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2005-11-11 Home Front: Culture Wars

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Posted by Mike 2005-11-11 06:51|| || Front Page|| [11125 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 My personal favorite - Rather signed up with the Marines only once, and "never got through Marine recruit training because he couldn't do the physical activity," Burkett says. And he notes that Rather was "discharged less than four months later on May 11, 1954 for being medically unfit." And yet, Rather has been known to brag about his "career" in the Marines.

Rather has "made such a big deal out of this 'I'm a Marine' thing," Burkett says. "This is like a guy who flunks out of Harvard running around saying he graduated from Harvard. "You're not a real Marine until you get out of basic training. And Rather never did."

Even worse, the network anchor who ferociously attacked both Vice President Dan Quayle and President George W. Bush for avoiding Vietnam service himself took steps to avoid service in the Korean War. While a student at Sam Houston University in the early 1950s, Rather joined the Army Reserve, "thus avoiding the possibility of being drafted," Burkett notes. By the time Rather graduated, the Korean War was history.

"The second the Korean War was over, and he wasn't in jeopardy anymore, he dropped out of the Army Reserve," Burkett says. And that's when Rather enlisted in the Marine Corps.

Having failed as a fighting man, he went on to fight for the truth, even if it wasn't accurate.

Posted by Bobby 2005-11-11 07:44|| 2005-11-11 07:44|| Front Page Top

#2 A small but maybe yummy nit to pick....
While a student at Sam Houston University in the early 1950s,

At time it was the Sam Houston Institute for Teachers.

Great sweatshirts.

Posted by Shipman 2005-11-11 07:54|| 2005-11-11 07:54|| Front Page Top

#3 LOL, Mr Shipman!

Posted by Regnad Kcin 2005-11-11 07:55|| 2005-11-11 07:55|| Front Page Top

#4 You know, this really should be against the law - with 5-10 years in prison.

Quadruple that if they attempt to get any benefits.

I am not a veteran, I have a lot of respect for those who are. I would never even think about lying about it. This kind of bullshit is outragous.

Posted by CrazyFool 2005-11-11 08:16|| 2005-11-11 08:16|| Front Page Top

#5 Here's my question:

These guys have family. So, why didn't the family members notice they were not gone during the time in question.

Just weird.

Posted by badanov 2005-11-11 09:05|| http://www.freefirezone.org]">[http://www.freefirezone.org] 2005-11-11 09:05|| Front Page Top

#6 After I put this up, I realized I'd left out the best one:

Going through life feeling cheap and accursed cannot be pleasant--which is why, presumably, so many gentlemen go through it pretending they shot down the Red Baron, survived the Bataan Death March, or helped capture Saddam Hussein, as some fraud has probably claimed to have done while an admirer paid for his drink. Those who encounter these phony heroes will likely go home with a good story. But nothing they hear will top the true story of the man who wandered into a chapter of the American Legion in Washington state a few years ago wanting to become a member. Like many stories of military frauds, this one comes by way of champion hoax-exposer B. G. Burkett.

The applicant--who was Asian American--filled out a form indicating he was a veteran of the Vietnam War, and had been honorably discharged. He became a valued member of the chapter, eventually winning office as the chapter commander.

There was just one hitch. This man was a Vietnam veteran, all right. But he'd neglected to mention that he'd fought for North Vietnam. Once this shocking fact was revealed--despite his popularity with his fellow vets--the soldier's membership was gone with the wind.

"Uh, sorry . . . Charlie."

Posted by Mike 2005-11-11 09:08|| 2005-11-11 09:08|| Front Page Top

#7 A quick google of Actors military service -

This is a partial list of actors who suspended their careers to serve in the United States Armed Forces after America was attacked on December 7, 1941 â¦

Eddie Albert - U.S. Navy â¦ Saw combat on Saipan and Tarawa. Earned the Bronze Star.

Gene Autry â U.S. Army Air Corps â¦ Flew cargo planes in China, Burma and India

Humphrey Bogart â U.S. Navy â¦ Wounded in World War I, he tried to enlist after Pearl Harbor but was turned down because of his age.

Neville Brand - U.S. Army â¦ Wounded in action

Jackie Coogan â U.S. Army Air Corps ... Volunteered for hazardous duty with the 1st Air Commando Group

James Daly â U.S. Army and U.S. Navy

Sammy Davis, Jr. â U.S. Army â¦ Assigned to Special Services Command

Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. â U.S. Navy ... Served on a battleship and as a commando raider. Helped to organize the forerunners of today's Navy SEALs.

Henry Fonda - U.S. Navy ... Served aboard a destroyer in the Pacific. Earned a Bronze Star for Valor.

Glenn Ford â U.S. Marine Corps â¦ Earned a number of citations and awards for combat action. After the war, he transferred his commission to the U.S. Naval Reserve.

