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View Full Version : Little known info about the "nice guys" - Capt Kangaroo, Mr. Rogers



Jarhed87
12-11-06, 11:21 AM
Captain Kangaroo passed away on January 23, 2004 at age 76 , which is odd, because he always looked to be 76. (DOB: 6/27/27.) His death reminded me of the following story.
Some people have been a bit offended that the actor, Lee Marvin, is buried in a grave alongside 3 and 4 star generals at Arlington National Cemetery. His marker gives his name, rank (PVT) and service (USMC). Nothing else. Here's a guy who was only a famous movie star who served his time, why the heck does he rate burial with these guys? Well, following is the amazing answer:
I always liked Lee Marvin, but didn't know the extent of his Corps experiences.


In a time when many Hollywood stars served their country in the armed forces often in rear echelon posts where they were carefully protected, only to be trotted out to perform for the cameras in war bond promotions,

Lee Marvin was a genuine hero. He won the Navy Cross at Iwo Jima. There is only one higher Naval award... the Medal Of Honor.



If that is a surprising comment on the true character of the man, he credits his sergeant with an even greater show of bravery.

Dialog from "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson": His guest was Lee Marvin. Johnny said, "Lee, I'll bet a lot of people are unaware that you were a Marine in the initial landing at Iwo Jima...and that during the course of that action you earned the Navy Cross and were severely wounded."



"Yeah, yeah... I got shot square in the bottom and they gave me the Cross for securing a hot spot about halfway up Suribachi. Bad thing about getting shot up on a mountain is guys getting' shot hauling you down. But,Johnny, at Iwo I served under the bravest man I ever knew... We both got the cross the same day, but what he did for his Cross made mine look cheap in comparison. That dumb guy actually stood up on Red beach and directed his troops to move forward and get the hell off the beach. Bullets flying by, with mortar rounds landing everywhere and he stood there as the main target of gunfire so that he could get his men to safety. He did this on more than one occasion because his men's safety was more important than his own life.

That Sergeant and I have been lifelong friends. When they brought me off Suribachi we passed the Sergeant and he lit a smoke and passed it to me, lying on my belly on the litter and said, where'd they get you Lee?' Well Bob... if you make it home before me, tell Mom to sell the outhouse!"

Johnny, I'm not lying, Sergeant Keeshan was the bravest man I ever knew.

The Sergeant's name is Bob Keeshan You and the world know him as Captain Kangaroo."



On another note, there was this wimpy little man (who just passed away) on PBS, gentle and quiet. Mr. Rogers is another of those you would least suspect of being anything but what he now portrays to our youth. But Mr. Rogers was a U.S. Navy Seal, combat-proven in Vietnam with over twenty-five confirmed kills to his name. He wore a long-sleeved sweater on TV, to cover the many tattoos on his forearm and biceps. He was a master in small arms and hand-to-hand combat, able to disarm or kill in a heartbeat.



After the war Mr. Rogers became an ordained Presbyterian minister and therefore a pacifist. Vowing to never harm another human and also dedicating the rest of his life to trying to help lead children on the right path in life. He hid away the tattoos and his past life and won our hearts with his quiet wit and charm.

America's real heroes don't flaunt what they did; they quietly go about their day-to-day lives, doing what they do best. They earned our respect and the freedoms that we all enjoy.

Look around and see if you can find one of those heroes in your midst.

Often, they are the ones you'd least suspect, but would most like to have on your side if anything ever happened.

Take the time to thank anyone that has fought for our freedom. With encouragement they could be the next Captain Kangaroo or Mr.Rogers

:usmc:
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rb1651
12-11-06, 11:24 AM
This has been discussed before. Yes, Captain Kangaroo was a Marine, but Mr. Rogers was not a SEAL.

Jarhed87
12-11-06, 11:25 AM
I found the above post on another message board, unfortunately, after doing some research I've discovered that the info on Mr. Rogers is false. My apologizes.

http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/mrrogers.asp

:cry:

DWG
12-11-06, 01:34 PM
Great documentary, Red Blood, Black Sand, about Iwo. What impressed me most was, when talking about taking jap teeth, they would ask some of these Vets if they participated in it. You've got some 80 year old, gentle looking grand dad type, when asked, they would kind of half smile and say 'yeah, I had pliers and a bag". You tend to forget these old timers were "life takers" of the first rank in their day. :iwo:

drumcorpssnare
12-11-06, 01:50 PM
D W- I have a three disc DVD that I loaned to another Marine, that discusses "boiling Jap heads" in a 55-gal. drum (shows actual footage) to trade with, or sell to sailors on the ships off Iwo.
Now, there's a case where two heads are better than one! Hey, that's when "killin'" was the name of the game. And my dad always told me, "Nobody kills people better than the Marine Corps!"
In fact, now that I recall, my dad had an 8mm reel about 5 minutes long, of live uncensored footage from Iwo Jima. The part I remember was a Jap coming out of his cave with hands up. He reached to his loincloth and got cooked by a flamethrower.

