On D-Day, 19-year-old Yogi Berra and five of his Navy colleagues parked the two long guns of the USS Bayfield on Omaha Beach and fired rockets and machine guns at German forces to smooth the Allied invasion. I was going to do it.
They remained there for another 12 days with orders to shoot down enemy aircraft.
Ted Williams, whose Boston Red Sox battled Vera’s New York Yankees hundreds of times in the 1940s and 1950s, served as a naval aviator for three years in World War II and another 15 months as a fighter pilot, sometimes He also served as John Glenn’s wingman. In the Korean War.
Williams had dinner with legendary sportswriter Grantland Rice before leaving for duty in the Korean War. According to Adam Lazarus’ excellent book, “The Wingmen: The Unlikely, Unusual, and Unbreakable Friendship between John Glenn and Ted Williams,” Williams understood the risks.
Rice told fellow New York sportswriter Frank Graham: “(He said) ‘Of course I expect to die.’”
Vera and Williams are two of many examples of outstanding athletes who didn’t confine their greatness to the field, but risked their lives for it. Veterans Day is a wonderful opportunity to reflect on their sacrifices for our country.
Ty Cobb, Warren Spahn, Bobby Jones, David Robinson, Hank Greenberg, Chuck Bednarik, and Hoyt Wilhelm are other athletes who saw active duty or served as intelligence officers.
Bob Feller, the best pitcher of his time, enlisted in the Naval Reserve two days after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. As a gun captain on the USS Alabama, Feller earned eight battle stars and six campaign ribbons in the North Atlantic and Pacific Theaters. After missing nearly four seasons of his prime, Feller was discharged on August 22, 1945, and two days later pitched a walk-off victory over the Detroit Tigers, who advanced to the World Series.
Former Major League Baseball legends are by no means the only ones who have come to help their country.
After four years as a safety for the Arizona Cardinals, Pat Tillman and his brother Kevin (an Anaheim Angels pitcher) enlisted in the Army in May 2002 in response to the 9/11 attacks. They trained to join the Army Rangers, and their regiment deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Tillman was killed by friendly fire during a firefight in Afghanistan on April 22, 2004.
Forty years ago, Roger Staubach had a remarkable athletic career in the Navy. In addition to winning the Heisman Trophy in 1963 and being featured on the cover of Time magazine (he was pushed off the cover of Life magazine due to John F. Kennedy’s assassination), Staubach played three outstanding years on the baseball team (batting average .420) 2 Grade) I received two letters from the basketball team.
Upon graduation in 1965, Staubach began serving five years in the Navy, including a year in Vietnam. He entered the NFL as a 27-year-old rookie in 1969 with the Dallas Cowboys. He had the foresight to spend a 10th round pick in the 1964 NFL Draft on Staubach. Within three years, Staubach led the Cowboys to a Super Bowl championship. He won the Super Bowl MVP award with his Dodge Charger. Staubach traded it for a station wagon that was better for transporting his three young children.
Staubach’s Cowboys and Rocky Bleier’s Pittsburgh Steelers have met in the Super Bowl more than once, and Bleier’s military tour was more harrowing than Staubach’s. After his rookie year in Pittsburgh, Bleier was drafted into the Army. He went to Vietnam and was wounded several times in August 1969. He was shot in the thigh during an ambush. Not long after the gunfight, he saw a grenade ricochet off his commander’s back.
Bleier told the American Veterans Center: “I got up to jump and it exploded and I was standing on top of it… (Right) I had nerve damage in my foot and a broken bone under my foot. Fortunately, I didn’t lose any feet.”
During a lengthy recovery period that included multiple surgeries, Bleier was told he would never play football again. Instead, he played 10 more seasons with the Steelers, winning four Super Bowls along with a Purple Heart and Silver Star.
“Vietnam was at the top of the list because I became the story and we were successful,” Bleier said. “So these Vietnam veterans who were oppressed and not given credit or praised, suddenly here was one of us who was successful. and was passed and recognized for his service. The rest of us can ride his coattails or whatever it is. But it was something we all should have received at the time.”
