"Gene Cottrell" wrote in message
...
I certainly wouldn't put John Wayne above guys like Stewart for his effort
during WWII. I just hate how people try to re-write history to fit their
warped views. John Wayne's deferment history is a matter of record and he
tried, unsuccessfully to bypass that deferment. Unable to do so, he spent 3
months in the Pacific trying to boost the moral of the men. He was nearly
universally loved by the GIs and did indeed punch out a couple of GIs in
bars who questioned why he was deferred. He never backed down from a fight.
He tried to get into the Naval Academy when he got out of high school -
doesn't sound like a draft dodger to me. I'd like to see some proof that
he asked for a deferment - proof, not some 'blog' by a guy named Cecil.
This crap about John Wayne kind of shows that guys like Dan Rather, have
been making up stories a lot longer than was publicized. Of course they
won't confess to it unless they're caught red handed, and you left-handed
wingnuts eat it up.

Gene

For my part, I find it amazing that, supposed, grown men can get all worked
up over dead people. I couldn't care less if John Wayne had saved Audey
Murphy from the sights of Germany's own version of Sgt. York. Is a Marine
who saves the lives of his fellow Marines on one day a hero, if he is
convicted of murdering innocent civilians a week later? Is any service
person a patriot, just for having served in a war? Are the generals who
don't speak out against an unjust war, for fear of what it might do to their
careers, patriots? Is the anti-war protestor any less a patriot, if he
feels that his protestations might help to end a war sooner and save the
lives of his country's service people, as well as innocents?

The "Duke" was a great actor in my eyes, regardless of his lack of military
training. Whether he was a *patriot* is in the eyes of the beholder. As I
have stated on many occasions, my *patriotism* is likely defined very
differently from that of others. I don't consider every Tom, Dick or Harry,
who served in the military--regardless of war-time or peace-time--to be a
patriot. I certainly don't consider a man to be a patriot, simply because
he is POTUS! To me a patriot could be an Audey Murphy type or they might be
an anti-war protestor.

Op --Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel (look up Samuel Johnson,
for context)--




"David Snedeker" wrote in message
...

.......SNIP....
Again, why do you defend this second rate actor, John Wayne, this
blowhard
phony whose deferment history is a matter of record, when there are
people,
like Jimmy Stewart and Henry Fonda etc., of various political
persuasions
whose service is both extraordinary and documented? For example, if Im
not
mistaken, Stewart did the full complement of daylight missions in B-17s
over
Germany and survived, unlike over 50k other USAAF air crew. Fiction is
great, but real is, after all, real.

Dave