[Illbay]

Bleier was not a "celebrity" before he saw service in Vietnam. Not taking away anything from his service, but the point of this article is that people in the World War II era, who actually had something to lose by joining the military were knocking themselves out to do so. Ted Williams, Clark Gable, my personal hero Jimmy Stewart, Hedy Lamarr (who helped develop the precursor to the first sophisticated torpedo guidance system--did anyone know that?), Ronald Reagan, Tyrone Power, Glenn Miller, and many, many others dumped their lush lifestyles and gave all they had to the cause.

You're not going to find anything like that. Pat Tillman is the only thing remotely close, and the majority of people you ask won't even know who he is.

N.B. I was most impressed to realize that Greg Kelly, the intrepid FNC reporter embedded with the 3ID during the Iraq campaign, is a Major in the USMCR.

[fnord]

... Hedy Lamarr (who helped develop the precursor to the first sophisticated torpedo guidance system--did anyone know that?)

Which is also the basis for our modern cellular phone systems too, right?

[optik_b]

Ronald Reagan had very limited military service, never overseas. You must be thinking of his movie roles ;-)

Reagan was a great patriot and he had a fine life of public service but putting him on a list of war veterans would be like including Josh Hartnett because he acted in Blackhawk Down.

[AFreeBird]

Greg Kelly, the intrepid FNC reporter embedded with the 3ID during the Iraq campaign, is a Major in the USMCR

And, IIRC, a Harrier driver to boot!