Eddie Albert, who became a household name starring opposite Eva Gabor in the hit television comedy "Green Acres," is gone. The actor, who worked constantly throughout the entertainment industry and was twice nominated for the Academy Award as a supporting actor, died of pneumonia on 27 May 2005. What not quite so many may remember is his service during World War II. He didn't have to go, but he did. Eddie Albert was 37 when he was commissioned.
Before joining the Navy in 1943, Edward Heimberger had been a singer on NBC radio, played on Broadway, and acted in six Hollywood movies. He could well have opted to do his part in the war as part of a USO troupe, but instead the 37-year-old lieutenant junior grade preferred to go in harm 's way.
Reporting for duty in the troop transport USS Sheridan (APA-151), Lieutenant Heimberger soon found himself on a landing craft that had been as signed as assistant control boat for the landings at Tarawa in November 1943.
As the assault began on tiny Betio islet at the south end of the atoll, the boats could not get over the coral reefs, and the Marines had to debark five-hundred yards from the beach. Murderous enemy fire began decimating the Americans as they struggled to get ashore. Soon there were many dead and nearly a hundred wounded in the waist deep water. Heimberger charged in and began pulling Marines to safety while he and his crew were subjected to heavy fire.
Taking the rescued Marines to safety, he then formed a small flotilla of LCVPs and went back in to effect more rescues. Despite the withering fire from shore, he was able to rescue more than forty men from certain death.
Years later, when asked about the experience, his recollections focused not upon his own obvious heroism but on that of the men who had come to storm ashore. At one point he had encountered a group of Marines who were unhurt but had lost their weapons when their landing craft had been sunk. When Heimberger offered them rescue, they refused and asked him to instead bring them weapons so that they could continue their assault. He did so, but on his return, he found that most of them had perished under enemy fire.
After the war, Edward Heimberger returned to his entertainment career, using the stage name he had adopted after being called "Eddie Hamburger" once too often. Dropping his surname, he chose to use his middle name "Albert" instead. Many years into his career, when an interviewer asked which of his many accomplishments meant the most to him, he replied that it was his stint as a landing craft commander on the beaches of Tarawa—a role that earned him a Bronze Star and the gratitude of forty-some Marines who lived to see another day.
Eddie Albert was 99.