FAMOUS MARINES: M

Manchester was the son of a WWI Marine, and grew up in Attleboro, Massachusetts. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. Although he expected to serve in Europe, Manchester ultimately found himself in the Pacific. He served on Guadalcanal after the Japanese defeat there, and experienced combat in the last major battle of the Pacific War, on Okinawa.
Source: Wikipedia

He served in the Marine Corps, attaining the rank of sergeant. He was shot in the kneecap on Okinawa's Sugar Loaf Hill but left the military hospital when he heard his regiment was moving on to Oruku peninsula. Wounded by mortar fire, he also was shot by a Japanese soldier near his heart. He was a recipient of the Purple Heart.
Source: The Washington Post

Popular character actor from Broadway to television to the big screen. He was in numerous movies including, The Dirty Dozen, and an Academy Award winning performance in Cat Ballou. He served in the Pacific during World War II. He was wounded in the buttocks during the battle of Saipan and received a Purple Heart. He died from a heart attack the year following the release of his final movie, The Delta Force. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. 29 Aug 1987.

Tim Matheson
Actor

Born: December 31, 1947
Marine Corps Reserves

Robert "Bud" McFarlane served as national security adviser to President Ronald Reagan from 1983 to 1985. During that time the administration faced the deadly attack on the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut; the abduction of the CIA's Beirut station chief, William Buckley; the bombing of the U.S. embassy annex in Beirut; the hijacking of TWA 847; and the commandeering of the Achille Lauro in the Mediterranean Sea. Here, McFarlane offers his personal perspective on how the debates within the Reagan administration shaped the U.S. response to these events and others, and led to the U.S. policy of arms sales to Iran in exchange for hostages -- a policy McFarlane was largely responsible for carrying out.

Enlisting in the US Marines, McMahon earned his wings at the Pensacola Naval Base and later trained fighter pilots. After the war, he returned to school, this time as a speech and drama major at Catholic University. Following his 1949 graduation, he settled in Philadelphia and found work as a writer, producer and host of various local programs, including a cooking show and an early morning series. In 1950, McMahon made his national debut as a clown on CBS' "The Big Top". When the Korean Conflict erupted, he re-enlisted and flew some 85 combat missions, eventually achieving the rank of colonel.

Born Terrence Steven McQueen on March 24, 1930, in Indianapolis, Indiana.

McQueen dropped out of school in ninth grade and became a drifter, working as a seaman until he joined the United States Marine Corps in 1947. Always a rebel, he once went AWOL for two weeks and spent a 41-day stint in the brig as punishment. After his discharge from the Marines in 1950, McQueen settled in New York City, where he took a cheap apartment in Greenwich Village and worked as a salesman, a bartender, and a television repairman, among other jobs. McQueen took up acting at the suggestion of a friend, and in 1952 joined Sanford Meissner's Neighborhood Playhouse in New York under the G.I. Bill. Television and film actor known for his roles as a cool loner; In 1955 he and Martin Landau were the only two people chosen out of a group of 2000 that auditioned to get into Lee Strasberg's Actor's Studio, a prestigious training center whose graduates include Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Marlon Brando and Marilyn Monroe. He appeared in the television series Wanted — Dead or Alive (1958–61). His many film credits include The Magnificent Seven (1960), The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) Bullitt (1968) and Papillon (1973). For a time he was the highest paid actor in the world, making $5 million per film. He died of cancer in Juarez, Mexico three days before the Marine Corps birthday in 1980.