Here’s Reiner’s WWII service:
“In 1944, after completing language training, he was sent to Hawaii to work as a teleprinter operator. The night before he was to ship out for an unknown assignment, he attended a production of Hamlet by the Special Services entertainment unit. Following an audition for actor and Major Maurice Evans, he was transferred to the Special Services. Reiner performed around the Pacific theater, entertaining troops in Hawaii, Guam, Saipan, Tinian, and Iwo Jima for the next two years. In 1946, he was discharged.”
He was an Army Special Services douchebag, not a frontline combat soldier. D!ckhead.
His service record shows him to be a liar. He ‘fought’ Japanese Imperialism, not European Fascism.
The First Sergeant for that outfit was none other than Howard “Ernest T. Bass” Morris. He was the first performer Maurice Evans recruited for the entertainment unit, because Morris was the only soldier they could find with previous theatrical experience.
One more thing: Evans was openly gay throughout his life, so elements of the Army were practicing “don’t ask, don’t tell” long before Bill Clinton arrived on the scene.
I re-read the article after your post. He sure would like you to think he was frontline.
Thing is, I'd be just as impressed if he said, "Hey, I went to every ****hole in the Pacific that there was to keep the troops from going out of their mind with boredom. It's what I was good at!" Everyone has a part to play, and that was his.
But for him to imply differently, just cheapens my opinion of him.
“In the rear with the gear”