You most likely know Don Knotts as Barney Fife of the Andy Griffith Show, but that wasn’t his only claim to fame. The actor is also noted for his stint on Three’s Company and several movies, such as The Ghost and Mr. Chicken and The Incredible Mr. Limpet. For his efforts, he was awarded multiple Emmys and earned titles like one of the best TV stars of all time from TV Guide itself.
But before he made himself a household name, before he was telling jokes to the masses, Don Knotts got his start in the entertainment industry, not through acting. But as a ventriloquist in the U.S. military.
Author: Michael
Allied troops on the beaches of Normandy got a shocking view of the future of warfare in 1944 when, as they were moving supplies from ships to the shore, a jet-powered, Nazi bomber ripped past at approximately 460 mph.
Too quick for Allied eyes
The Arado Ar 234 was the first operational jet bomber and flew at up to 540 miles per hour, so quick that no Allied fighter could match it without going into a dive.
Ar 234B Line Views. Wikimedia Commons.
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In 2008, Toby Keith was in Kandahar, Afghanistan, on one of his many USO tours when a mortar attack interrupted the show.
The singer and the crowd of 2,500 service members, took cover in a nearby shelter for about an hour where Keith posed for photos and autographs. Pretty standard mortar attack pastime.
Once given the “all clear,” Keith went right back up on stage and finished his concert — starting from the verse where he left off.
Here’s video from the concert where he sang the “Taliban Song,” just because he could:
Keith was a strong supporter of the U.S.
Patrick Gavin Tadina served in the Army for 30 years. He spent a full five of those years fighting as a Ranger in Vietnam. If that wasn’t unique enough, Tadina, who would retire as a command sergeant major, would often do it dressed as the enemy.
Tadina was a trim 5’5” native Hawaiian, a look that would allow him to conduct and lead long range reconnaissance patrols deep into Vietnam’s central highlands. He would sometimes join an enemy patrol dressed in their distinct black pajamas, sandals, and carrying an AK-47.
Patrick Tadina joined the Army in 1962.
The Marvel Comics universe has such a wide and diverse assortment of characters that there’s a superhero for everyone. Within that vast collection of characters, there are many heroes who have military backgrounds, each of which represents a different aspect of military service. Captain America, for example, is reminiscent of the soldier who’s willing to lay down his life for the betterment of mankind. Falcon is the airman who’s always going to help his fellow veteran. Even the Coast Guard gets a champion in Spectrum, who’s always going to protect the homefront.
The United States government was founded on the principle of separation of church and state. That being said, if the U.S. could select a single holy site and have everyone in America agree that it was not to be trifled with, the frontrunner would be the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier — the monument to those who fought and died for the U.S. but remain unidentified.
Arlington National Cemetery’s Tomb of the Unknowns is guarded 24 hours a day, seven days a week by the tomb sentinels of the 3rd Infantry Regiment, The Old Guard. And these guys do not mess around.
The year was 1968 when Mike Vining was a senior in high school. According to his answers on his now-sunset TogetherWeServed Page, Vining heard about the Tet Offensive and wanted to join the military with the expressed purpose of going to Vietnam. His service afforded him the opportunity to do two things he likes to do, “work with explosives and climb mountains.” He probably never dreamed he would become Sgt. Maj.
When the first B-52 Stratofortress bomber to crash went down in 1956, it took with it one of the United States’ greatest pilots and a stunning fighter ace from World War II. Patrick Fleming was the fighter pilot Japanese fighter pilots have nightmares about and the kind of test pilot Air Force people read about for their promotion tests.
Who was Patrick Fleming?
Fleming was one of the handful of aviators who would serve his country in wartime, change branches, and become one of the guys with “The Right Stuff.
Being “OC sprayed” is an absolutely terrible experience. OC, or Oleoresin Capsicum — better known as pepper spray — is used to train military and law enforcement personnel as a necessary exercise, so they know what it feels like and can continue to function if they are sprayed.
“It may be the greatest pain I’ve ever felt in my life,” former Marine Ben Feibleman told WATM. Echoing this sentiment, WATM’s own Mike Dowling described it as “the worst day of his life.