Many have given their lives, many have been wounded and many have served courageously in the United States military. Recognizing Veterans Day, we mention some of the professional athletes who have served.
Cleveland Indians pitching great Bob Feller served heroically in the U.S. Navy during World War II.By Mike Peticca, Plain Dealer Reporter
Cleveland, Ohio -- Veterans Day, the national holiday when the United States celebrates its military veterans, is annually observed on Nov. 11.
Veterans are being lauded at various events around the country today and tomorrow, Veterans Day.
Regardless of a man or woman's other professions, military personnel are greatly appreciated for their service. Here, we mention some of the professional athletes who have served our nation on the frontlines during war.
By no means is the list complete. Make a comment on this post to mention others.
Some individuals who did not engage in combat get special mention. For instance, heavyweight champion Joe Louis, regarded by some as the greatest boxer ever, enlisted in the Army in 1942, during World War II. The U.S. military was then racially segregated and Louis, an African-American, was assigned to a cavalry unit at Fort Riley, Kansas.
The Army soon realized the positive impact Louis's personality made on the troops, and felt the best way he could serve was to visit troops around the globe. Louis fought exhibition matches and also proved to be a master recruiter.
Even prior to the war, Louis had inspired the nation by defeating former world heavyweight champion Max Schmeling of Germany in 1938, nearly two years after Louis had lost to Schmeling.
Schmeling had been portrayed as an example of "Aryan superiority" by Adolf Hitler's evil Nazi regime. To his credit, Schmeling courageously denied Nazi claims of racial superiority. He also had a Jewish manager, even as the Nazis were beginning their murderous ways against the Jewish people.
Louis and Schmeling began a lifelong friendship after the war ended.
We begin our list of professional athletes who served the nation during wartime with Cleveland Indians pitching legend Bob Feller.
Bob Feller: He was the first major leaguer to volunteer for active duty, enlisting in the Navy on Dec. 9, 1941, two days after Pearl Harbor.
Feller, now 92 and a Gates Mills resident, had turned 23 on Nov. 3, 1941, 36 days before he enlisted. He had already won 107 games, and had led the American League in wins the previous three seasons, and in strikeouts the previous four years.
Feller was involved in some of the most violent, and important, sea battles of the war, especially in the Pacific. He was awarded eight battle stars and five campaign ribbons.
After missing all of three seasons and most of a fourth, Feller returned to the Indians and finished with 266 wins and 2,581 strikeouts -- which, at the time, trailed only Walter Johnson and Cy Young on the all-time list. Johnson and Young had both pitched several more years than Feller.
Grover Cleveland Alexander: During the middle of his 373-win (tied third all-time) pitching career, Alexander was an Army sergeant fighting in France for about a year duing World War I. He suffered shell shock, partial hearing loss, seizures that grew increasingly worse and other illnesses that were either caused or aggravated during his service.
Yogi Berra: A Navy gunner's mate, his boat reached the shores of Normandy a few days after D-Day. Two years later, the catcher made his debut with the New York Yankees. He went on to win three MVP awards and make the Hall of Fame.
Rocky Bleier: As his 1968 rookie season was about to end with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Bleier was drafted into the Army. He volunteered for duty in Vietnam and arrived there in May, 1969. That Aug. 20, Bleier was hit by rifle fire in his left leg and moments later, was hot by shrapnel fro a grenade in his right leg.
Doctors told Bleier he would not play football again, but he returned to the Steelers in 1971. Paired in the backfield with Franco Harris, Bleier was an integral part of the Steelers' four Super Bowl championship teams of the 70s.
Al Blozis: A national shot put champion at Georgetown University, Blozis played offensive tackle for the New York Giants in 1942-43 and for three games in 1944 when he was on furlough from the Army.
Blozis was leading a platoon in the Vosges Mountains in France, when he left alone to search for two of his men who hadn't returned from scouting for enemy troops. He didn't return and was originally listed as missing, but the Army confirmed his death months later.
Al Bumbry: Fewer than 10 major leaguers served in Vietnam. Bumbry earned a Bronze Star there during his service as a platoon leader. Soon after getting back to the United States, Bumbry began his 1973 American League Rookie of the Year season as a Baltimore Orioles outfielder. He played 14 major league seasons.
Elmer Gedeon: Played with the Washington Senators in 1939. Gedeon is believed to have been one of two major leaguers killed in action during World War II.
Gedeon died during his 13th bombing mission, when his plane was flying over France and was hit by anti-aircraft fire.
