[Charles Martel]

One the funniest comedians ever, Jonathan Winters, was in the USMC in WWII and after becoming ill was hospitalized for several months. He was then assigned to duty aboard a vessel as a Marine guard. He later ran into a buddy from basic training and learned that everybody else that fellow knew of from Winters’ original platoon had died on Saipan. There but for the Grace of G*d ...

Several actors had connections to Saipan. Lee Marvin was wounded in combat on that island. Eddie Albert operated an LVT that evacuated some of the wounded.

[gigster]

Eddie Albert operated a LVT that evacuated some of the wounded.

My buddie's father, who was in the Navy, served with Eddie Albert in the same unit. I also have a friend, Jack, who joined the Coast Guard in 1938, and operated an LVT in the Pacific during the war, and had a brand new LVT shot from under him, forcing him to hang out with the Marines for a couple of days on Guadalcanal. He still comes in our local watering hole every day for a couple of beers.