Do Musicians Get Rusty After Military Service

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forty Famous People You Didn't Know Were in the Military

Even future rappers and film stars have served their country.

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When you retrieve near famous veterans, you lot probably retrieve of Jack Churchill, Alvin York, Audie Tater, or George S. Patton. But in that location are a few others who are arguably just every bit famous. Similar Jimi Hendrix, Ice-T, and Bob Ross. Their fame might have come from their post-armed services careers, but they wore the uniforms and served their land just the same. Here are 40 famous people you might not accept known are veterans.

James Doohan

At the commencement of World Ward II, James Doohan—Star Trek's Scotty—enrolled in the Royal Canadian Artillery. On D-Day, he led troops through the Invasion of Normandy. After his unit had secured their position for the night, Doohan was crossing between command posts when a nervous Canadian gunman saw him, mistook him for the enemy, and shot him half-dozen times with a Bren Gun. Doohan got 4 in the leg, lost half his middle finger, and would have taken a bullet in the chest, if it hadn't been stopped past a silver cigarette example given to him by his blood brother.

Ice-T

Ice-T joined the U.S. Ground forces and served iv years in the 25th Infantry. He and some friends were charged with stealing a carpet, and he deserted while awaiting a hearing. Later on the carpeting was recovered, he returned and received a non-judicial punishment. It was in the Army that Ice-T managed to make a little extra money and afford some musical equipment, beginning his rap career.

Don Knotts

At that place is a bizarre urban myth that claims the lovable, broad-eyed thespian was once a Marine Corps Drill Teacher. Though this is imitation, Knotts was drafted into the U.South. Regular army in 1943, but saw no combat. He was chosen for special services to entertain troops as a ventriloquist.

Bob Ross

The famous TV painter spent xx years in the U.S. Air Strength and retired with the rank of Principal Sergeant. The soft-spoken host of The Joy of Painting told the Orlando Sentinel: "I was the guy who makes you scrub the latrine, the guy who makes you lot make your bed, the guy who screams at you for being tardily to work. The task requires you lot to exist a mean, tough person. And I was fed up with it."

Buster Keaton

The silent movie comedian was drafted into the Army during the first World War. The sleeping weather in France were not ideal. "We slept in circular tents," he recalled in his volume, My Wonderful World of Slapstick. "Our feet in the eye and our heads close to the drafts from the great outdoors." Acccording to Keaton, he soon "adult a cold which imperiled my hearing." He would remain deaf in ane ear for the residuum of his life.

Morgan Freeman

Morgan Freeman declined a partial drama scholarship and joined the Air Forcefulness in 1955. He would serve four years equally a radar technician, and left the service in 1959. "I took to it immediately," he told Interview magazine. "I did three years, viii months, and ten days in all, just it took me a year and a one-half to get disabused of my romantic notions almost it."

Dr. Ruth

As a teenager in Israel, Dr. Rugh trained as a sniper. She told The New Yorker she never had to put her skills to employ: "I accept no idea what the experience would be, if I had to show it. But I was a very adept sniper."

Ted Williams

During World War Two, "Teddy Ballgame" left his burgeoning baseball career to join the Navy. He eventually became a fighter pilot in the Marines. "I was no hero," he told the MLB (via MOAA.com) of his service. "There were maybe 75 pilots in our 2 squadrons, and 99 percent of them did a amend job than I did."

Don Rickles

Afterwards graduating from high school in Queens, Don Rickles took a train to Grand Key and enrolled in the Navy. He tried to get enlisted as an entertainer, merely was denied, and became a Seaman First Form and served for ii years on the USS Cyrene. When asked by The New York Times if he cried at the stop of Toy Story 3, he said, "I cried when they took me in the Navy. That'southward the terminal time I cried. Did I cry? Give me a break."

MC Hammer

After his attempt at a baseball game career didn't accept off, Stanley Kirk Burrell—who would after become rapping sensation MC Hammer—joined the Navy and served 3 years as a Store Keeper.

Jimmy Stewart

When Jimmy Stewart was drafted during World State of war Ii, he was originally rejected for existence underweight. Afterward packing on a few pounds, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps and was able to retake the tests. Due to his fame, he was put in behind-the-lines assignments until he appealed to his commanding officer, and was eventually assigned to a unit of measurement overseas. He rose quickly in the ranks, somewhen flying lead in a battery squadron in 1943. Subsequently, in the Army Reserves, he participated in a bombing mission in the Vietnam War. He didn't officially retire from the Army until 1968, when he was promoted to a 2-Star General.

Mel Brooks

During WWII, Brooks joined the Regular army Corps of Engineers where his tasks included deactivating enemy land mines. He even saw combat, occasionally interim as infantry. According to fable, following the Battle of the Bulge, the Nazis were blasting Axis propaganda, and Brooks replied by setting upward his ain speakers and giving his rendition of Al Jolson's "Toot Toot Tootsie."