Roy Gleason: Played eight games for the 1963 World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers. Gleason was wounded in Vietnam in 1968 and evacuated by helicopter. All of the possessions he had brought with him to Vietnam were lost, including his World Series ring. He threw out the first pitch at a Dodgers game in 2003, and the Dogers players came on to the field to give him a replica of the World Series ring.
Eddie Grant: Grant, an infielder, began his 10-year big league career by playing two games with the Cleveland Naps in 1905.
He enlisted almost immediately after the United States entered World War I in April, 1917. An Army captain, Grant was killed during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in France on Oct. 5, 1918, as he was leading a unit in which all of his superior officers had been killed or wounded.
Detroit Tigers slugger and future Indians general manager Hank Greenberg served in World War II.Hank Greenberg: When Greenberg was drafted in 1940, he was classified as 4F, being listed as unfit for duty because of flat feet. Being Jewish, he had a special interest in the war, though, and he volunteered for the Air Force, where he served in China, Burma and India, scouting locations for air bases, sometimes doing so in the middle or conflict.
Serving in the prime of his career, Greenberg, a first baseman, finished his Hall of Fame career with 331 home runs in just 5,193 at bats. He was an Indians farm director and then general manager in the 1950s.
Tim James: Miami Heat first-round draft pick in 1999 has been serving in Iraq, often readying aircraft for action. The forward played two NBA seasons.
Charlie Johnson: After serving in Vietnam as a military policeman, Johnson played eight seasons as a defensive tackle with the Philadelphia Eagles and Minnesota Vikings. He made the Pro Bowl three times.
Bob Kalsu: Started at guard for the Buffalo Bills and was named the team's Rookie of the Year in 1968.
After the season ended, Kalsu enlisted in the Army to meet his Reserve Officers Training Corps commitment. He was sent to Vietnam in Nov., 1969. He was killed on July 21, 1970, when his unit came under heavy enemy fire.
Eddie LeBaron: The Marine Corps lieutenant was wounded twice during the Korean War, and was awarded a Bronze Star.
The 5-7 LeBaron went on to play 11 seasons at quarterback with the Washington Redskins and Dallas Cowboys, making the Pro Bowl four times.
Willie Miller: The wide receiver began his eight-year NFL career as a 28-year-old rookie with the Browns in 1975. He had served two tours of duty and earned a Silver Star while serving with the Army Special Forces in Vietnam.
Christy Mathewson: Two years after his retirement as a 373-game winner (tied third all-time) for the New York Giants, Mathewson was training in France with the United States Chemical Warfare Service division.
He was exposed to mustard gas during a training drill and was often ill until his death at age 45 of tuberculosis, in 1925.
Robert Neighbors: Played in the major leagues for the St. Louis Browns in 1939.
Neighbors and the two other crewmen were flying a mission during the Korean War when their plane was hit on Aug. 8, 1952. The men were listed as missing in action, but their bodies were never found.
Neighbors' brother, Paul, was killed when the Navy destroyer he was on was sunk by a German U-boat on April 24, 1945, 13 days before Germany's surrender in World War II.
Harry O'Neill: O'Neill played one game with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1939. He was killed during the fighting in Iwo Jima on March 6, 1945.
Pitching great Warren Spahn fought at the Battle of the Bulge in World War II.O'Neill had been hit by shrapnel and wounded during fighting at Saipan in July, 1944. He was awarded the Purple Heart.
Warren Spahn: He was awarded the Purple Heart and a Brozne Star for his duty as a combat engineeer in World War II. Spahn was at the brutal Battle of the Bulge, the desperate, failed offensive by Germany late in the war.
Spahn had made a brief appearance with the Boston Braves in 1942, just before entering the service. He earned the firdst eight of his 363 career wins (sixth all-time) in 1946, getting all but seven of them with the Boston/Milwaukee Braves.
Spahn was the Indians pitching coach in 1972-73.
Roger Staubach: The 1963 Heisman Trophy winner as the quarterback of the U.S. Naval Academy team, Staubach could have requested a military assignment in the U.S. after his graduation. Instead, he volunteered to go to Vietnam, where he served as a supply officer.
Staubach began his NFL career with the Dallas Cowboys at age 27 in 1969. He retired in 1979 as one of the game's most successful and exciting QBs, and was elected to the Hall of Fame.
Don Steinbrunner: Played offensive tackle with the Browns in 1953, but was forced to retire because of a knee injury.
