Before you knew them as actors, musicians, politicians and important personalities, these brave men and women served their respective countries in both times of war and times of peace. This page serves as nothing more than a way to honor that legacy of commitment and service.
Before you knew them as actors, musicians, politicians and important personalities, these brave men and women served their respective countries in both times of war and times of peace...
This page serves as nothing more than a way to honor that legacy of commitment and service.
This hard-boiled actor, with an admirable anti-hero quality, had plenty of true life experience in the military to bring an authenticity to his performances in movies like Casablanca and The Caine Mutiny.
In the spring of 1918, Bogart left, or was asked to leave, prep school to serve in the U.S. Navy…
Read MoreSeems Larry Flynt, son of a WWII veteran, was never one for following rules yet always one for championing his personal sense of right and wrong. At the age of 15, he used a false birth certificate to enlist in the US Army. After spending a year amongst the ranks, he was discharged due to low test scores. When Flynt enlisted in the United States Navy in July 1960…
Read MoreHarold Lloyd Jenkins (AKA Conway Twitty) was first drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies after high school before being drafted once again into the US Army. While stationed in Japan, he kept both his dreams alive by forming a band and playing on the local Army baseball team. His first band, the Fuji Mountain Boys represented their Yokohama unit and won the 1954 All-Army Talent Competition.
Read MoreOn May 26, 1827, already a published poet and finding himself in serious debt and poverty, Edgar Allan Poe, enlisted in the United States Army as Edgar A. Perry at the age of 18, lying on the application stating that he was 22.
Rocky Marciano, Rocco Francis Marchegiano, the real Rocky if you ask me, dropped out of high school after the tenth grade to work and help support his family in a variety of jobs — washing dishes, gardening and working both a candy and a shoe factory. On March 4, 1943, at the age of 20, Rocky enlisted the Army in Boston, Massachusetts and was sent overseas to Europe.
Davis was drafted into the US Army in 1944, when was eighteen, and his experiences were not happy ones. When he arrived for basic training he saw a PFC sitting on the steps of the barracks. He walked over to him and said, "Excuse me, buddy. I'm a little lost. Can you tell me where 202 is? The man jerked his head back and said "Two buildings down and I'm not your buddy, you black bastard!"
In 1953, Leonard Nimoy served as a member of the United States Army Reserves. He received his final discharge in November 1955 with the rank of Sergeant. According to the National Archives, Nimoy's Army…
Read MoreIn 1951, after graduating from New York State College for Teachers in Albany, NY, gregarious and outgoing Harvey Milk joined the US Navy. He enlisted during the Korean war conflict where he served aboard the submarine rescue ship USS Kittiwake (ASR-13) as a diving officer. He was later transferred to San Diego where he served as a diving instructor. In 1955, he was honorably discharged at the rank of lieutenant, junior grade.
Read MoreStar Trek’s loveable engineer Montgomery “Scotty” Scott, AKA James Doohan, attended high school at the Sarnia Collegiate Institute and Technical School (SCITS) in Ontario, Canada where he excelled in mathematics and science. His proficiency in these areas prompted him to join the 102nd Royal Canadian Army Cadet Corps in 1938.
Read MoreIn 1906, young Menjou's father, a hotel manager, disapproved of his boy's early interest in show business and him to Culver Military Academy in Indiana for his senior year of high school in the hopes of dissuading him from such a reckless and disreputable career. He went on to Cornell University where he graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering and returned to his early interest of stage and screen work. World War I interrupted his fledgling career and he enlisted in to the US Army Ambulance Service in June of 1917.
Read MoreWith the outbreak of World War II in 1939, a 25 year old Desmond Llewelyn took a break from his stage career and joined the British Army. He was soon commissioned a second lieutenant, serving in the Royal Welch Fusiliers. Deployed to France with the British Expeditionary Force, he was captured in the massive German attack on France in May-June 1940, and spent the remainder of the war as a…
Read MoreAfter graduating high school, young Willie Nelson voluntarily joined the Air Force. In the midst of the Korean War, Willie enlisted hoping to be a jet pilot. He received his first basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, but it was concluded Willie was too “absentminded” (as Willie puts it) to be in the cockpit of a jet. So the Air Force shipped him to Shepherd Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, TX, and eventually to Scott Air Force Base in Illinois for more basic training.
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