it was 1950’s and the first movie I saw when John Wayne was not a cowboy..but an airline pilot
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You must have missed the movie about WWII called “The Flying Leathernecks”. ...It may have been before your time, but it was a decent movie where he was a pilot.
I remember a movie The Flying Leathernecks.....but never saw it. (I just WISH it was before my time, but alas it wasn’t) GG