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

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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!! :-)

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