Posted on 06/29/2006 4:03:07 PM PDT by leadpenny
FORT BENNING, Ga. - Actor Tom Hanks was inducted Thursday as an honorary member of the U.S. Army's Ranger Hall of Fame for his accurate portrayal of a World War II Army Ranger company commander in the movie "Saving Private Ryan" and for his continued commitment to honoring those who served in the war.
Besides his role in "Saving Private Ryan," Hanks was cited for serving as the national spokesman for the World War II Memorial Campaign, for being the honorary chairman of the D-Day Museum Capital Campaign, and for his role in writing and helping to produce the Emmy Award-winning miniseries, "Band of Brothers."
Hanks, who was unable to attend the induction ceremony, becomes the first actor to receive such an honor.
Each year, the Army's elite Ranger units and regimental associations nominate a small number of Ranger Hall of Fame candidates, who are then scrutinized by a selection board. All but honorary inductees like Hanks have to be graduates of the Army's grueling Ranger School at Fort Benning, or they have to have served in a Ranger unit.
The latest 17 inductees were mostly career soldiers, ranging from generals to sergeants. The only civilian was U.S. Rep. Jim Marshall (news, bio, voting record), whose district is in the middle Georgia, including Macon. Marshall is a decorated Vietnam War veteran, Ranger school graduate and member of the House Armed Services Committee.
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On The Net
Fort Benning: https://http://www.benning.army.mil/infantry/
That's all I ask of Hollyweird.
I don't know what his politics are but I suspect he's fairly liberal. However Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers have played a large part in building my respect for my grandfather.
Hanks is standard liberal but not pushy about it. He knows that a good portion of his audience doesn't share his politics, and is smart enough not to go out of his way to alienate them.
If he's a lefty at least he's not doing it out in public.
Good, a lot of folks are not defined by their politics...Yeah, I know, hard to believe....
'Band of Brothers' was the best film production I've ever seen on Americans at war.
'Band of Brothers' was the best film production I've ever seen on Americans at war
AMEN - I never tire of watching it.
"'Band of Brothers' was the best film production I've ever seen on Americans at war."
I loved it, too. It was almost like a "lost weekend" when I watched it. I didn't want to do anything else. Unplugged the phone, didn't check our e-mail, etc. It was that riveting.
Hanks character was played well, but I thought the Rangers were horribly portrayed.
They seemed like the usual hodgepodge of Hollywood sad sacks, rather than elite commandos.
The first part of the film was great, but once they started patrolling in enemy territory the story started going down hill quickly.
I would put Jeff Daniels in the quiet lefty category as well. I caught a few minutes of an interview with Daniels on PBS a week or so back. The host tried to pressure Daniels into talking about politics but he just changed the subject.
"Pvt Ryan" (first 20 minutes) had a powerful effect on me but I think Hanks' portrayal of Pvt Gump during the ambush and recovery of Bubba sequence ranked right up there too.
Such an honor, and the bastard doesn't even show!
I heard it was excellent - I'll buy the DVD sometime this summer.
It followed very closely of my uncle's trail in the War. He had never talked about it but can boast 5 battle stars.
I asked him one time if he was in the Battle of the Bulge. He said, "Yeah".
I asked what's it like? He replied, "It was damn cold!"
Read the article....about the ones given this honor...and it is an honor.
I hope there's a good reason he didn't show.
Something sticks in my head that I heard a couple of days ago that he is working on two movies now.
I think I'm going to throw up.
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