HOW JOHN WAYNE SAVED THE MARINES
Ten days ago was John Wayne’s 104th birthday. He was born on May
26, 1907 in Winterset, Iowa, as Marion Morrison, weighing 13 pounds.
His birthplace is a museum. There is a guest book, opened to a page
with the entry, in the entrant’s handwriting, Name: Ronald Reagan.
Address: 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Washington DC.
To celebrate the birthday of a truly great American, let me
tell you how John Wayne saved the Marine Corps. In the aftermath of
World War II, the psychological letdown after years of war and
bloodshed, the huge demobilization of servicemen, the desire to slash
military spending, and the antipathy towards the military by
left-wingers in the Democrat Party all combined in a call by a number
of Senators and Congressmen to abolish the Marine Corps.
In this, they were supported by the Doolittle Board,
created by Harry Truman, which called for the Marine Corps to be
“disbanded” as a separate military force, and “unified” with the Army
(yes, the board was headed by an Air Force general, Jimmy Doolittle).
A group of enterprising Marines – you can always depend on
Marines to be enterprising – with Hollywood connections, thought a
movie made around the most famous photograph of World War II, Joe
Rosenthal’s of the Marines raising the flag on Mount Suribachi on Iwo
Jima, could help sway public opinion against their disbandment.
They approached legendary director Allan Dwan, who agreed
to commission a script. The movie was to be called “The Sands of Iwo
Jima,” and everybody agreed there was only one man who could play the
lead role of Sergeant Stryker: John Wayne.
To their great surprise, Wayne turned it down. He didn’t
like the script, and he wasn’t enamored of the character of Stryker.
The Marines came to the rescue again. The Marine Corps Commandant,
General Clifton B. Cates, got on an airplane and flew from Washington
to California to personally request Wayne make the picture. When
General Cates explained the stakes involved – the very existence of the
Marine Corps – Wayne immediately changed his mind, promising the
general he would do everything in his power to have the movie be a
success.
The Sands of Iwo Jima was released in 1949 and quickly
became a runaway blockbuster, with millions of moviegoers packing every
theatre showing it. Wayne was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar,
establishing him as Hollywood’s Number One box-office star. The
Doolittle Board folded its tent, and no politician on Capitol Hill ever
again said a word about disbanding the Marines.
So let’s all say “Semper Fi” to the memory of John Wayne.
To further celebrate his birthday, here’s a treat and some
advice. The treat is this link: A biography of John Wayne written by
Ronald Reagan, in the October 1979 Reader’s Digest.
The advice is this: Don’t ever trust a man who doesn’t like
John Wayne. A man’s opinion of John Wayne is a good rule-of-thumb test
of his character and moral values. To admire John Wayne is to admire
the heroic and the morally noble. To sneer at John Wayne is to admire
the opposite. It’s revealing that you find very few liberals among the
former, and very few conservatives among the latter.
:cowboy_12
Ten days ago was John Wayne’s 104th birthday. He was born on May
26, 1907 in Winterset, Iowa, as Marion Morrison, weighing 13 pounds.
His birthplace is a museum. There is a guest book, opened to a page
with the entry, in the entrant’s handwriting, Name: Ronald Reagan.
Address: 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Washington DC.
To celebrate the birthday of a truly great American, let me
tell you how John Wayne saved the Marine Corps. In the aftermath of
World War II, the psychological letdown after years of war and
bloodshed, the huge demobilization of servicemen, the desire to slash
military spending, and the antipathy towards the military by
left-wingers in the Democrat Party all combined in a call by a number
of Senators and Congressmen to abolish the Marine Corps.
In this, they were supported by the Doolittle Board,
created by Harry Truman, which called for the Marine Corps to be
“disbanded” as a separate military force, and “unified” with the Army
(yes, the board was headed by an Air Force general, Jimmy Doolittle).
A group of enterprising Marines – you can always depend on
Marines to be enterprising – with Hollywood connections, thought a
movie made around the most famous photograph of World War II, Joe
Rosenthal’s of the Marines raising the flag on Mount Suribachi on Iwo
Jima, could help sway public opinion against their disbandment.
They approached legendary director Allan Dwan, who agreed
to commission a script. The movie was to be called “The Sands of Iwo
Jima,” and everybody agreed there was only one man who could play the
lead role of Sergeant Stryker: John Wayne.
To their great surprise, Wayne turned it down. He didn’t
like the script, and he wasn’t enamored of the character of Stryker.
The Marines came to the rescue again. The Marine Corps Commandant,
General Clifton B. Cates, got on an airplane and flew from Washington
to California to personally request Wayne make the picture. When
General Cates explained the stakes involved – the very existence of the
Marine Corps – Wayne immediately changed his mind, promising the
general he would do everything in his power to have the movie be a
success.
The Sands of Iwo Jima was released in 1949 and quickly
became a runaway blockbuster, with millions of moviegoers packing every
theatre showing it. Wayne was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar,
establishing him as Hollywood’s Number One box-office star. The
Doolittle Board folded its tent, and no politician on Capitol Hill ever
again said a word about disbanding the Marines.
So let’s all say “Semper Fi” to the memory of John Wayne.
To further celebrate his birthday, here’s a treat and some
advice. The treat is this link: A biography of John Wayne written by
Ronald Reagan, in the October 1979 Reader’s Digest.
The advice is this: Don’t ever trust a man who doesn’t like
John Wayne. A man’s opinion of John Wayne is a good rule-of-thumb test
of his character and moral values. To admire John Wayne is to admire
the heroic and the morally noble. To sneer at John Wayne is to admire
the opposite. It’s revealing that you find very few liberals among the
former, and very few conservatives among the latter.
:cowboy_12
