The book Stolen Valor discusses the origin of PTSD.
Jimmy Stewart’s war record included 20 combat missions as command pilot over enemy territory, including raids deep into Germany to Berlin. His missions included bombing raids to Berlin, Brunswick, Bremen, Frankfurt, and Schweinfurt. His most memorable mission, Stewart served as the flight leader of a 1000 plain raid to Berlin. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross with two Oak Leaf Clusters, the Air Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters, and the French Croix de Guerre with Palm.
By the end of the war he had risen to the rank of Colonel. After the war he remained with the US Air Force Reserves and was eventually promoted to Brigadier General in 1959. In 1966, he participated in a bombing strike in Vietnam, as an observer on a B-52 bomber. He retired from the Air Force in 1968 and received the Distinguished Service Medal and ultimately, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
DOES NOT SOUND LIKE SOMEONE WHO WAS FLAK HAPPY!!!!
Another error the author made was calling it the Air Force. In WW II it was the Army Air Corps.
OMG! Such bullsh!t should not be proffered for public consumption.
Mussolini Italians...begone!
Fighter pilot?
The author didn’t do basic research
He was a great man, born here in my hometown of Indiana, Pa. His statue is in front of the county courthouse and the small museum dedicated to him is right next door from there. A bank sits across the street where the Stewart Hardware stood. Jimmy is a well-loved figure around here, and the town is just as small-town and family-friendly as it was when he was growing up here.
Oh, and a lot of that article sounds like bull cookies to me! :-)
How about he was just a great actor?
I can remember reading or watching somewhere (maybe on TCM) a few years ago a discussion about how that generation of actors (James Stewart, Eddie Albert, Ernest Borgnine, and many others) who served in World War II and how that time in the military influenced them and their work. Some very interesting observations were made concerning all of this.
Peter Fonda was an infant at the time.
Jimmy Stewart was the greatest American hero.
Weird that he was friends with Henry Fonda. Fonda was a disgusting pro Soviet anti American.
Of the 16.3M Americans who served in WWII, only ~2-3% are alive today. The author claims to find one unnamed flier who alleges Stewart told him he was flak happy and had gone to a flak farm. That’s thin cruel. And of course this book is written long after the subject is gone. No thanks.
I have a better perspective now of that movie. I didn’t much care for it until just reading several articles about him.
Beat me to it. He was a bomber guy. That’s probably MORE stressful than a fighter; flying straight and level to line up a target makes it easier to hit you.
Yes, the media lies so much, now they do it even when they don’t need to.
Horse hockey
The above should show just how accurate this entire story is as 'Peter' Fonda was about 4 years old when this 'leave of absence. supposedly took place--
Jimmy Stewart=hero, national treasure, my very favorite actor of all time.
I knew he’d served, didn’t know many details.
What an awesome man he was. He was married to one woman for 45 years until her death, and never remarried after.
Thank you for posting this.
I believe that the Left in this country is attempting to redefine PTSD as, “not wanting to be shot at if you don’t have to be and not really liking the experience you had previously of being shot at.”