Captain Gerald E. Rogers, U.S. Navy (Retired)
Lieutenant (junior grade) Edward Albert Heimberger (Eddie Albert, Green Acres). Eddie Albert clearly was a hero. He served on the attack transport USS Sheridan (APA-31) and was instrumental in the rescue of Marines at the Island of Betio in the savage Battle of Tarawa.
Rear Admiral Michael Jabaley, U.S. Navy (Retired)
Bob Feller enlisted in the Navy on 8 December 1941, putting his baseball career on hold. Serving the entirety of the war and seeing action in both Atlantic and Pacific theaters, he was a gun captain on the USS Alabama (BB-60) and earned eight battle stars and the rank of chief petty officer.
Navy Chief Bob Feller on board the USS Alabama (BB-60) in late 1942. Naval History and Heritage Command.
Lieutenant Commander Glenn L. Smith, U.S. Navy (Retired)
Ted Williams was a captain in the Marine Corps Reserve. He put his Boston Red Sox bat down twice to serve, first as a World War II naval flight instructor, then during the Korean War in which he flew 39 Marine F4U Corsair combat missions, including some as John Glenn’s wingman.
Bob Bell
Actor Wayne Morris (Kid Galahad, 1937). He became a private pilot while filming Flight Angels (1940). After Pearl Harbor he joined the Naval Reserve and became a naval aviator. Pulling strings to get into combat, Morris was credited with seven aerial victories and was awarded four Distinguished Flying Crosses and two Air Medals.
Actors Second Lieutenant Jimmy Stewart and Ensign Wayne Morris. Naval History and Heritage Command.
Patrick S. Cole
Actor George O’Brien (Daniel Boone, 1936) served in the Navy in World War I as a stretcher bearer to Marines and in World War II as a beachmaster during the Pacific landings, perhaps the most dangerous job in the Navy. O’Brien was also light heavyweight boxing champion of the Pacific Fleet. My father, a Marine, Philip “King” Cole, fought him several times.
Al Schafer, U.S. Navy Veteran
Actor Lee Marvin (Cat Ballou, 1965) enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1942 and was severely wounded in June 1944 during the assault on Mount Tapochau in the Battle of Saipan. He was hit by machine gun fire, which severed his sciatic nerve, and then was hit again in the foot by a sniper.
U.S. Marine Corps Private Lee Marvin, 1943. U.S. Marine Corps.
Captain Howard C. Cohen, U.S. Navy Reserve (Retired)
In World War II, the actor Douglas Fairbanks Jr. (Gunga Din, 1939) initiated the Beach Jumpers, a military deception unit. Among awards, he received the Legion of Merit with Bronze V (for valor), foreign honors for the amphibious assault on southern France, and the Silver Star for valor while serving on PT boats.
Lieutenant Colonel Laurence D. Bradley, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve (Retired)
Lieutenant Colonel Gerald F. (Jerry) Coleman played nine years for the New York Yankees and was the only major league baseball player to serve in combat in both World War II and Korea. He flew 57 missions in World War II and 63 in Korea and was awarded two Distinguished Flying Crosses and 13 Air Medals.
Commander Earl Higgins, U.S. Navy (Retired)
Humphry Bogart (Casablanca, 1942) enlisted in the Navy in 1918 and served on board the troop transport USS Leviathan. During his Navy service he acquired the scar on his lip that characterized his acting career. The cause of the scar may have been from a fight or from German shelling.
Lindsey Neas, U.S. Army Veteran
Jack Lummus played football for the New York Giants in 1941. Shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor he became a Marine. While commanding a platoon with the 27th Marines on Iwo Jima, First Lieutenant Lummus destroyed three enemy emplacements under heavy fire, was mortally wounded, and was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
Commander John M. McGrail, U.S. Navy (Retired)
During World War II as a Marine Corps second lieutenant, actor Sterling Hayden (The Godfather, 1972) was assigned to the Office of Strategic Services (precursor of the CIA). He conducted multiple covert boat trips to supply Yugoslav partisans and rescue downed flyers. Hayden was awarded the U.S. Silver Star and Yugoslavia’s Order of Merit by leader Josip Tito.
Dave Kisor, U.S. Navy Veteran
Eddie Albert from Green Acres. He distinguished himself in the Battle of Tarawa as a salvage officer who rescued as many Marines as he could while under intense machine gun fire. As an actor, he photographed German U-Boats in Mexico for the Army.
Captain John J. Connaughton, U.S. Marine Corps (Retired)
Tyrone Power (The Mark of Zorro, 1940) was a highly successful motion picture actor when he joined the Marines in 1942. After officer training and subsequent flight training, he was deemed too old (he was 30) to fly combat aircraft. He flew R5C Commandos taking ammunition into Iwo Jima and Okinawa and bringing wounded Marines out.