Charles Bronson

In 1943, Charles Bronson enlisted in the Army Air Corps and became a tail gunner on a B-29. Upon belch, he received a purple centre for sustaining an injury. He began studying acting with money from the GI Neb.

Jimi Hendrix

When a immature Jimi Hendrix was busted in 1961 for driving a stolen car, he was given the choice of prison house or the U.S. Army. So he enlisted and was assigned to the 101st Airborne Partition. Though he was enrolled for three years, he was given an honorable discharge later on ane year for an ankle injury.

Hugh Hefner

In 1944, Hugh Hefner enlisted in the U.South. Army as an infantry clerk. He earned a sharpshooter bluecoat, and got through "Killer Higher," where troops performed maneuvers while throwing grenades. Every bit a preview of things to come, while in the Army, Hefner contributed cartoons to an Army newsletter.

Drew Carey

In 1981, Drew Carey joined the United states of america Marine Corps Reserve, and information technology was during his time there where he actually began working on stand up-up comedy. "While in the Marine Reserves, I was looking for a way to make some more money, and it was suggested that I endeavour using my jokes," he told Military.com.

Adam Driver

Driver joined the Armed forced after 9/eleven, but he was medically discharged after a few years when he broke his sternum on a mountain bicycle. "To non get to become with that grouping of people I had been training with was...painful," he told GQ.

Bea Arthur

Arthur actress served in the Marine Corps for 30 months as a typist and truck driver. Why did she bring together at historic period 21? In a letter included in her Marine personnel file, she said she heard that "enlistments for women in the Marines were open, and then decided the only thing to exercise was to join."

Chuck Norris

Chuck Norris joined the United states Air Force in 1958, and served every bit an Air Policeman in Republic of korea. That's likewise where we mastered other crafts. Norris reveals in The Official Chuck Norris Fact Book that he had black chugalug in Tang Soo Exercise and a brown belt in judo by the time he finished.

At the historic period of 20 in 1943, Carson joined the U.South. Navy as an amateur shipman. He would eventually serve every bit a midshipman to the USS Pennsylvania in the Pacific Ocean. A few years later, he briefly served equally a communications officer tasked with decoding encrypted messages.

Elvis Presley

Two years after he became the King of Stone and Roll, he was drafted in December 1957 to join the U.Southward. Regular army. He was stationed in Fort Hood, Texas before moving to 1st Medium Tank Battalion, 32d Armor in Friedberg, Germany. Information technology was there that he met Priscilla Beaulieu, who he afterward married. He was discharged in 1960.

Mr. T

Laurence Tureaud, or Mr. T, became a military policeman subsequently getting expelled from Prairie View A&M Academy for his grades. Nevertheless, in 1975 a drill sergeant gave him a alphabetic character of recommendation too as the honor of "Tiptop Trainee of the Cycle," which brought him to become a squad leader.

Sean Connery

Before playing James Bail, Connery joined the Royal Navy at the age of 16 and served for three years. He ended upwards leaving due to a stomach ulcer that required attention and care.

Montel Williams

Williams joined the U.South. Marines Corps in 1974, and once he graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, he became a midshipman in the Navy. He afterwards served every bit a cryptologic officeholder for naval intelligence in Guam, and he was transferred in 1983 to the National Security Agency in Maryland. There, he began counseling families in need. Subsequently leaving the Navy, he was granted the Navy Achievement Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal, and the Navy Commendation Medal for all his good efforts.

Arnold Schwarzenegger

At historic period 18, Schwarzenegger served in the Austrian Army in 1965. (It was required for all 18-year-old Austrian males to bring together at the time.) He left camp for a week to do the Junior Mr. Europe contest. And despite winning, he was punished and had to spend a couple of days in armed forces prison house.

Sidney Poitier

Afterwards leaving the Bahama islands to go to New York, it was hard for Poitier to find a job, so he decided to bring together the U.S. Army. In November 1943, when he was 16, he lied about his age and enrolled. He served as a medical attendant at a mental hospital in New York.

Clint Eastwood

Eastwood was drafted into the U.S. Ground forces during the Korean War and served as a lifeguard and swim instructor at Fort Ord in California. He remained in that location until he was discharged in 1953.

Pat Sajak

Sajak joined the U.Due south. Army in 1968 and was a disc jockey for 18 months on the armed forces radio. In fact, on The Military Channel's An Officer and a Movie, he actually ended up messing up President Nixon's 1969 Christmas broadcast to the troops, as he cutting it off too early. Whoops.

Tom Selleck

Selleck served in the army equally part of the California Ground forces National Guard from 1967 to 1973. Today, he is nonetheless involved every bit a spokesman for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund.

Alan Alda

Even though Alda'due south known for playing Hawkeye Pierce in One thousand*A*Southward*H, the CBS series nigh a group of medical staff who are stationed at a surgical hospital in Republic of korea during the Korean War, he served in existent life too. He began at Fordham Academy'due south Reserve Officers' Preparation Corps and moved into the Army Reserve later.