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By Tom Boggs

At my age, I can still recall play-like heroes on the silver screen at the Linden picture show, but I can also remember the news reel before the main attraction, and in the mid-forties, there were real heroes shown on that movie screen, as World War II was raging around this earth.  Since VE Day is celebrated the week I am writing this column to come out the following week I just decided to do a little research on movie heroes, and share that with you.  You might be surprised.

I found that Brian Keith (Of TV Show My Three Sons) was a rear gunner in a U.S. Marine aircraft in the Pacific during the war, Tyrone Power was a U.S.Marine Pilot, and Lee Marvin was a U.S. Marine Infantryman, earning the Purple Heart during the battle for Saipan.

Ernest Bognine was a Navy Gunners mate until 1945, Charles Bronson was a tail gunner on B-29 bombers during the war, George C. Scott was a decorated U.S. Marine, and Eddie Albert of Green Acres was awarded the Bronze Star as a U.S. Naval Officer during the Pacific Battle of Tarawa in 1942.  

Clarke Gable, although beyond the draft age for World War II, enlisted as a private, and went to OCS, where he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in 1942, and flew operational missions over Europe in B-17 aircraft.

Good Ole Jimmy Stewart entered the Army Air Force as a private, and rose to the rank of Full Colonel.  He served as a bomber pilot with more than 20 missions over Germany, and after the war, retired from the Air Force Reserves with the rank of Brigadier General. 

Alec Guinness of Star Wars and “Bridge on the River Kwi” operated a British Royal Navy Landing Craft at  Normandy on D-Day.  James Doohan (Scotty on “Star Trek”) landed in Normandy with the U.S. Army on D-Day, and most interesting mild mannered British Actor, David Niven, was a San Hurst Military School graduate, and fought as a Lt. Colonel with the British Commandos at Normandy in 1944.  

Not a well-known actor, but you will remember the character played by Donald Pleasance in “The Great Escape,” who was killed in a plane crash toward the end of the movie as he and James Garner tried to escape.  Donald was, in real life, an R.A.F. pilot in World War II with more than 20 missions over Germany. He was shot down, held prisoner, and tortured by his German captors. 

And then we come to little Audie Murphy, all 5 feet 5 inches, 110 pounds of the kid from Texas, who later was a cowboy star in the movies, but first was the most decorated serviceman during World War II, earning the Medal of Honor and a multitude of other awards.

We’ll come to a screeching halt with Bob Keeshan, who played the character of Captain Kangaroo on TV.  Although the war ended before he got into it, he did enlist in the Marine Reserves in 1945, and was ready when that world war ended.

Sometimes you can’t be sure what’s real, and what’s not. 

Tom Boggs is a columnist for the Demopolis Times and a native of Marengo County. His column, “Days Gone Bye,” appears weekly.