Clark Gable â U.S. Army Air Corps â¦ Enlisted in 1942 at age 41. Volunteered for combat duty and flew missions over Germany. Earned the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal.

Charlton Heston â U.S. Army Air Corps â¦ B-25 gunner; saw action in the Pacific.

William Holden â U.S. Army Air Corps â¦ Served 1942-1945. His brother, a U.S. Navy pilot, was killed in the Pacific in 1944.

Brian Keith â U.S. Marine Corps â¦ Saw combat on Rabal

Werner Klemperer â U.S. Army â¦ Stationed in Hawaii as a Military Policeman, he auditioned for and was accepted into Maurice Evans' Special Services unit.

Nancy Kulp â U.S. Navy â¦ Served as a Navy WAVE

Bert Lancaster â U.S. Army â¦ Served in Tunisia and Italy

Tim McCoy - Served in both World War I and World War II

Ed McMahon â U.S. Marine Corps â¦ Became a fighter pilot in 1944. Recalled to active duty in 1952 for the Korean War and flew 85 combat missions.

Burgess Meredith â U.S. Army Air Corps

Glenn Miller â U.S. Army â¦ Assigned to the Army Specialist Corps. Convinced the Military that he could modernize the Army Band and improve the morale of the troops. Organized the Glenn Miller Army Air Force Band. His plane disappeared on 15 December 1944 over the English Channel.

Robert Montgomery â U.S. Navy â¦ Enlisted in the British Military before American joined the war and drove ambulances in France until the Dunkirk invasion. When America entered the war, he joined the U.S. Navy and served as a Naval AttachÃ© on British destroyers hunting German U-Boats. He commanded a PT boat and participated in the D-Day invasion aboard a destroyer.

Wayne Morris â U.S. Navy â¦ Flew 57 combat missions in the Pacific. Shot down seven Japanese aircraft, becoming an âAceâ. Credited with assisting the sinking of five Japanese warships.

Lee Powell â U.S. Marine Corps â¦ Saw action at Tarawa and Saipan before being killed in action in the Marianas.

Tyrone Power â U.S. Marine Corps â¦ Enlisted immediately after Pearl Harbor. Flew wounded Marines from Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

Gene Raymond - Served in both World War II and Vietnam

Ronald Reagan â U.S. Army Air Corps â¦ Enlisted in the Army Reserve in 1937; commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant and was called to active duty in 1942. Because of a hearing loss, he was not allowed to fly, so he was assigned to make training films.

John Russell â U.S. Marine Corps â¦ Wounded at Guadalcanal

Robert Ryan - U.S. Marine Corps â¦ Served with the O.S.S. in Yugoslavia

Rod Serling â U.S. Army â¦ Severely wounded by shrapnel during the invasion of the Philippines

Jimmy Stewart â U.S. Army Air Corps â¦ Flew B-17 and B-24 combat missions, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal, France's Croix de Guerre and 7 Battle Stars. His son, 1st Lt. Ronald McLean, was killed in Vietnam in 1969.

Lewis Stone - Served in the Spanish-American War, World War I and World War II

These actors attempted to serve but were turned down because of medical conditions â¦ Fred Astaire, Marlon Brando, Gary Cooper, Errol Flynn, Cary Grant, Bob Hope, Peter Lawford, Gregory Peck, George Raft, John Wayne and Richard Widmark

After Sept 11, 2001 - ?
Michael Von vouches that Bruce Willis tried, but like the was turned down. iirc age.

Posted by Cheng Theating1514 2005-11-11 09:17|| 2005-11-11 09:17|| Front Page Top

#8 survived the Bataan Death March

My father was good friends with a survivor of the Bataan Death March. You can tell because real vets rarely, if ever, talk about it.

Posted by Raj 2005-11-11 09:27|| 2005-11-11 09:27|| Front Page Top

#9 Two ironies of military records. The first was Edward M. Stanton, Lincoln's Secretary of War, who was convinced that after the Civil War, there was going to be litigation beyond anyone's wildest imaginings. For this reason, he directed that every scrap of paper that was created or made available to the War Department be saved. And when Confederate records were captured, that they, too, were added to the immense pile.

Because of him, in US history at the time of the Civil War we now have an amazing and useful demographic survey of the US, to include information about every soldier on both sides of the war. American geneology began in earnest with Edward M. Stanton.

The other irony was the tremendous loss of military records information from World War I, World War II, and the Korean Conflict (1916-1964)in a terrible fire in 1973. And though efforts have been made to reconstruct this terrible loss, we actually know more about the US military during the Civil War than we do about the composition of the US army in WWI, WWII, and Korea.

Posted by Anonymoose 2005-11-11 09:42|| 2005-11-11 09:42|| Front Page Top

#10 interesting factoids.

Actually, it's usually not hard to tell the real heroes from the posers. The real heroes are usually the guys who don't brag about being heroes. isn't that one of life's little truths!