Steinbrunner soon joined the U.S. Air Force. He went to Vietnam in 1966, and on July 20, 1967, his plane was shot down in South Vietnam, killing all five crew members.
Steinbrunner was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and a Purple Heart.
Pat Tillman: An Army Ranger, he was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan on April 22, 2004. Tillman had played safety for four seasons with the Arizona Cardinals, making Sports Illustated's first-tea all-pro team in 2000. He finished the 2001 season and decided to enlist in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
Hoyt Wilhelm: Like Warren Spahn, Wilhelm fought at the Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes Mountains in Belgium. He was wounded and awarded a Purple Heart.
Wilhelm was 29 when he made his major league debut with the New York Giants in 1952, going 15-3. He retired 20 years later, and was the first player elected to the Hall of Fame as, mostly, a relief pitcher.
Wilhelm pitched parts of the 1957-58 with the Indians. Cleveland waived him during the summer of 1958. Wilhelm went on to pitch in 679 more games.
Ted Williams: Considered by some as baseball's greatest hitter ever, Williams served a total of nearly five years in World War I and the Korean War -- both stints during the prime of a playing career that ended with a .344 batting average and 521 home runs.
Williams served in the Marine Corps and Navy. Much of his World War II duty was as a flight instructor. He flew 39 combat missions in Korea. He was awarded an Air Medal for a mission during which the hydraulics and electrical systems on his plane were hit by flak and ruined, and yet he managed to fly the crippled plane back to its base.
------
The following Major League Baseball players also died in World War I:
Alex Burr; Larry Chappel; Harry Glenn; Newt Halliday; Ralph Sherman; Bun Troy.
Both major league baseball and the NFL were represented by hundreds of men serving during WW II. From the Pro Football Hall of Fame, a list of 21 players, a head coach and a team executive who died in World War II:
Cpl. Mike Basca (halfback, Philadelphia, 1941) – Killed in France in 1944
Lt. Charlie Behan (end, Detroit, 1942) – Killed on Okinawa in 1945
Maj. Keith Birlem (end, Cardinals-Washington, 1939) – Killed trying to land combat damaged bomber in England in 1943
Lt. Al Blozis (tackle, Giants, 1942-1944) – Killed in France, 1945
Lt. Chuck Braidwood (end, Portsmouth-Cleveland-Cardinals-Cincinnati, 1930-1933) – Member of Red Cross. Killed in South Pacific, winter 1944-1945
Lt. Young Bussey (quarterback, Bears, 1940-1941) – Killed in Philippines landing assault in 1944
Lt. Jack Chevigny (head coach, Cardinals, 1932) – Killed on Iwo Jima in 1945
Capt. Ed Doyle (end, Frankford-Pottsville, 1924-1925) – Killed during North Africa invasion in 1942
Lt. Col. Grassy Hinton (back, Staten Island, 1932) – Killed in plane crash in East Indies in 1944
Capt. Smiley Johnson (guard, Green Bay, 1940-1941) – Killed on Iwo Jima in 1945
Lt. Eddie Kahn (guard, Boston/Washington, 1935-1937) – Died from wounds suffered during Leyte invasion in 1945
Sgt. Alex Ketzko (tackle, Detroit, 1943) – Killed in France in 1944
Capt. Lee Kizzire (fullback, Detroit, 1937) – Shot down near New Guinea in 1943
Lt. Jack Lummus (end, Giants, 1941) – Killed on Iwo Jima in 1945
Bob Mackert (tackle, Rochester Jeffersons, 1925)
Frank Maher (back, Pittsburgh-Cleveland Rams, 1941)
Pvt. Jim Mooney (end-guard-fullback, Newark-Brooklyn-Cincinnati-St. Louis-Cardinals, 1930-1937) – Killed by sniper in France in 1944
Lt. John O’Keefe (front office, Philadelphia) – Killed flying a patrol mission in Panama Canal Zone
Chief Spec. Gus Sonnenberg (back, Buffalo-Columbus-Detroit-Providence, 1923-1928, 1930) – Died of illness at Bethesda Naval Hospital in 1944
Lt. Len Supulski (end, Philadelphia, 1942) – Killed in plane crash in Nebraska in 1944
Lt. Don Wemple (end, Brooklyn, 1941) – Killed in plane crash in India in 1944
Lt. Chet Wetterlund (halfback, Cardinals-Detroit, 1942) – Killed in plane crash off New Jersey coast in 1944
Capt. Waddy Young (end, Brooklyn, 1939-1940) – Killed in plane crash following first B-29 raid on Tokyo in 1945