drumcorpssnare:usmc:

DWG
12-11-06, 02:19 PM
Wasn't a lot of tears shed back then about dead japs. Now the media would be screaming for investigations; too sad!:(

drumcorpssnare
12-11-06, 02:31 PM
D W - Today's bleeding-heart liberals would be having coronaries (LOL) left and right, if such atrocities were taking place in Iraq. With any luck, they'd all be dead in short order! (LOL) Then we could get on with this war, and fight it like it needs to be fought....with Americans cheering and waving flags at every victory, etc.

drumcorpssnare:usmc:

DWG
12-11-06, 03:54 PM
If they(liberals) would actually go tits up and taking water instead of just going into screaming snits it would be worth the effort.:) Too bad they just keep on living and whining!:mad: BTW, I've seen the footage of the jap getting barbecued, don't know where.
Are you aware of the Civil War seminars in Fl. next month? Bob Krick, Ed Bearss, etc. One in West Palm, one in Sarasota.

DWG
12-11-06, 06:06 PM
D W- I have a three disc DVD that I loaned to another Marine, that discusses "boiling Jap heads" in a 55-gal. drum (shows actual footage) to trade with, or sell to sailors on the ships off Iwo.
Now, there's a case where two heads are better than one! Hey, that's when "killin'" was the name of the game. And my dad always told me, "Nobody kills people better than the Marine Corps!"
In fact, now that I recall, my dad had an 8mm reel about 5 minutes long, of live uncensored footage from Iwo Jima. The part I remember was a Jap coming out of his cave with hands up. He reached to his loincloth and got cooked by a flamethrower.

drumcorpssnare:usmc:
Goes to show ya-sailors will buy anything! :banana: Obviously overpaid:!:

10thzodiac
12-11-06, 08:06 PM
D W- I have a three disc DVD that I loaned to another Marine, that discusses "boiling Jap heads" in a 55-gal. drum (shows actual footage) to trade with, or sell to sailors on the ships off Iwo.
Now, there's a case where two heads are better than one! Hey, that's when "killin'" was the name of the game. And my dad always told me, "Nobody kills people better than the Marine Corps!"
In fact, now that I recall, my dad had an 8mm reel about 5 minutes long, of live uncensored footage from Iwo Jima. The part I remember was a Jap coming out of his cave with hands up. He reached to his loincloth and got cooked by a flamethrower.

drumcorpssnare:usmc:

drumcorpssnare, this post bring back memories of stories that my fathers brother use to tell me. He was a soldier in the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:country-region><ST1:place>Philippines</ST1:place></st1:country-region> and a driver/guard for a Field Hospital. Some Filipinos that were paid by the army dentists were stinking up the area with gunnysacks full of Jap heads. They were boiling them, so the dentist could bring them back home as war trophies. He reported it the OIC and the next day there was a General Order issued, “No mutilating of the enemy dead." They were getting the heads from caves burnt out by the Americans where the Japanese were held up.

Once while on guard duty they had a couple of Jap soldiers surrendering in loincloths and carrying a sign over their heads saying that they wanted surrender, “I surrender take me to Macarthur.” My uncle’s buddy opened up on them with his carbine, they started running, and one blew up. My uncle told me that he asked his partner how come he shot them when they were surrendering ? His buddy replied, "then why did the Jap blow up ?"

They had a Japanese prisoner they made an orderly out of that use to tease the sh*t out of my uncle’s buddy, that he wouldn’t shoot him. One day the Jap died in his sleep, my uncle’s buddy hinted around, maybe it was an overdose of morphine.

One last story of his, when his unit first came ashore in the Philippines, he saw a dead Jap with his head missing, and he asked a Filipino that was standing close by what happened? The Filipino replied, an American soldier that had him as a prisoner did it. Explaining that the Jap saw the soldier had a hard-boiled egg and asked if he could eat it, after letting the prisoner eat the egg, he took out his 45 and blew his head off.

My Uncles first cousin an Army Sergeant, a veteran of New Caledonia, Bougainville and Luzon was killed in Cebu by a Japanese sniper, shot in the throat; his younger brother was a Marine (Peleliu).

Before my uncle passed away in 1979, he told me (jokingly) that the only reason we won the war was, “The Japs were more fuked up than us.”

