Richard Jaeckel
RETURN TO INDEX |
U.S. Navy
 |
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
RETURN TO INDEX |
U.S. Army
|
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
RETURN TO INDEX |
U.S. Army
National Guard
 |
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
RETURN TO INDEX |
U.S. Army
|
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
RETURN TO INDEX |
U.S. Army Air Forces
& U.S. Army Reserve
|
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
RETURN TO INDEX |
U.S. Marine Corps
|
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
RETURN TO INDEX |
U.S. Army
|
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
RETURN TO INDEX |
U.S. Army
|
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
RETURN TO INDEX |
U.S. Army
|
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 Jordan
RETURN TO INDEX |
U.S. Army
|
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. |
|
