Just a friendly reminder of the November 11 Remembrance Day ceremonies.
Here’s a photo of James Doohan, 22nd Field Battery, 13th Field Regiment RCA of the Canadian 3rd Infantry Division. He was part of the famous D-Day landings of June 1944.
You can read more about here:
https://www.junobeach.org/canada-in-wwii/articles/james-doohan/
My grandfather was in the army in WW2, on the Pacific front. He rarely talked about what happened to him, but he saw some horrific things (and got a Silver Star for his troubles). I’ve often pondered how witnessing that sort of thing changes your long-term outlook on life. After WW2, life in the US was grand, and optimism was high. For soldiers returning, how do you square that with the horrors witnessed? Star Trek seems to me the epitome of optimism. Many WW2 vets were involved in that (as you showed here), but at the same time Vietnam was getting going. I wonder how the experience of the horrors of war in their memory, and the concurrent Vietnam war were processed by them.
There was a lot of people asking questions about the previous war and current wars, including the Vietnam War which was happening at the time.
I think the combination of veterans of Second World War, Korean War and the terrible experiences they had meant that they were more than willing to ask pertinent questions about any war.
For example ‘A Private Little War’, episode 19 from season 2 of TOS which aired in February 1968 is seen as an allegory of the Vietnam War … the powerful federation and the Klingon Empire trying to manipulate and affect control over a weak neutral planet, which then leads to conflict on the once peaceful population.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Private_Little_War
It’s really striking when you realize that the episode aired in February 1968, a month after the Battle of Khe Sanh and the start of The Tet Offensive which all happened in January 1968. Major battles and events were happening in Vietnam and the writers and producers air an episode on Star Trek asking and displaying why two great powers (Soviet Union and the United States) are fighting or starting conflicts in once peaceful places. The episode didn’t provide any answers but it certainly asked a lot of important questions for everyone to think about.
There are a few other examples like this from the TOS series but this episode was one of the most obvious ones.
A SIDE NOTE: … I took two trips to Thailand, once in 1999 and another in 2015. We did a lot of budget travelling when we were younger and stronger in 1999 which meant we stayed in a few shady places, including one little bungalow rental place near Trang in the sound of Thailand. We met a middle aged man who was about 50 at the time but built like a muscular 20 year old and as lean. He was a veteran of the Battle of Khe Sanh and he’s the one that explained to me that the Americans regularly used any Southeast Asian looking person to fight as a Vietnamese soldier. The old guy told us in his broken English how he watched RPGs fly onto their base and how he stayed up for days avoiding these rockets to stay alive.
During that visit to his place in Thailand in 1999 we came back to his place very late one night at around 2am, I can still see him standing at the gate to his place asking forcefully who was there. It was hot and he stood there shirtless shimming in a layer of light sweat over his tough frame and holding a machete ready to fight. Once he knew it was us, he quickly turned into his nice friendly self and helped us into his property again. The man was scary but also one of the kindest people we met on that trip.
Remember when the US and fascists were on opposing teams?
Wasnt he canadian?
I’ve been watching TOS with my wife over the past year slowly as we know there are not that many episodes from this period. Every time I watch, I have my laptop and I do a bit of research on the actors and trivia about the episode.
There are many actual WWII veterans that make appearances in the show. It is interesting to note that with the show being made in the late 1960s, many of the returning veterans of the war at the time were in their 40s/50s which means they were still able to take part in shows like this.
James Doohan was a prime example … a veteran of the front lines of the war and he was still able to build an acting career.
The fact that he was shot multiple times by friendly fire, only lost a finger and was saved by a cigarette case blocking a lethal bullet from hitting his vital organ’s is out of this world.
That’s so much fun!
I’m sure you’re aware of Doohan’s WWII injury (missing finger on his right hand). They were pretty good about hiding it in most scenes, but it always shows up on the TOS trivia pages when an episode has a scene that shows it.
Yes I do … and a great bit of history to learn when I first read about it. Funny part was is that it was actually shot off by his own men! who were terribly afraid and on edge during that period.
I have a relative who was a Canadian veteran who landed in Normandy as the second wave of troops in late June / July 1944. That first landing was terrible but equally horrible was what the Canadians went through from June 1944 to about December 1944 as they fought their way into France / Belgium / Germany. These were mostly teens and 20 year olds with a year or less of army training and no combat experience fighting against German veterans that had come back from the Eastern front fighting Russians for the past two / three years. They were kids fighting battle hardened soldiers.
There is a famous battle in Belgium called the ‘Battle of the Scheldt’ where German soldiers couldn’t believe how easily it was to kill newly arrived Canadian soldiers. It was a massacre before Canadians could turn it around … which is why their participation in the war declined as the Allies moved to Germany. The Canadians literally died out to help the Brits and Americans make their way to Germany.
War is terrifying. I think accidents, including friendly fire, are just as much part of the horrors as facing an enemy. It’s sad to think about how young these kids were, and it helps me put the challenges of my life into perspective.
and the greatest lesson I’ve learned about any and all wars and the veterans that were left behind and survived is to always ask ‘why wars were started in the first place’
The biggest humanitarian crime I’ve come to learn is the lessons of the First World War and why that fiasco was even started. The more history you read into that conflict, the more confused and complicated and senseless it becomes.
And those question lead into WWII and the reasons why the second conflict started and how it could have been prevented. Because even as the world watched the fallout and the rise of fascism, no one really did anything to stop it and in many cases, helped to enable it to become the thing that everyone fought against.
The more history you read about every conflict, the more you realize that every conflict is preventable, which leads you to realize that every conflict is senseless.
Which is why I always believe that we have to remember … remember the fallen … but also remember the reason why they fought in the first place … and to remember the reasons and causes so that we never allow this to happen again.
Walter Matthew Jefferies (August 12, 1921 – July 21, 2003) was an American aviation and mechanical artist, set designer, and writer. He is best known for his work on the original Star Trek television series, where he designed many of the sets and props, including the original Starship Enterprise, and the bridge and sick bay
After a devastating mid-air collision with a German fighter over North Africa the B-17 bomber “All American” landed safely at a remote desert airfield. It was methodically rebuilt, striped of all armament and flown by a new crew of four. Among these crew members was Matt Jefferies, who served as flight engineer and co-pilot. No longer a bomber, unarmed and incapable of defending itself, the All American was assigned to carry out special secret missions over enemy held territory.
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Matt_Jefferies
Gene Roddenberry was a veteran bomber pilot for the US Air Force during the Second World War
He was posted to Bellows Field, Oahu, to join the 394th Bomb Squadron, 5th Bombardment Group, of the Thirteenth Air Force, which flew the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress.
Mark Lenard, who famously played Sarek in Star Trek, was a veteran of the Second World War, joining the US Army in 1943 and becoming a paratrooper in Europe. He rose rapidly through the enlisted ranks until he was discharged as a technical sergeant in 1946.
DeForest Kelley, who played Dr Leonard McCoy in the Original Star Trek series was a veteran of the Second World War. During the war, Kelley served in the United States Army Air Forces in a non-fighting capacity from March 1943 onward, as he, having a theatrical background at the time, was assigned to the First Motion Picture Unit, responsible for the production of propaganda, and training films.
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/DeForest_Kelley
