NBC has a new show called “Stars Earn Stripes”.  I haven’t seen it myself.  Honestly, watching ‘celebrities’ pretend to do what soldiers do every day doesn’t appeal to me.  If they want to live the soldier’s life, then they ought to spend most of their days in a motor pool or doing equipment maintenance.

Anyway, reading about the show got me to researching about real celebrities who served in the military.  Here are a few who were either celebrities before or after their service, but didn’t become famous because of it, like President Eisenhower and Audie Murphy.

• Buster Keaton – Private, Army Signal Corps, World War I
• Bea Arthur – Staff Sergeant, U.S. Marines Women’s Reserve, World War II
• Mel Brooks – Corporal, Army Corps of Engineers, World War II.  Fought in the Battle of the Bulge
• Howard Cosell – Major, Army Transportation Corps, World War II
• Clark Gable – Major, Army Air Force, World War II.
• Woody Guthrie – Merchant Marine and Army, World War II
• Jimi Hendrix – Paratrooper, 101st Airborne Division, 1961.  Probably not the most motivated of soldiers, but still a paratrooper when that was rare.
• Rock Hudson – Aircraft mechanic, U.S. Navy, World War II
• Steve McQueen – Tanker, Marines, late 1940’s.  Busted back to private several times, but eventually got his act together.
• Ralph Nader – Cook, U.S. Army, 1959.  A volunteer in a draftee army.
• Rod Steiger – U.S. Navy, World War II
• Jimmy Stewart – Pilot, U.S Army Air Corps and Air Force, eventually retiring as a brigadier general. Interesting subnote – Flew along as an observer on a B-52 mission in Vietnam, but didn’t publicize it.
• Hunter S. Thompson – Air Force, 1950’s
• Charles Rangel, Staff Sergeant, U.S. Army Artillery, Korea.  Decorated for valor during the retreat from the Yalu.

So there you have it.  Ordinary people, some of them already well-known, who gave of themselves for the country.  You have just about every political stripe in there.  Some of them were heroes, some weren’t the best soldiers in history, but all of them put their hand in the air and took the oath.

When the ‘stars’ on NBC want to earn their stripes, I believe the recruiting sergeants will be available.