Actor Paul Newman was decorated WWII sailor

[darrels joy]

Actor Paul Newman was decorated WWII sailor




By Mark D. Faram - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday Oct 4, 2008

Most Americans know actor Paul Newman had an Academy Award to his credit, but few know his list of awards also include a Navy Combat Action Ribbon and the coveted Combat Aircrew Wings he got while serving as an aviation radioman and aerial gunner during World War II.

Newman, 83, died Sept. 26 after a long battle with cancer.

According to information provided by Navy Personnel Command and the Naval Historical Center, the future blue-eyed actor enlisted in the Navy on Jan. 22, 1943 — four days before his 18th birthday — with the hopes of becoming an officer and an aviator flying off carriers.

While waiting for his application for officer training to go through, Newman attended Ohio University in Athens.

When his approval came through, he was ordered to report on July 1 to the Navy V-12 program at Yale University in New Haven, Conn. His hopes for a commission and pilot’s wings were dashed four months later after a flight physical discovered he was colorblind.

Instead, he was shipped a few miles down the road to the Navy’s boot camp at Newport, R.I. Graduating three days after Christmas, Newman was selected to train as an aviation radioman and reported to the Naval Air Technical Training Center in Jacksonville, Fla., on Jan. 8, 1944.

He would not leave Jacksonville until July 20, having completed radio school and qualified as an aerial gunner — enabling him to be aircrew on carrier-based aircraft.

Aviation Radioman 3rd Class Newman spent a few months at Naval Air Station Miami before transferring to NAS Barber’s Point, Hawaii, where he would serve in three Pacific-based replacement torpedo squadrons, VT-98, VT-99, and VT-100.

While he was with VT-99, training personnel in TBM-1Cs, TBM-3s and TBF-1cs, the squadron moved to Eniwetok, then to Guam, and in January 1945 on to Saipan. The squadron would ferry replacement pilots and aircraft to carriers around the fleet.

Though Newman did see scattered combat, his closest brush with death came in May 1945.

Operating from Saipan, Newman and a number of other aircrews from his squadron had been ordered with their TBM Avenger aircraft to be replacements onboard the Essex-class aircraft carrier Bunker Hill operating off Okinawa. But Newman’s pilot got sick, grounding the aircraft and crew until he could recover.

Just days later, on May 11, two Japanese kamikaze aircraft hit the ship within 30 seconds and in the resulting fires and explosions 346 sailors were killed — among them, the entire contingent from Newman’s squadron.

A VT-99 contingent including Newman was aboard the escort carrier Hollandia, which was operating about five hundred miles off Japan when the Enola Gay dropped its atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

Returning home after the Japanese surrender, Newman served with Carrier Aircraft Service Unit 7 in Seattle, Wash. before being discharged Jan. 21, 1946.

Along with his aircrew wings and CAR, he was also awarded the Good Conduct Medal, the American Area Campaign Medal, the Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal and the World War II Victory Medal.
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/1...nobit_100308w/

[revwardoc]

A veteran, a great actor, and a philanthropist; quite a guy. We'll miss ya, Cool Hand.

[SEATJERKER]

...

...years ago before I met my girlfriend,...

...she tells me of "one day" while she's driving through a town up here,(I believe it was Corinth), that she sees this guy on the side of the road with a flat tire, and he flagging her down, she, being alone, and Corinth is in the middle of nowhere says to herself, I'm not stopping for a stranger, so past him she goes,...

...next day in the paper has an article about a famous celebrity being in town due to an automobile mishap,(flat tire), and how the people in town are hamming it up with none other then Paul Newman,...

...It is then she realizes just who she left in the middle of nowhere that day,...

...now how many women wouldn't stop for Paul Newman?,...

... mine,..

... she knew she had me coming down the road later,...

...

[Packo]

her being blind helps you out quite a bit....

Pack

[Advisor]

What Packo said

[SEATJERKER]

...

...tOLALY uNCALLED fOR,...

...aN AFTER tHE sET uP oN bOOger,...

...hEY wE lOOK gOOD , aND wE aRE aLL gOOD, oH yEA, oH sO gOOD...

...

[b3196]

Come on Pack...lets give her the benefit-of-the-doubt. What I see here is true love blossoming into something stronger down the road.

Who am I bull$hitting.......She's blind and Curtis got some strange red plant growing out of his ear.

[revwardoc]

Here's my Paul Newman story: April 18th, 1975. My ex and I were at the Colonial Inn in Concord, MA, it was the day before the bi-centennial of the start of the American Revolution. We were at the bar having a beer or five when I heard two very familiar voices talking about the next day's re-enactments and parade; it was Paul Newman and Robert Redford. They were just quaffing down a drink and no one bothered them, asked for autographs or anything. They were just a couple of tourists enjoying the festivities. I read in the papers a couple of days later that they had a great time and that the people of Concord were very good to them.