Month: May 2016

B&P Link Dump

LettermanAt 90, Don Rickles is still going strong

Wanna buy a big boat? 

USA nukes are still controlled by 8-inch floppies

17 Secret iPhone Tips and Hacks

Beer consumption may protect against Alzheimer’s

David Letterman ready to fake his own death…  Right arrow

Everything coming and going on Netflix in June

Dog fights off bear, saves owner

Learn this tick removal trick before you go camping

Students say the darndest things

Waitress gets a huge tip and a note that says …

Some of the most interesting little-known things

In Nepal… When I had my first menstruation…

Hiker wrote final goodbyes weeks after search ended

 

Stars who served in the Armed Forces

CarsonJohnny Carson

Carson joined the Navy in 1943 and was ultimately commissioned as an ensign (equivalent to an Army or Air Force 2nd Lieutenant). He served on the battleship USS Pennsylvania and as a communications officer. He was on his way to take part in the invasion of Japan when the war ended.

He once quipped that the high point of his military career was performing a magic trick for Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal. Once an entertainer always an entertainer.

EbsenBuddy Ebsen

We all knew him as Jed Clampett but Buddy Ebsen served on a Coast Guard frigate during WWII. He attained the rank of Lieutenant (O-3) , which is equivalent to a Captain in the Army or Air Force.

Charleton Heston

Let’s just say I’m a fan of his movies and not his politics and leave it at that. Oddly enough he was a liberal in the 1960s but made a sharp right turn somewhere along the way.

Prior to getting started in Hollywood, Heston enlisted in the Army Air Corps. Some sources list 1941 and others say 1944. Most say 1944 and I think that’s more credible since he was discharged in 1947. He served as a radio operator and gunner on B-25s in the Aleutian Islands but never saw actual combat.

BrooksMel Brooks

Before becoming one of the funniest people to ever live, Mel Brooks was clearing German mines as a combat engineer with the 78th Infantry Division. I guess you’d need a good sense of humor for that job.

Note that combat engineering units often advanced ahead of the infantry and at times had to fight as infantry.

As Brooks summed it up:

“I was a Combat Engineer. Isn’t that ridiculous? The two things I hate most in the world are combat and engineering.”


Many more here