FReeper Canteen ~ Hall of Heroes: Hollywood Part 1 ~ June 3, 2013

Serving The Best Troops and Veterans In The World !! | StarCMC

[Kathy in Alaska]

 

Our Troops Rock!  Thank you for all you do!

For the freedom you enjoyed yesterday...
Thank the Veterans who served
in The United States Armed Forces.

Looking forward to tomorrow's freedom? Support The United States
Armed Forces Today!

---

~ Hall of Heroes ~

Hollywood Part 1
 

           

Back when being a "Hollywood Legend" didn't necessarily mean you were an anti-American mouthpiece, there were some men who were real men and served their country.  I wish it was still that way!  These heroes might surprise you - they did me!  Thank mountainlion for alerting me to these!

James Garner

Before he was Rockford, he earned two Purple Hearts in the Korean War!

After working at several jobs he disliked, at sixteen Garner joined the United States Merchant Marine near the end of World War II. He fared well in the work and with shipmates, but suffered from chronic seasickness. At seventeen, he joined his father in Los Angeles and enrolled at Hollywood High School, where he was voted the most popular student. A high school gym teacher recommended him for a job modeling Jantzen bathing suits. It paid well, $25 an hour, but in his first interview for the Archives of American Television, he said he hated modeling and soon quit and returned to Norman. There, he played football and basketball, as well as competed on the track and golf teams, for Norman High School. He never graduated from high school, explaining in a 1976 Good Housekeeping magazine interview: "I was a terrible student and I never actually graduated from high school, but I got my diploma in the Army."

Later, he joined the National Guard serving seven months in the United States. He then went to Korea for 14 months in the Regular Army, serving in the 5th Regimental Combat Team in the Korean War. He was wounded twice, first in the face and hand from shrapnel fire from a mortar round, and second on April 23, 1951 in the buttocks from friendly fire from U.S. fighter jets as he dived headfirst into a foxhole. Garner was awarded the Purple Heart in Korea for the first injury. For the second wound, he received a second Purple Heart (eligibility requirement: "As the result of friendly fire while actively engaging the enemy"), although Garner received the medal in 1983, 32 years after his injury. Garner was a self-described "scrounger" for his company in Korea, a role he later played in The Great Escape and The Americanization of Emily.

Ed McMahon

"Heeeeeeeeeeeere's Johnny!"  That's what Ed McMahon is probably most famous for - his introduction for Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show.  Did you know he has 6 Air Medals?  No kidding! 

McMahon hoped to become a US Marine Corps fighter pilot. Prior to the US entry into World War II, however, both the Army and Navy required two years of college for their pilots program. McMahon enrolled into classes at Boston College. After Pearl Harbor was attacked, the college requirement was dropped, and McMahon immediately applied for Marine flight training. His primary flight training was in Dallas, followed by fighter training in Pensacola, where he also earned his carrier landing qualifications. He was a Marine Corps flight instructor for two years, finally being ordered to the Pacific fleet in 1945. However, his orders were canceled after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki forcing Japan's surrender.

As an officer in the reserves, McMahon was recalled to active duty during the Korean War. This time, he flew the OE-1 (the original Marine designation for the Cessna O-1 Bird Dog), an unarmed single-engine spotter plane. He functioned as an artillery spotter for the Marine batteries on the ground and as a forward controller for the Navy and Marine fighter bombers. He flew a total of 85 combat missions, earning 6 Air Medals. After the war, he stayed with the Marines, as a reserve officer, retiring in 1966 as a Colonel, he was later commissioned to the rank of Brigadier General in the California National Guard.

 

More next week!!  Thanks mountainlion!!  :-)

Please remember the Canteen is here to honor, support and entertain our troops and their families.  This is a politics-free zone!  Thanks for helping us in our mission! 

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, Mayor, and thanks for today’s sustenance for body and soul.

Hope you had a good and restful weekend.

[The Mayor]

And Thank you!!

[jmacusa]

That’s the living truth brother. Sad ain’t it?

[luvie]

How fun to find out which of the Hollywood crowd were patriots...at least at some time in their lives! Thanks, Galz...and mountainlion!

