Funny, I was under the impression that McQueen was in the navy.
The story is that he was on ship when exposed to the asbestos which was responsible for his cancer.
Marines sometimes serve on ships.
At 16, McQueen left Chino and returned to his mother, now living in Greenwich Village. He then met two sailors from the Merchant Marine and volunteered to serve on a ship bound for the Dominican Republic.[7] Once there, he abandoned his new post, eventually being employed as a "towel boy" in a brothel.[8] Afterwards, McQueen made his way to Texas, and drifted from job to job. He worked as an oil rigger, a trinket salesman in a carnival, and a lumberjack.
Military service[edit]
In 1947, McQueen joined the United States Marine Corps and was promoted to private first class and assigned to an armored unit.[7] At first, he reverted to his prior rebelliousness, and was demoted to private seven times. He took an unauthorized absence by failing to return after a weekend pass expired, staying with a girlfriend for two weeks until the shore patrol caught him. He resisted arrest and spent 41 days in the brig.[7] After this, McQueen resolved to focus his energies on self-improvement and embraced the Marines' discipline. He saved the lives of five other Marines during an Arctic exercise, pulling them from a tank before it broke through ice into the sea.[7][16] He was assigned to the honor guard, responsible for guarding then US President Harry Truman's yacht.[7] McQueen served until 1950 when he was honorably discharged. He later said he had enjoyed his time in the Marines.[17]
No idea if it's really true but it sounds like something he'd do.