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| 2001 Closed threads from 2001 (read only) |
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21 December 2001, 04:48 AM
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#1 (permalink) |
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Forum Ace
Join Date: Jun 1999
Posts: 988
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Recently someone stated that they won't watch John Wayne movies because he was a "WWII draft dodger".
What's the story behind The Duke not serving in the military during WWII?
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The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do. -- Thomas Jefferson Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first. -- Ronald Reagan |
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21 December 2001, 05:26 AM
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#3 (permalink) |
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Forum Ace
Join Date: Jun 1999
Posts: 988
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Thanks Pilgrim.
 I knew someone around here would know the answer...
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The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do. -- Thomas Jefferson Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first. -- Ronald Reagan |
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21 December 2001, 05:29 AM
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#4 (permalink) |
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Shot Down
Join Date: Jul 2000
Posts: 2,435
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John Wayne will be fighting on D-Day in our big Christmas holiday wargame!
We are doing Easy Company's attack on the German gun battery followed by the assault on Carentan. I finished all the Paras just this morning.One of the models comprises an airborne cart with two Paras wheeling it,I could not resist sticking the Duke on the cart. "You guys 82nd?" "No Colonel,101st." "Well your 82nd now.Move out." |
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21 December 2001, 05:35 AM
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#6 (permalink) |
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Forum Ace
Join Date: Aug 1999
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Posts: 1,859
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The Duke, Marion Morrison, had been a lineman for USC in the 1930's. He had a very bad knee. It naver came back tofull use. The Duke made some real contributions to the war effort in his films.
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21 December 2001, 08:12 AM
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#7 (permalink) |
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Forum Ace of Aces
Join Date: Aug 1998
Location: The American West
Posts: 4,809
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Duke made some celebrity tours to war zones, and according to William Manchester ("Goodby Darkness") was booed off the stage. However, WM's veracity has been questioned on occasion. A fighter pilot friend of mine said that Duke could drink with the best of 'em, but passed out buck nekkid one night in New Guinea. Some of the young studs carried his cot out into the squadron area and left him there for the edification of the early risers....
Apparently the Commandant of the Marine Corps (forget which one: Shooter?) credited "Sands of Iwo Jima" with extreme success in recruiting (1949, which was apt for Korea) and for establishing THE perception of the marine NCO.
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21 December 2001, 09:08 AM
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#8 (permalink) | |
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Quote:
The descriptions of battle were well written, but I suppose it is easy to make mental notes to use in your book if you aren't pre-occupied with doing your duty. |
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21 December 2001, 03:28 PM
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#9 (permalink) |
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Senior Gunfighter
Contributor
Join Date: Sep 1998
Location: Jacksonville, NC
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Barrett:
The Commandant was General Clifton B. Cates. More importantly than a recruiting boost, which I am sure the Sands of Iwo Jima was, General Cates had urged the Duke to make the flick because of the recommendations of the Doolittle Board to the Congress to disband the Marine Corps. Since there were serious proposals in committee to follow through with the recommendations of the Board, Cates and his staff were eager to see the movie be made and that the Duke star in it (John Wayne had not been interested in the project up to that point). There was a resulting ground-swell of opposition to the disbanding of the Corps, so maybe the film worked. The Duke was over draft age when the war broke out and had more than the allowable number of dependants. This hardly constituted "draft dodging" even if his injuries had not have excluded him from service. I missed meeting John Wayne when I was in RVN. I would have liked to have had the privilege, but the war had first dibs on my time. Shooter sends
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In God we trust, everyone else keep your hands where I can see them! Only the hits count. The only thing worse than a miss is a slow miss. There is no second-place award for a gunfight. Never bring a knife. |
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21 December 2001, 05:26 PM
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#10 (permalink) |
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Scout Pilot
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Maryland
Posts: 444
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According to a bio on John Wayne that I saw some time ago the story of his "draft dodging" was a little different than what is being told. *He did get a deferrment due to dependents. *The thing was he wasn't living with or supporting those dependents at the time. He also declined to enlist even after some of his friends in Hollywood assured him that they could get him assigned to making films and appearances in support of the war effort. *This was revealed in interviews with people who knew him then. *They said that the real reason that he didn't serve was that his acting career was just beginning to take off. *He was afraid that if he took a leave from making movies that it would damage him professionally.Wayne * * *
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