1946. Growing up in the early 1950’s most all our dads had served, it was taken for granted and only later did I learn that most of them had real interesting experiences including P-38 pilot and German POW, C-46 flying the hump, Bombers over Germany, Infantry all over including some Airborne. On friend had a dad who was captured in the Philippines and barely survived the Bataan death march, staved almost to death and lost his teeth. In high school I worked with a man who pulled commo wired starting in North Africa and all through Europe up to the German surrender, he said he was big and strong and pulled a lot of wire and kept his head down as much as possible.
Two uncles, officers one artillery and one 8th Air Corps met up in Bastogne after the action where artillery officer was radioing in observer info for the air strikes. These were all the regular neat grown up men who came back from the war, went to work, raised families and considered their stories as just what folks did when it needed to be done.
Four of us young guys, from kindergarten through high school did a lot of hanging out together, fishing, camping and shooting rabbits and when our turn came we went in and did our military stuff between 1966 and the early 70’s. Two of us Spc5’s me intelligence the other finance in Nam, one Warrant Chopper pilot and one 1st Cav in Nam as a Captain, we knew that part of our life while we were growing up would be spent in the military cause that’s what we did.
I flunked out after three years of college in 1966 and joined for four years to beat the draft, not the smartest thing but it worked out. In basic training at Ft. Leonard Wood the summer of 1966 a top song on the radio was ‘Ballad of the Green Berets’. The US Army was good at integration at that time but the media tore it apart by the summer of 1968 turning black men against white and like Humpty Dumpty sitting on a wall, after the fall it was never the same.
Suddenly the smart educated people were explaining how there was nothing in the USA worth fighting about. Instead of being part of a great nation that required hard work and sacrifice the idea was “do your own thing”, take care of your self and if you don’t you’re and idiot. Seems as if that is still going on but I am also very aware that some including my younger relatives have still answered the call and done their duty in the nasty Sandlot Wars.
It would be nice if our current celebrities who try to tell us how and what to think had some of the military background.
nailed it
I think part of the reason for there being so few current actors who have been in the military is the fact that there is no active draft any longer. Also, the last war that was fought on American soil was the Spanish-American war in 1898, and the last war where Americans (the general public) had to sacrifice was WWII. There was no rationing or major doing-without during the Koran Conflict, Viet Nam War, the Gulf War, Iraq, or Afghanistan.
As a country, we have not been asked (forced) to give up, or to work to better the condition of others for several generations. I think that, more than most anything, is the main reason why so many of the younger generations have an attitude of me-me-me. And much, if not all, of the vast cultural influencers out there are from the mass media in some form…sports, movies, TV, video games, many of the best selling books…very few have characters with any positive “character”. There are a few, but they are very few. Most of the gentlemen who went off to war in WWII, or Korea, or Nam came home and didn’t talk about it. At All!
Ok, I understand why, but maybe if those stories had been told, they would have had more influence than Hollywood air-brushed stories. Maybe as a country, as a population, we were protected too well, too wrapped in cotton wool… I don’t know.
But I agree, the current state of affairs is truly sad.
Not in general disagreeing, but I think you may have a few details wrong.
I can’t recall of any battles fought on US soil or in US waters during the Spanish-American War. It was largely if not exclusively fought in Spanish possessions and the waters nearby. Their was the long, low-intensity Border War, an outgrowth of the Mexican Revolution, in the first second decade of the 20th century, though. During WWII, Japan conquered a few US island territories, in addition to their attack of Pearl Harbor, and German U-boats attacked merchant ships within sight of the mainland.
My mistake! I was thinking mainland US.
And I remember being told, often, that when Mom’s family went to the Connecticut shore in the summer during WWII they had to use black out curtains, my great-uncle was on patrol every night to be sure no lights were showing as there were rumored to be German subs in Long Island Sound.
Oh, that must have been way after FDR requested that no-one would change their ways, to keep us strong, thus keeping a lit coast in ’42 and ’43, making the US coast line a literal shooting gallery for the Germans.
Way to go, FDR! Thanks, tons, you socialist bastard.
Wes Studi and Dennis Franz both served in Vietnam. I’ll give Gary Sinise credit here as well. While he was never actually in the military he has been active elsewhere touring bases worldwide with the Lt. Dan Band including stints in a war zone.
That is just a list of those that actually, or tried, to serve.
Doesn’t even touch all the civilians from Hollywood that served either on the home front doing training fils or propaganda, or actually on the front doing documentaries (not all war photographers or filmers were service members.)
Then there’s all that supported service members thorugh the USO. Marlene Dietrich, German born, toured for us and against Germany. Many other famous stars and starlets performed, both stateside and in theater.
