Forgotten

 

 

Hollywood Heroes

  

 

 

 

My generation grew up watching, being entertained by and laughing with so many of these fine people.
Never really knowing what they contributed to the war effort.
Like millions of Americans during WWI  &  WWII, there  was a job that needed doing and they didn't question it,
just went and did it. Those  that came home returned to their now new normal life and carried on
and very few  ever saying what they did or saw.
They took it as their "responsibility" and their  "duty" to the Country to protect and preserve our freedoms.
American way of life not  just for themselves, but for all future generations to come.
As a member of that “Finest" generation, I'm forever humbly in their debt. 

 

Here are only a few of these silent heroic Heroes that are slowly being forgotten

 

Do You Remember These Men?

 Page #38

 

 

  

Carl Reiner  was drafted into the Army Air Forces in 1943 and served during World War II,
eventually achieving the rank of 
corporal. In 1944, after completing language training, he was sent to Hawaii to work as a teleprinter operator.
He was to ship out for an unknown assignment to
Guam, Saipan, Tinian, and Iwo Jima for the next two years. He was discharged in 1946.

 

 

  

William J. Sanderson was an army medic in Vietnam for two years.

 

 

  

Rudy Vallée (born Hubert Prior Vallée) In 1917 decided to enlist for World War I,
but was
 
discharged when the Navy authorities found out that he was only 15.
He enlisted in Portland, Maine on March 29, 1917, under the 
false birthdate 
of July 28, 1899.
He was discharged at the Naval Training Station, Newport, Rhode Island, he tried to enlist in WW-II but was too old.

 

 

  

John Randolph "Jack" Webb During World War II enlisted (1942-45) in the United States Army Air Force,
and served as a crewman aboard a B-26 Marauder Bomber.

 

 

 

Robert L. Webber  served in the United States Marine Corps (1942-45) during World War II, 
serving on 
Guam and Okinawa
.

 

 

  

Harold John Avery Russell (Served 1941-1944)  On June 6, 1944, he was training troops at Camp MacKall North Carolina.
A charge exploded in his hands, resulting in the loss of both hands.
In 1946 he was in the movie "The Best Years of Our Lives", portraying a war veteran Homer Parrish,
who had lost both hands in the Navy. For his role in the movie, he won TWO academy awards.

 

 

  

Tommy Sands after WW-II  served in the U.S. Air Force Reserves.

 

 

  

Gerald Patrick "Jerry" Mathers enlisted in the Air National Guard and had the rank of sergeant.

 

 

  

Eric Fleming (born Edward Heddy, Jr.) he joined the Merchant Marine,
before joining the 
United States Navy in 1942 for World War II.
He served as a 
Seabee 
in a naval construction battalion. 
He received severe facial injuries during a bet in which he was attempting to lift a 200-pound (91 kg) weight and
had to undergo extensive plastic surgery to reconstruct his forehead, nose, and jaw. 

  

 

  

Howard Caine (born Howard Cohen) (Served 1944-1946) in the United States Navy during World War II,
fighting the Japanese in the 
Pacific Theatre
.

 

 

 

Brian Keith SGT, U.S. Marine Corps WW II. He served (1942–1945) as an air gunner
(he was a Radio-Gunner in the rear cockpit of a two-man Douglas SBD Dauntless dive-bomber in a U.S. Marine squadron)
, and received an Air Medal.

 

 

  

Vic Damone (born Vito Rocco Farinola) was drafted and served in the army from 1951 to 1953.
In November, 1952, he was an Army corporal.

 

 

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