Lee Ermey, USMC!
Posted on 04/14/2011 6:11:08 PM PDT by WOBBLY BOB
In honor of Military Families Week, AOL salutes the many movie stars who've served our country, many of whom -- like George C. Scott and Henry Fonda -- also starred in the most famous war movies of all time.
Clark Gable enlisted at age 43 after losing wife Carole Lombard to the war effort, but some stars, including Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Stewart, were already in the service when the U.S. entered World War II. Others, like Gene Hackman and Harvey Keitel, did their service before becoming famous. (And both left home early to join up.)
Please join us in paying tribute to these famous veterans, who weren't just acting when they portrayed men in uniform.
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.moviefone.com ...
Steve McQueen — U.S. Marines
James Earl Jones — U.S. Army Rangers
Shaggy (Reggae/Pop star)— U.S. Marines
Chuck Norris — U.S. Air Force
Bill Cosby — U.S. Navy (medic)
Jimi Hendrix — U.S. Army
101st AB, BTW
Lee Ermey, USMC!
John Russell - USMC WW2 (2nd Lt., 6th Marine Regiment, Guadalcanal)
Hugh O'Brian - USMC WW2. At the time (and perhaps still), the youngest drill instructor in Marine Corp History, at age 17.
Alvy Moore - USMC, WW2, Iwo Jima. (County Agent "Hank Kimball" on "Green Acres")
Steve McQueen - USMC.
Robert Stack - USN WW2 (gunnery instructor).
Charleton Heston - U.S. Army Air Force WW2 (B-25, Eleventh Air Force, Aleutian Islands).
Christopher George - USMC Korea ("Rat Patrol" star, co-starred with John Wayne in "El Dorado", "Chisum" and "The Train Robbers")
Mark Valley, the star of Human Target, is a West Point grad.
I heard a story that Hendrix was very reluctant to become an anti-war activist, even though those around him BEGGED him.
I notice a lot of black and white photos and not a whole lot of recent Hollywood stars in this mix. That’s telling, and also a shame.
Carroll O'Conner - Merchant Seaman during WWII
(He quit college to join the Navy, but the Navy turned him down)
James Earl Jones: First Lieutenant, U.S. Army
During college, he joined the Reserve Officer Training Corps and became a cadet in the Pershing Rifles Drill Team. Although the Korean War was underway, Jones wasn’t activated until 1953. He says he was “washed out” of Ranger training and was instead sent to establish a cold weather training unit in Colorado.
(And Jimmy Hendrix was drummed out of my old outfit: 101st ABN, 3rd Brigade)
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/crime/jimis-private-parts
James Garner served in Korea, was captured by the ChiComs and escaped, suffering an injury along the way that he has had to live with ever since.
Carroll O’Connor owes no apologies for his service in the US Merchant Marine, which suffered a considerably higher casualty rate than the USN during WW2 IIRC.
George Goble was a flight instructor. He tells about it here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_6yWi6YBYY
Of course, he's kind of hard to recognize without his cigarette...
I think he acted like a ball player, so I’ll put Joe Garagiola, Sr. into the mix. My uncle was on the same ship as Joe just about the time that WWII was winding down.
Isn’t Gary Sinise a Marine Vet?
Cool. My extended family lived in western PA. I remember Jimmy Stewart’s Oscar being in the window of his dad’s hardware store.
Gene Autrey, the ORIGINAL King of the Cowboys.
Although very sympathetic to the military, I don’t believe Gary Sinise ever served....
“Eddie Albert - Drove amtraks at Tarawa”
Eddie Albert was a naval officer in command of a small boat that anchored the Line Of Departure in the Tarawa lagoon. After completing his assignment, instead of returning back to his ship, Eddie crusied back and forth along the assualt beaches picking up wounded sailors and Marines floating in disabled vehicles or floating in the lagoon.
Lt Albert was awarded a bronze star with a V for Valor for his actions that day.
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