Did you know?....Ed McMahon

[Magnumcharger]

I got this info in an email sent to me today....


GENERAL ED HAS DIED



He wanted to be a Marine fighter pilot.  The  US was building up their military force, but they were not at war yet and the Navy required all its potential Navy and Marine pilots to have two years of college. So Ed started classes at BostonCollege.  

When Pearl Harbor was attacked the Army and the Navy both dropped the college requirement and Ed applied to the Marines.  His primary flight training was in  Dallas and then he went to  Pensacola ,  Florida .  He was carrier qualified, which means he knew how to perform a controlled crash of his single engine fighter, onto the rolling deck of a Navy floating runway.  

It took Ed almost two years to get through all the Navy flight training.  His problem was he was a very good pilot and the Marines needed flight instructors.  He had a great command presence and public speaking ability, which landed him in the classroom, training new baby Marine pilots.  

His orders to the Pacific fleet and the chance to fly combat missions off a carrier came in the spring of 1945, on the same day the Atomic bomb was dropped on  Hiroshima .  Of course his orders where changed.  He never went to sea and he was out of the Marines in 1946.  

Ed stayed in the USMC as a reserve officer.  He became a successful personality in the new TV medium, after the war.  His Marine command presence helped.  He was recalled to active duty during the Korean War.  He never got to fly his fighter aircraft, but he saw his share of raw combat.  He flew the Cessna O-1E Bird Dog, which is a single engine slow-moving unarmed plane. He functioned as an artillery spotter for the Marine batteries on the ground and as a forward controller for the Navy & Marine fighter / bombers who flew in on fast moving jet engines, bombed the area and were gone in seconds.  Captain Ed was still circling the enemy looking for more targets, all the time taking North Korean and Chinese ground fire.  

He stayed with the Marines as a reserve officer and retired in 1966 as a Colonel.  

The world knows Ed as Ed McMahon of the Johnny Carson, Tonight Show.  One night I was watching the show when the subject of Colonel McMahon earning a number of Navy Air Medals came up.  Carson, a former Navy officer, understood the significance of these medals, but McMahon shrugged it off, saying that if you flew enough combat missions they just sort of gave them to you.  McMahon flew 85 combat missions over  North Korea ; he earned every one of those Air Medals.  The casualty rate, for flying forward air controllers in  Korea sometimes exceeded 50% of a squadron's manpower.  McMahon was lucky to have gotten home from that war.  

Once a Marine, always a Marine.  

When the public was spitting (taking their personal safety into their own hands) at Marines on the streets of Southern California during  Vietnam , Colonel McMahon was taking Marines off the streets and into his posh  Beverley  Hills  home.  I spoke to a retired Marine aircrew member the day Colonel McMahon died and he personally remembered seeing McMahon at numerous Marine Air Bases in  California in the 1960s.  He was known for going to the Navy hospitals and visiting the wounded Marines and Sailors from this country's conflicts, even in the last years of his life.  

Colonel McMahon presented awards and decorations to fellow Marines and attended many a Marine ceremony and the annual Marine Corps Birthday Ball.  He stayed true to his Corps as a board member of the Marine Corps Scholarship Fund and as the honorary chairman of the National Marine Corps Aviation Museum.  After retiring from the Marine Reserve, one night on the Johnny Carson show, members of the California Air National Guard came on stage.  

Colonel McMahon was commissioned a Brigadier General in the Air Guard in front of millions of Americans who watched it happen live.  You will not see anything like that on TV anymore.  

The three core values of a United States Marine are; honor, courage and commitment.  This is what a Marine is taught from the first day of training and this is what that Marine believes.  That was Colonel Edward P. McMahon Jr. USMCR Retired. Before he was a national figure he was a true combat hero and a patriot the nation needed then and this country needs now.  

Your war is over.  Thank you General McMahon.



Semper Fi Sir.

23 June 2009

Major Van Harl USAF Ret.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_McMahon

[FlatbackFanatic]

wow. I didn't know that about him.. RIP..........................

[bull]

That's very cool. I had no idea.

[Mr.Woolery]

I knew he was a Marine officer, but didn't know the full history.  Thank you, Gen. McMahon! I salute you, Sir!  RIP

It's always good to know our unsung heroes, even if they're famous (the irony).  For example, did you know that James Doohan (aka Mr. Scott from Star Trek) served during WWII, taking part in D-Day?  At the outbreak of World War II, aged 19, he joined the Royal Canadian Artillery, and was eventually commissioned as a lieutenant. His first combat assignment was the invasion of Normandy at Juno Beach on D-Day. Shooting two snipers along the way, Doohan's unit made its way to higher ground and took defensive positions. At 11:30 that night, he was machine-gunned, taking six hits: four in his leg, one in the chest, and one through his middle right finger. The chest bullet was stopped by his silver cigarette case; he would later generally hide the amputated finger on screen. Despite his wounds, Doohan remained in the military, trained as a pilot for the Royal Canadian Air Force, and flew an artillery observation plane, though he was once labeled the "craziest pilot in the Canadian Air Forces.

[Ponch ®]

I knew he was a Marine officer, but didn't know the full history.  Thank you, Gen. McMahon! I salute you, Sir!  RIP

I knew he was a fighter pilot in WWII (which itself is cause of admiration), but had no clue about the rest.

[mikepmcs]

YYYYEESSSSS, YOU ARE CORRECT SIR! HA HA!

Ed was the man!!

[teamroth]

Great read. Thanks for that. Semper Fi Ed.

[Tilar]

Wow, that's pretty cool. Thanks for posting that. 

[69*F5*SE]

We lost more than a celebrity.  We lost a hero and most people probably don't even no it due to his celebrity status.  Way to go Ed.  We salute you.

[Charger_Fan]

That's really cool to know, thanks for posting the story.

Mr. Woolery, thanks for posting the story about James Doohan too, I had no idea.