Posted by 2b 2005-11-11 10:26|| 2005-11-11 10:26|| Front Page Top

#11 Werner Klemperer: I believe he played Commander Klink in Hogan's Heroes, right?

Posted by Ptah">Ptah 2005-11-11 10:31|| http://www.crusaderwarcollege.org]">[http://www.crusaderwarcollege.org] 2005-11-11 10:31|| Front Page Top

#12 Werner Klemperer: I believe he played Commander Klink in Hogan's Heroes, right?

I know nothing, NOTHING!!!

Posted by Sgt. Schultz 2005-11-11 12:14|| 2005-11-11 12:14|| Front Page Top

#13 Lewis Stone - Served in the Spanish-American War, World War I and World War II

Judge Hardy always kicked ass.

Posted by Shipman 2005-11-11 12:52|| 2005-11-11 12:52|| Front Page Top

#14 James Doohan:

â¦At 19, James escaped the turmoil at home by joining the Canadian army, becoming a lieutenant in artillery. He was among the Canadian forces that landed on Juno Beach on D-Day. âThe sea was rough,â he recalled. âWe were more afraid of drowning than the Germans.â

The Canadians crossed a minefield laid for tanks; the soldiers werenât heavy enough to detonate the bombs. At 11:30 that night, he was machine-gunned, taking six hits: one that took off his middle right finger (he managed to hide the missing finger on the screen), four in his leg and one in the chest. Fortunately the chest bullet was stopped by his silver cigarette case.

Posted by Chuck Simmins">Chuck Simmins 2005-11-11 13:49|| http://blog.simmins.org]">[http://blog.simmins.org] 2005-11-11 13:49|| Front Page Top

#15 Let's not forget Ted Williams (WWII and Korea), Bob Dole (WWII), Daniel Inouye (WWII), and John McCain (Vietnam).

Posted by Eric Jablow">Eric Jablow 2005-11-11 15:42|| 2005-11-11 15:42|| Front Page Top

#16 even Elvis served. Tom Harkin served as well, he just lies about it, a la Sen Kerry

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2005-11-11 15:46|| 2005-11-11 15:46|| Front Page Top

#17 Another odd veteran fact: the British actor Anthony Quayle, who played an OSS operative in "The Guns of Navarone"... actually WAS an OSS operative during WWII, although his real-life tour of duty in the Balkans was much less eventful. He and Jimmy Stewart are the only two actors I can recollect who played in a movie what they had done in in life in a real war.

Posted by Sgt. Mom">Sgt. Mom 2005-11-11 18:43|| www.sgtstryker.com]">[www.sgtstryker.com] 2005-11-11 18:43|| Front Page Top

#18 Audie Murphy: To Hell and Back

Posted by ed 2005-11-11 18:56|| 2005-11-11 18:56|| Front Page Top

#19 Make it three, then... but calling Audie Murphy an actor is a bit of a stretch.
Oh, heck, they keep describing Madonna as an actor(ess). Make it three.

Posted by Sgt. Mom">Sgt. Mom 2005-11-11 19:02|| www.sgtstryker.com]">[www.sgtstryker.com] 2005-11-11 19:02|| Front Page Top

#20

There was just one hitch. This man was a Vietnam veteran, all right. But he'd neglected to mention that he'd fought for North Vietnam. Once this shocking fact was revealed--despite his popularity with his fellow vets--the soldier's membership was gone with the wind.

I find myself feeling sorry for this guy. I don't know if y'all realize this or not, but a fair fraction of the surviving Viet Cong wound up as refugees both here and elsewhere because the victorious government of the North was putting many of them into re-education camps right alongside the ARVN guys. They didn't want anyone getting any bright "ideas" about guerilla warfare possibly working against them.

Posted by Phil 2005-11-11 20:03|| 2005-11-11 20:03|| Front Page Top

#21 Add Harold Russell. It's sad; I read what his son had done in one of Edna Buchanan's books.

Posted by Eric Jablow">Eric Jablow 2005-11-11 20:43|| 2005-11-11 20:43|| Front Page Top

#22 David Niven trained at Sandhurst. During World War II he served in the British army, rising to the rank of colonel in the British Commandos and landing at Normandy. BTW, his batman was Private Peter Ustinov.

Posted by Pappy 2005-11-11 20:47|| 2005-11-11 20:47|| Front Page Top

#23 And let's add the greatest showman of all, the friend of the little people himself, Bill Veeck, Jr. I have to find a picture of his Bicentennial July 4th tribute, when he marched with his peg-leg while playing a fife, a kid with a bandaged head marched with a drum, etc.

Posted by Eric Jablow">Eric Jablow 2005-11-11 20:48|| 2005-11-11 20:48|| Front Page Top

00:23 JosephMendiola
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