Lieutenant Colonel Gregory Johnson, U.S. Marine Corps (Retired)
Lieutenant Edward Wayne LeBaron. He was an infantry Marine company commander in the Korean War (Bronze Star with “V” and two Purple Hearts). He was also an all-American quarterback at College of Pacific, is in the College Football Hall of Fame, was an NFL All-Pro quarterback and is in the Washington Redskins Hall of Fame, and was the first Dallas Cowboys quarterback.
Sean Plankey
Football great Otto Graham is perhaps the most interesting Sea Service member. He enlisted in the Coast Guard following the attack on Pearl Harbor, was a World War II veteran, and then Coast Guard Academy football coach and, later, athletic director. He is perhaps one of the top five greatest quarterbacks of all time, winning seven NFL championships prior to the Super Bowl.
Commander Otto Graham, U.S. Coast Guard, receiving his College Football Hall of Fame certificate. U.S. Coast Guard.
Lieutenant Commander Bob Fliegel, U.S. Navy (Retired)
Heavyweight boxing champion Jack Dempsey was a commander in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve during World War II and director of its Manhattan Beach training facility. He sold war bonds with Minneapolis Star sports editor Charlie Johnson and Mayor Hubert Humphrey in my dad’s 620 Club at the end of the war and introduced my dad to my mother!
Joseph Boeke, Associate Vice President, Boise State University
Actor Steve McQueen served in a Marine Corps armored unit and was demoted back to private seven times. He also let a weekend pass turn into a two-week “leave” with a girlfriend. He wasn’t just a discipline challenge, however. During a training exercise in the Arctic, a sandbar caused McQueen’s ship to jolt several tanks off the deck. He jumped into the water and saved five lives.
Patricia Herschkowitz, National Co-Chair of Submarine Industrial Base Council
Aspirations to play baseball were put aside when the future New York Yankee Jerry Coleman joined the Marine Corps at 18. In the Pacific, he flew 57 bomber combat missions, which earned him two Distinguished Flying Crosses and seven Air Medals. Today, the Jerry Coleman Award honors Marine noncommissioned officers.
William E. Walsh, U.S. Navy Veteran
Baseball great Ted Williams received his Marine Corps commission 2 May 1944, serving until 28 January 1946 and recalled to active-duty 9 January 1952–28 July 1953. He flew 37 combat missions in Korea, returning to the Boston Red Sox for seven seasons. He entered the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1966.
Major Ken Hampshire, U.S. Marine Corps (Reserve)
Must be Ted Williams. Teddy “Ballgame’s” Marine aviation career was interrupted by professional baseball, but he still managed to win one of his two Triple Crowns during the break between his World War II and Korean War service on the greatest team he ever played for.
Captain Woody Sanford, U.S. Navy Reserve (Retired)
Roger Staubach. He won the Heisman Trophy as a junior at the Naval Academy, then after graduation served five years on active duty in the Navy, including service in Vietnam. In the NFL with the Dallas Cowboys, he became an all-star, Hall of Fame quarterback and won two Super Bowls. A hero by any description!
Jim Atkins
The 1940s actor Wayne Morris (Kid Galahad, 1937), not terribly well known today, made quite a few movies before and after his service. He had become a private pilot before joining the Navy. He was assigned to Air Wing 15 on board Essex, became an ace, and flew with David McCampbell, the Navy’s leading World War II ace. Quite a career for a mere supporting actor.
Captain Michael H. Kennedy, U.S. Navy (Retired)
John Philip Sousa (1854–1932) was a prolific composer of rousing marches. His career, all with bands, included 19 years in the Marine Corps as a sergeant major and two years in the Navy as a lieutenant commander. His marches are still enjoyed today!
Rear Admiral T.E. McKnight, U.S. Navy (Retired)
There is no doubt that Arnold Palmer distinguished himself as a great Coast Guard veteran, professional athlete and remarkable American—he gave it all to our country.
Captain Michael Sebastino, U.S. Navy (Retired)
Oscar-winning actor Jimmy Stewart, who starred in The Philadelphia Story (1940) and It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), was a decorated B-24 Liberator pilot who flew 20 combat missions in World War II. He continued to serve in the Air Force Reserves, eventually retiring as a brigadier general after 27 years of service.
Theodore Kuhlmeier, U.S. Marine Corps Veteran
Clark Gable. Though in his 40s, he wrangled his way to an Army Air Force commission. Before the higher command thought better of it, he flew combat missions in B-24s. He carried a pistol because, if his plane was shot down, he vowed never to be taken prisoner alive. He was soon grounded on orders of Air Force commanders to prevent such an occurrence and the subsequent propaganda bonanza to Hitler.