[jmacusa]

Evening Kathy, how's things up there in “The Last Frontier’’? Been a wild and wooly day down here on The Jersey Shore, the weather that is. Kid you not. At 4 this afternoon it was partly sunny with thunderclouds and wind. At one point the sun was out and yet it was raining on my front lawn and the backyard wasn't getting a drop! Then it stopped and lo and behold there was a beautiful rainbow off to the south! I thought I captured a pix of it on my cell phone camera but I don't think I got it. But then again, it isn't easy to catch a rainbow is it? Say a prayer for our friends in Oklahoma. I'd like to remember my Uncle Fred who passed away a few months ago. He was the last surviving uncle of my childhood. He served with the 84th. Infantry Division in Belgium during the winter of Dec. 1944 and January 1945. He was wounded, recovered, promoted to 1st. lieutenant. He was re-activated in August of 1951, served as a supply officer in West Germany during the Korean War, honorably discharged in Sept.1953. Thanks Uncle Fred, rest in peace. Have a great week Kathy.

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, ML...((HUGS))...did the weather cooperate for a ride today?

You and Linda get out?

That memorial is very different, very interesting.

[Kathy in Alaska]

Welcome to the Canteen, Jean2...the entertainers of old are sorely missed, that is for sure.

[ConorMacNessa]

Not a bad, day, thanks, Kathy! I overslept this morning and didn't get in to the office until 10:30. A fairly uneventful day. When I left the office at 7:00 this evening we were in the midst of a violent cloudburst - had to wait for a few minutes before walking to the car. It appears that the project will end late tomorrow or early Tuesday. Resume is updated and will go out to the usual suspects once I have a fix on the endpoint.

I hope you've had a great weekend. When the storms came through this evening we went from the high 80's to the high 60's in a matter of moments.



"Riamh nár dhruid ó sbairn lann!"

Genuflectimus non ad principem sed ad Principem Pacis!

Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. (Isaiah 49:1 KJV)

[left that other site]

This morning, Linda and i went to a few more yard sales, and then to the Doggie (Soggie)Park.

For some reason which shall remain a mystery, she got into a fight with a Golden Retriever. The humans had to break up the two, and there was no blood, so it was probably just a “Chick Fight”.

We came home after that, and I was ready to suit up for a ride, and the heavens OPENED! (sigh)

[ConorMacNessa]

Welcome To All Who Enter This Canteen, To Our Serving Military, To Our Veterans, To All Military Families, To Our FRiends and To Our Allies!



Missing Man Setting

"The Empty Chair"

By Captain Carroll "Lex" Lefon, USN (RET), on December 21st, 2004

"In the wardroom onboard the aircraft carrier from which I recently debarked was a small, round table, with single chair. No one ever sat there, and the reasons, both for the table being there, and for the fact that the chair was always empty, will tell the reader a little bit about who we are as a culture. The wardroom, of course, is where the officers will dine; morning, noon and evening. It is not only a place to eat – it is also a kind of oasis from the sometimes dreary, often difficult exigencies of the service. A place of social discourse, of momentary relief from the burdens of the day. The only things explicitly forbidden by inviolable tradition in the wardroom are the wearing of a cover or sword by an officer not actually on watch, or conversation which touches upon politics or religion. But aboard ships which observe the custom, another implicit taboo concerns the empty chair: No matter how crowded the room, no matter who is waiting to be seated, that chair is never moved, never taken.

The table is by the main entrance to the wardroom. You will see it when you enter, and you will see it when you leave. It draws your eyes because it is meant to. And because it draws your eyes it draws your thoughts. And though it will be there every day for as long as you are at sea, you will look at it every time and your eyes will momentarily grow distant as you think for a moment. As you quietly give thanks.

AS YOU REMEMBER.

The small, round table is covered with a gold linen tablecloth. A single place setting rests there, of fine bone china. A wineglass stands upon the table, inverted, empty. On the dinner plate is a pinch of salt. On the bread plate is a slice of lemon. Besides the plate lies a bible. There is a small vase with a single red rose upon the table. Around the vase is wound a yellow ribbon. There is the empty chair.

