Post of the year, yes. But I’m in tears, scanning this collection
Jimmy Stewart was a general? Mickey Rooney, bronze star? etc
Post of the decade
Brig. General James Stewart flew one special mission in Vietnam on a B52. I think he was allowed to turn on the bomb-release switch as he had been activated from his Reserve status to Active for one day.
It was written up in “Vietnam Magazine” a number of years ago.
Also, he and his wife visited wounded American soldiers and sailors in at least one military hospital in the Mekong Delta during the Vietnam War. They are listed on the Visitors Log, in 1969.
I was researching whether one of John Kerry’s “claimed” SwiftBoat crewmen was in that hospital before Kerry actually took command of PC 94. The sailor, along with another crewman, had sustained serious injuries (esp. head injuries, which is why they were sent to this specific field hospital in the Delta).
Both claimed that they had served under Kerry in combat but both were hit and medevaced out for care before Kerry came aboard PC 94).
The few docs on this hospital at the National Archives contained a monthly Log-In list of visitors which included the Stewarts, either in Feb. 1969 or a few months later.
Jimmy Stewart was one helluva an Officer and a Gentleman.