Warbird Information Exchange

Is there anyone better than the actor Jimmy Stewart. His war record included 20 combat missions as command pilot. After being promoted to squadron commander, he became operations officer, and from 1944 to 1945 served as chief of staff, 2nd Combat Wing, 2nd Division, 8th Air Force.

http://www.jimmy.org/bio/military.html

Tom Poston (Newhart) 8AF B-17 gunner
Jack Palance 8AF P-51 pilot
Ed McMahon (Johnny Carson Show) USMC Corsair Pilot
Wayne Bert Morris Hellcat ace with 7 kills VF-15 USS Essex
George Gobel 8AF P-51 pilot
name? Buzz Corey Commander of Space Patrol 2 kills as P-51 pilot 363rd FG
Dan David aka Dan Rowen of Laugh-in 2 kills has P-40 pilot in 49th FG in New Guinea

That must have been a very different Hollywood. Maybe just somewhat different.

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Don't forget:

Ronald Reagan (All those great training films!)

Charlton Heston (Crewed on B-25's in the Aleutians)

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It was a good idea, it just didn't work.

There are many others besides the great Jimmy Stewart as we listed here. Here's another, Charles Bronson who was a tailgunner on a B-29.

TYRONNE POWER FLEW 1000 HOURS IN THE PACIFIC FLYING TRANSPORTS INCLUDING MANY RUNS CARRYING WOUNDED MARINES OUT OF IWO JIMA.

Clark Gable- B-17 gunner, Shot that cool color combat/training/good job movie.

Paul Newman-Crewman on SBD, TBM, I can't remember which.

Ted Williams- Fighter pilot, WW2 and Korea. Bad Ass.

There were some impressive non-aircraft jobs too.

Eddie Albert- Landing boat commander, driver. Tarawa. I saw an interview with him were he said he would try to pick up marines that were behind the wall that had lost their weapons, they refused to leave. When he came back they were all dead.

Rod Serling- Paratrooper, trapped fighting for two + days on an island in the pacific, I think in the philipines. This has been said to have affected him profoundly throughout his life.

Mel Brooks- US Army infantry, Fought through to germany. I saw an interview where he told a very funny war story. He was a sergant, and his platoon had found a box with scoped sniper rifles in it. So they decided to play with them and shoot the ceramic things off of telephone poles for awhile. They stopped and put the rifles back when they got an urgent radio call from HQ saying to expect a german attack immediately, because all land line communications had just been cut in their entire area of the front.

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Deep Thoughts,
Jack Handy

I guess what surprised me the most in reading about Jimmy Stewart's war record was the fact that he flew 20 combat missions as a bomber pilot. The odds to survive that many missions was very low.

President Bush Sr. Flew TBMs, was shot down and sent a couple months as a Bubblehead.

Wasn't President Carter Aircrew on B-25s? I somehow remember hearing about that, or was it someone else?

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Ed Kemmer was the Commander in Chief of the Space Patrol series. He did fly P-51"s as mentioned above. He flew with my dad in the 381st Sqdn./363rd Fighter Group, 9th Air Force. He was shot down on June 17, 1944 over occupied France & slightly wounded by a German soldier & taken prisoner. Dad said he was quite a charcter!

Regards
Robbie Stuart

How about PVT Lee Marvin (aka Captain America named by the guys in his unit and of DIRTY DOZEN/BIG RED ONE fame) wounded taking Saipan?

Don Rickles (Comedian/Actor KELLY's HEROES) served in the Navy on a PT Boat Tender where he exchanged fire with straffing Zeros in the Pacific. Always wondered if he ever met Kennedy during the war?

Jackie Coogan (uncle Fester) flew gliders CBI.

The fundemental difference between Stewart and the others is that he was already famous at the time he flew Combat. He'd won an Oscar and could easily have found a way out, yet he went in as a cadet and won his wings and then was flying Combat as a B24 pilot.

Ted Williams certainly is in the same league so to speak. That he lost time in is baseball career twice, in WW2 and Korea, considering the average career span of a professional athlete, speaks volumes to his sacrifice.

Gable did the training films and flew along on some missions but not the same as what Stewart did by far.

Dan

I think there was an NFL player that was killed within the past 6 months or so in the Middle East. With that one exception, I can't think of any celebrity types who have put themselves at risk in the current war. There have been a few celebrites go over to entertain the troops though. They certianly have my gratitude.