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I recall that great line from Josey Wales: "Doing right ain't got no end" -
Why honor a guy who played a WW2 vet on TV, yet draft dodged the real thing?
Plenty of real ones to read about."The first gun that was fired at Fort Sumter sounded the death-knell of slavery. They who fired it were the greatest practical abolitionists this nation has produced." ~BG D. UllmanComment
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And what's your military experience?
As for your 'signature' statement about the first gun fired is wrong. Read up about what happened before Ft. Sumter!Comment
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On TV?
Wiki: "America's entry into World War II resulted in a deluge of support for the war effort from all sectors of society, and Hollywood was no exception. Wayne was exempted from service due to his age (34 at the time of Pearl Harbor) and family status (classified as 3-A – family deferment). Wayne repeatedly wrote to John Ford saying he wanted to enlist, on one occasion inquiring whether he could get into Ford's military unit, but consistently kept postponing it until after "he finished just one or two pictures".[36] Wayne did not attempt to prevent his reclassification as 1-A (draft eligible), but Republic Studios was emphatically resistant to losing him since he was their only A-list actor under contract. Herbert J. Yates, President of Republic, threatened Wayne with a lawsuit if he walked away from his contract,[37] and Republic Pictures intervened in the Selective Service process, requesting Wayne's further deferment.[38]"
Which was the greater contribution to the war effort, making propaganda pictures, or serving in a motor pool, warehouse & shipping unit, or some bureaucratic paper shuffling job; nobody his age was going to be sent to the front line.Comment
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Good post.. and the rest of the story..making propaganda pictures was a great contribution to the war effort,Comment
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In 1943 weightlifting and bodybuilding champion Dan Lurie-age 20-went for his pre-induction physical. He was declared 4-F. Heart murmurs. I knew plenty of men who tried to enlist in the 1960s and failed their physicals, we had one recruit in my BCT company at Fort Dix in the Summer of 1967 who received a medical discharge. Reagan was restricted to stateside duty due to vision problems.Comment
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My Dad was 35 years old, had a broken back from a motorcycle accident, and was in a reserve occupation -- oil exploration. So instead of military service, he went into one of the most inhospitable regions in the world, the upper Amazon, looking for oil (he found it.) He was there for the great Motoloni Uprising and had hair-raising stories to tell about it.Comment
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In WWII 30% of the Army remained stateside, all those installations required cooks, clerks, truck drivers, mechanics-Permanent Party in my day. The training units required large numbers of people. It was the practice then that the honor graduates of many schools were immediately recycled as instructors-my SIL's late father, e.g., in the Navy, electronics, ensured that instruction was conducted by the best and the brightest and allowed them to expand class sizes.Comment
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Staying home was no picnic.
The noise from all those Rosies riviting must have been deafening.Comment
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It's way beyond weird that you could draw such a crazy conclusion. Wayne made his wartime contribution in the most effective way he could--by doing what he did best, making movies for the homefront audience. And since H'wood was making as many movies during, as before, the war for theaters, along with all sorts of training films for military use, it obvious that the Defense Dept. believed the actors, technicians, stage hands, etc., also deserved deferments.Comment
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