Then there are all the famous musicians, Glen Miller being one of them, who served in uniform or through the USO (like the Andrew Sisters).
And then the sports stars, who gave up careers in professional sports, to fight and in some cases die.
Part of the problem is it used to be common knowledge when a star served or was serving (Elvis Presley being an example.) In the last while, open knowledge of service seems to have been a detriment. Though that seems to be changing with the slowly conservativish drift that some parts of Hollyweird and TVland seem to be making. (Strange to say, but Thanks, Rosanne Arnold, for being the turning point. Seriously. “Last Man Standing” is coming back, with the original network still not saying Tim Allen’s conservatism was the cause of cancelling.)
It appears to me the draft ending, and a changing mindset caused most of what we see today.
My daughter served 8yrs in the Navy loading bombs on flying machines, and my oldest grandson served 8 as a Navy Corpsman with two long deployments in harms way with the Marines. There are other family members who have served in harms way, none of them speak of those times.
Apart from the obvious, I noticed something else about the
list: I doubt most members of the millennial generation
could even name a single person on it. I cannot think of
comparing anyone on that list to the leftist twatwaffles
like Ben Aflak! Leonardo deCrapio and Matt Damooooon.
I too am a geezer, and I cannot think of an actress today
who could hold a candle to Katharine Hepburn, Grace Kelly,
Lauren Bacall, Heddy Lamarr, etc.
I once told some young dork who was calling Pepe le Pew a
sexist that it was just a comic book and that the art of
seduction is not rape. Then I told this idiot that the
inspiration for le Pew was Cary Grant and mostly Charles
Boyer. He said, “Well, I don’t know who these people are.”
I responded by saying, “well, that’s your problem!”
PS Cartoon, not comic book.
All- Can’t disagree with anyone! Old Tex, I’m a few years younger than you, but I grew up in the same environment. And we did basically the same thing!
Posted from my iPhone.
I thought Henry Fonda served on the USS Reluctant.
My dad flew 2 tours as a ball turret gunner, with the 91st in 43’ and the 388th in 44. He was sent home with orders to report back for duty in the pacific. The day he was scheduled to report was VJ Day. He didn’t have to report. He always thought Jimmy Stewart was “ the real deal”, less so about Clark Gable. He said Gable flew a few milk runs but they were a joke. To give mr gable his due, he was a captain assigned to the 351st to film recruitment documentary’s for the Air Force. You are right it was a different time. There were over 10 million Americans in uniform during ww2. Everyone’s household was touched. Vietnam affected us quite a bit differently( €]~>^? Jane Fonda)
Clark was 42 when he went over with the 351st.
Ed- Nope
Tsgt Joe- That’s a great piece of history, thanks! My dad was in WWI, and was too good a shot. He ended up spending the war as an instructor, teaching rifle and pistol shooting (our family was land rich and money poor in Louisiana, good shooting meant food on the table). His regret was that he never got to go over to actually use his skills.
Mr. Roberts 🙂
My grandfather (born 1876) served in the Cavalry, Spanish-American War. Dad served with a MASH unit during Korea. My father-in-law served in Korea as a company clerk, after the war. I served during Viet Nam. And I have ZERO patience for the entitled twits of today with their ignorant sniveling. We had words for people like that, when I served, but decorum & my Christianity now prevent me from repeating them here.
One of the problems with Hollywood is that so many of the top men were anti-military, and they generally tried to harm the careers of established stars that took time off to serve. I would go as far as to characterize them as anti-US, when you look at them closely. Not all were that way, but too many for it to be accidental. Group or tribe mentality, perhaps. Reminiscent of the virtue-signaling of the SJW’s today, where they are willing to take a financial hit to a business in their effort to control the public.
Read about Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. Heck of a war story. Apparently got shorted on some medals due to a Navy dislike of Hollywood types. Guy got screwed by both groups for daring to join up and actually being serious about fighting. He was one of the top actors going in, and actually joined before the war started for the US.
Most, but not all, of that list were people who got into acting after their service. Wayne Morris did the same thing that DF,Jr did, and paid the same price, a career that went nowhere. He said afterwards that his biggest fear was to have one of his movies screened on the carrier, as he figured that that would make his life unbearable. 7 confirmed kills, and participated in sinking 5 Japanese ships. 4 Distinguished Flying Crosses! Flew the F6F Hellcat.
Don’t forget the ladies! Bea Arthur spent 30 months in the Marine Corps, one of the first members of the Women’s Reserve was a typist and a truck driver.
Ed- Yep
Rev- Agreed!
Will- Helluva story!
Mrs.C- Yes, and the WACs, WAVES, and WASPs…
Clark (NOT Cark!) Gable went over with the 351st Bombardment Group (B-17s).
Shot a movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SJQYG_GskY
Amen