Fellow Mississippian James Earl Jones, who of course is probably best known for his sci-fi and Disney cartoon voiceover work, will always be remembered by me as the fictional VADM James “Jim” Greer (Ret.) in his trio of 1990s Tom Clancy movies (The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, and Clear and Present Danger).
What war nerd doesn’t remember the “I was never here,” ending to Red October?
Of course, his other on-camera screen roles were often impeccable such as the Single Action Army-packing Few Clothes in Matewan, the straight-man to Eddie Murphy in Coming to America, Sgt. Maj. Goody Nelson in Gardens of Stone, the B-52 bombardier in Dr. Strangelove (his first role)– which be bounced against his role as the general in charge of the Looking Glass EC-135 in the under-rated By Dawn’s Early Light 25 years later– and as world weary baseball writer Terence Mann in Field of Dreams.
What you may not know is that he was a Korean War-era Army officer.
Earning his butter bar via ROTC at the University of Michigan, he was commissioned in mid-1953 after finishing the Infantry Officers Basic Course at Fort Benning. Too late to see combat, he nonetheless finished Ranger School with a tab, served with the 38th Regimental Combat Team at Camp Hale, and was discharged as a 1LT in 1955.
You were definitely here, LT Jones.