We will remember because over the course of our careers, we will have had the opportunity to enjoy many a formal evening of dinner and dancing in the fine company of those with whom we have the honor to serve, and their lovely ladies. And as the night wears on, our faces will in time become flushed with pleasure of each other’s company, with the exertions on the dance floor, with the effects of our libations. But while the feast is still at its best, order will be called to the room – we will be asked to raise our glasses to the empty table, and we will be asked to remember:

The table is round to show our everlasting concern for those who are missing. The single setting reminds us that every one of them went to their fates alone, that every life was unique.

The tablecloth is gold symbolizing the purity of their motives when they answered the call to duty.

The single red rose, displayed in a vase, reminds us of the life of each of the missing, and their loved ones who kept the faith.

The yellow ribbon around the vase symbolizes our continued determination to remember them.

The slice of lemon reminds us of the bitterness of their fate.
The salt symbolizes the tears shed by those who loved them.
The bible represents the faith that sustained them.
The glass is inverted — they cannot share in the toast.
The chair is empty — they are not here. They are missing.

And we will remember, and we will raise our glasses to those who went before us, and who gave all that they had for us. And a part of the flush in our faces will pale as we remember that nothing worth having ever came without a cost. We will remember that many of our brothers and sisters have paid that cost in blood. We will remember that the reckoning is not over.

We many of us will settle with our families into our holiday season, our Christmas season for those who celebrate it, content in our fortune and prosperity. We will meet old friends with smiles and laughter. We will meet our members of our family with hugs. We will eat well, and exchange gifts and raise our glasses to the year passed in gratitude, and to the year to come with hope. We will sleep the sleep of the protected, secure in our homes, secure in our homeland.

But for many families, there will be an empty chair at the table this year. A place that is not filled.

WE SHOULD REMEMBER."

Thanks To Alfa6 For Finding Capt. Lefon's Chronicle Of "The Empty Chair."

Robert Schumann – “Traumerei”
(Click)
Never Forget The Brave Men And Women Who Gave Their Lives To Secure Our Freedom!!

"Riamh nár dhruid ó sbairn lann!"

Genuflectimus non ad principem sed ad Principem Pacis!

Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. (Isaiah 49:1 KJV)

[Kathy in Alaska]

Oh my goodness...a trip down memory lane.

[Kathy in Alaska]

We got some good rain over night....maybe more Monday.

[Kathy in Alaska]

And in first....Mac grabs the gold!!

[SandRat]

and don’t leave out the Nurses Kit.

[Kathy in Alaska]

And in second....Publius snags the silver!!

[Kathy in Alaska]

And rounding out the top three....Sand bags the bronze!!

[ConorMacNessa]

GOD BLESS AND PROTECT OUR TROOPS!


Sir Winston S. Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, PC, DL, FRS, Hon. RA
(30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965)



Rule Britannia
HM Royal Marines
(Click)

“We Shall Never Surrender” “Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail.

We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France,
we shall fight on the seas and oceans,
we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air,
we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be,
we shall fight on the beaches,
we shall fight on the landing grounds,
we shall fight in the fields and in the streets,
we shall fight in the hills;
we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.”
In the House of Commons, 4June1940


"With Mind And Hand"



Coronet Winston S. Churchill
4th Queen's Own Hussars
1895

"Riamh nár dhruid ó sbairn lann!"

Genuflectimus non ad principem sed ad Principem Pacis!

Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. (Isaiah 49:1 KJV)

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, jamcusa...we got some much needed rain over night, and hoping for more maybe tonight or tomorrow.

It is so "funny" when there is rain on your right hand, but not on our left. And then you got a rainbow....nice, even if you didn't capture it on your phone.

Our friends in Oklahoma are surely in need of all the prayers we can provide.

Our thanks to Uncle Fred for his service to our country.

[Jet Jaguar]

We need some. Badly.

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good thinking about waiting to get to the car. No need in getting drenched.

Good that your resume is ready to go. A prayer that just the right project finds you.

We had some heavy rain over night, but it was needed. Of course I watered the lawns yesterday. d:o) More maybe tomorrow.