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Richard Jaeckel
Richard Jaeckel

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U.S. Navy

WW2 Victory Medal
American actor of film and television.  Got his start in the business at the age of seventeen while working as a mailboy at 20th Century Fox studios in Hollywood. A casting director auditioned him for a key role in the 1943 film Guadalcanal Diary (1943).  After the war he returned to Hollywood in Battleground (1949) and Sands of Iwo Jima (1949) with John Wayne.  He played Lee Marvin's able second-in-command in The Dirty Dozen (1967) for director Robert Aldrich. He also appeared in several other Aldrich films, including Attack (1956), Ulzana's Raid (1972) and Twilight's Last Gleaming (1977).  In his later years, he was known to TV audiences as Lt. Ben Edwards on the NBC series Baywatch.  He also co-starred on Robert Urich's ABC series Spenser: For Hire in the role of Lieutenant Martin Quirk.

Served in WW2 from 1944 to 1948.
Clifton James
Clifton James

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U.S. Army

Silver Star
Bronze Star
Purple Heart
Navy and Marine Corps Presidential Unit Citation
Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal
WW2 Victory Medal
American actor.  He is probably best known for his work with two of the six James Bond 007 actors in the past, Roger Moore in Live and Let Die (1973), The Man With The Golden Gun (1974) and Sean Connery in The Untouchables (1987).  He was in the Paul Newman film Cool Hand Luke, and a temporary one-off replacement for regular Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane (James Best) in the second season Dukes of Hazzard, and in the 1969 film The Reivers.  He also appeared on 13 episodes of the sitcom Lewis & Clark (1981 to 1982).

Served in WW2 as a Combat Infantry Platoon Sergeant in Co. "A" 163rd Inf., 41st Div.  He served forty-two months in the South Pacific, from January 1942 until August 1945.  He spent time in Australia, New Guinea, and the Philippines.  His decorations include: Silver Star, Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Presidential Unit Citation, Combat Infantry Badge and six battle stars.
Sonny James
Sonny James

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U.S. Army
National Guard

National Defense Service Medal
Korean Service Medal
American country music singer and songwriter best known for his 1957 hit, Young Love. Dubbed the Southern Gentleman, James had 72 country and pop chart hits from 1953 to 1983, including a five-year streak of 16 straight among his 23 No. 1 one hits. Twenty-one of his albums reached the country top ten from 1964 to 1976.  He is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame.

His national Guard unit was activated to participate in the Korean War, one of the first U.S. groups to respond to that conflict.  On September 9, 1950 his Alabama Army National Guard unit was sent to Korea, returning home in the fall of 1951.  He was honorably discharged and moved to Nashville.
David Janssen
David Janssen

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 U.S. Army

National Defense Service Medal
American film and television actor who is best known for his starring role as Dr. Richard Kimble in the television series The Fugitive (1963 to 1967) and as Harry Orwell on Harry O.

Served two years as an enlisted man in the early 1950s.  During his Army days he became friends with fellow enlistees, Martin Milner and Clint Eastwood.
Russell Johnson
Russell Johnson

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 U.S. Army Air Forces
& U.S. Army Reserve

Purple Heart
Air Medal
Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal
WW2 Victory Medal
American television and film actor best known as "The Professor" on the CBS television sitcom Gilligan's Island.  Johnson's Hollywood career began in 1952, with the college fraternity hazing expose For Men Only, and with Loan Shark, also released in 1952 and starring George Raft.  His early roles were primarily in westerns and science fiction such as It Came from Outer Space (1953), This Island Earth (1955), Attack of the Crab Monsters (1956), and The Space Children (1958).  He also appeared in a Ma and Pa Kettle vehicle, Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki (1955).

Flew 44 combat missions as a bombardier in B-25 Mitchell bombers.  His plane was shot down in the Philippines in March 1945 during a bombing run against Japanese targets.  The plane had to crash land at the port of Zamboanga.  In this mission, he broke both his ankles and earned a Purple Heart.  He was also awarded the Air Medal, the Good Conduct Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with three service stars, the Philippine Liberation Ribbon with one service star, and the World War II Victory Medal.  He was honorably discharged with the rank of first lieutenant on November 22, 1945.  He then joined the Army Reserve and used the GI Bill to fund his acting studies.
George Jones
George Jones

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 U.S. Marine Corps

National Defense Service Medal
American country music singer known for his long list of hit records, his distinctive voice and phrasing, and his marriage to Tammy Wynette. 

Served during the Korean War and was stationed in California for his entire service.
Henry Jones
Henry Jones

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U.S. Army

WW2 Victory Medal
American actor of stage, film and television.  Jones is remembered for his role as handyman Leroy Jessup in the movie The Bad Seed (1956), a role he originated on Broadway.  Other theatre credits included My Sister Eileen, Hamlet, The Time of Your Life, They Knew What They Wanted, The Solid Gold Cadillac, and Sunrise at Campobello, for which he won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play, and the Outer Critics Circle Award for Performance in a Drama.  Jones appeared in more than 180 movies and television shows.  His screen credits included The Girl Can't Help It, 3:10 to Yuma, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, Vertigo, Cash McCall, The Bramble Bush, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Dirty Dingus Magee, Support Your Local Gunfighter, and Arachnophobia.  On television, Jones appeared in Appointment with Adventure, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Eleventh Hour, Channing, Phyllis, Night Gallery, Emergency!, Gunsmoke, The Twilight Zone, and The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show.

Served in WW2.
James Jones
James Jones

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U.S. Army

Purple Heart
American author known for his explorations of WW2 and its aftermath.  He witnessed the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which led to his first published novel, From Here to Eternity The Thin Red Line reflected his combat experiences on Guadalcanal. His last novel, Whistle, was based on his hospital stay in Memphis, Tennessee, recovering from surgery on an ankle he had reinjured on the island.

Enlisted in 1939 and served in the 25th Infantry Division before and during WW2, first in Hawaii at Schofield Barracks on Oahu, then in combat on Guadalcanal, where he was wounded in action.
James Earl Jones
James Earl Jones

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 U.S. Army

National Defense Service Medal
American actor of theater and film, well known for his distinctive bass voice and for his portrayal of characters of substance, gravitas and leadership.  He is known for providing the voice of Darth Vader in the Star Wars franchise and the tagline for CNN.

Commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1953 and attend Basic Infantry Officers School.  Stationed in Colorado at a cold weather training command at the old Camp Hale.  Earned the rank of First Lieutenant.
Ralph Jones
Ralph Jordan

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U.S. Army

Bronze Star
Purple Heart
European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal
Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal
WW2 Victory Medal
American football and basketball coach and played football, basketball, and baseball at Auburn University.  He was the head football coach at Auburn from 1951 to 1975, where he compiled a record of 176-83-6.  He is the winningest coach in Auburn Tigers football history.  Jordan's 1957 football team went undefeated with a record of 10-0 and was named the national champion by the Associated Press.  Jordan was also the head men's basketball coach at Auburn (1933 to 1942, and 1945 to 1946) and at the University of Georgia (1946 to 1950).  During his time coaching basketball, he also served as an assistant football coach at the two schools.  Jordan was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1982.

Served in WW2.  Jordan fought in four major invasions as an officer.  He saw action in North Africa and Sicily before being wounded in the Invasion of Normandy and receiving a Purple Heart and the Bronze Star.  After recovering from his wounds, he continued action in the Pacific theater, serving at Okinawa.

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