Hollywood in Combat, not Combat in Hollywood

Ed McMahon flew Navy corsair fighter planes in combat.
Former President George HW Bush (Bush the Elder) flew dive bombers off a carrier, was shot down at least once and rescued by a PBY Catalina.
Lee Marvin was aMarine who served in the pacific
Ronald reagan was an Army Captain who stayed in the US and made propaganda movies.
Harry Truman was an artillery captain (in world war 1).


This is a bit off topic. But Oliver Stone, the film director, is the only director of a Vietnam war movie (Platoon) to have served in actual combat in this conflict.

During the Tet offensive in Vietnam in 1968, The US Marines had to engage in urban fighting, for which they had not been trained. The only reference they had was memories of old episodes of the TV show popular at the time, Combat. (This TV show was scripted largely by men who were veterans of world war 2, so the squad level tactics and maneuvers shown were usually pretty true-to-life.)

 

um if i remember right, Willy Mays served

 

Don't forget medal of honor winner Audie Murphy. However, he became an actor after he served.

 

Didnt JFK serve on a PT boat and sustained injuries that he still recieved a tremendous amount of pain from?

Johnny Cash enlisted in the Air Force during the Korean War and ended up being a morse code translator and recieved some sort of Presidential Citation. (not sure if thats 100 percent accurate, saw the documentary on him a while ago)

 

That is not correct. He rose to the rank of Colonel during the war. He was promoted to BG in the USAF Reserves in 1959.

Hometown Boy | The Jimmy Stewart Museum

Dave