SF
10th<O:p></O:p>

drumcorpssnare
12-12-06, 06:47 AM
10thz- Interesting post. That's because it's YOUR words; not someone elses.
Hey, the Allied "atrocities" were no better or worse than the Japs did to our boys. Can you say...Bataan Death March! Bottom line- War is a nasty thing.
Wasn't it Bobby Lee who said, "It is good that war is so terrible. Otherwise we should grow to like it."

drumcorpssnare:usmc:

DWG
12-12-06, 08:40 AM
Ask the Chinese or Phillipinos what THEY think of the japs?

10thzodiac
12-12-06, 10:21 AM
10thz- Interesting post. That's because it's YOUR words; not someone elses.
Hey, the Allied "atrocities" were no better or worse than the Japs did to our boys. Can you say...Bataan Death March! Bottom line- War is a nasty thing.
Wasn't it Bobby Lee who said, "It is good that war is so terrible. Otherwise we should grow to like it."

drumcorpssnare:usmc:

According to my mother, that uncle had told much more horrific stories of atrocities right after the war.

He came back with all kind of Japanese samurai swords, rifles, pistols and bonsai flags. One of the swords would of fetched 10's of thousands of dollars if he hadn't fuked it up after drinking to many beers. He chipped the cutting edge in a bet against a German dagger that he cut in half.

The sword when appraised was not of a famous artisan, but what made it so valuable was it's age and what it said on the tang, "Cut test, two bodies, one stroke. " http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/tsmileys2/11.gif

Our neighboring town where I live, Maywood, IL had a whole company in the "Bataan Death March", they even named a street and park "Bataan Drive" and "Bataan Park", after their hero's.

http://www.franzosenbuschheritageproject.org/Histories/Maywood/The%20story%20of%20Bataan.htm

http://maywood.smugmug.com/photos/97340688-Th.jpg
Welcome to the Village of Maywood. The Village of Maywood, Illinois is Celebrating it's 125th Anniversary having been incorporated as a municipality on October 22, 1881. Congress designated Maywood the Village of Eternal Light to honor the soldiers from Maywood who died on the Bataan death march. Maywood is located ten miles west of Chicago, Illinois. Maywood has a population of 27,000 (70% African American, 15 % Latino, and 15% white.). Visit Maywood, Illinois on the internet: http://www.maywood-il.org (http://www.maywood-il.org/). Enjoy the sights and slice of life of Maywood.

drumcorpssnare
12-12-06, 10:46 AM
10thz- I worked in the Wyoming oilfields with a survivor of Bataan. He's passed now, but I asked him about it once. He teared-up, then just sobbed for a long time. I apologized for bringing up the topic, and thanked him for his service to America. I can't imagine how horrible that must have been for those fine young men to have endured. God Bless Them All.
drumcorpssnare:usmc:

DWG
12-12-06, 11:21 AM
My father was stationed in China right after the war. He said the Chinese had warehouses full of captured jap stuff(swords, rifles, etc.) If you wanted something you just had to fill out the paper work. He had two sons at the time so he got two swords. They are basic military, NCO, type swords, not high value stuff (Chinese ain't stupid).Since I was born after they returned I got screwed out of a sword.:cry: Seems the old man should have known he would knock up mom at least once more and gotten an extra damn sword. :mad: He also had pictures of a jap officer and nco the Chinese had captured after the end of the war-they were beheaded later in the day after he took the picture-feelings run deep over there. Geneva convention don't play in the orient!

Zulu 36
12-12-06, 11:24 AM
I served under a Bataan Death March survivor, with a Japanese bayonet wound scar and a slight gimp in his leg to always remind him (a punishment for stopping to aid an injured Marine on the march). He was the leading chief (now called command master chief) at Field Medical Service School at Camp Lejuene back in 1973.

Chief Mac had no love for the Japanese whatever and considered anything done to them in WWII more than justified. He refused ever after to serve in any Japan-based assignments and the Navy let him.

Chief Mac was OLD Navy and a tough SOB to work for, but he had high standards and enforced them. I didn't like him, but I respected him.

capmarine
12-12-06, 01:11 PM
captain kangaroo-he joined at the end of ww2 and never saw combat.

drumcorpssnare
12-12-06, 01:24 PM
capmarine- I don't know the definitive answer, but I've heard my entire life, that Bob Keeshan did serve on Iwo Jima. Can someone research this and let us know conclusively?
drumcorpssnare:usmc:

DWG
12-12-06, 01:28 PM
capmarine- I don't know the definitive answer, but I've heard my entire life, that Bob Keeshan did serve on Iwo Jima. Can someone research this and let us know conclusively?
drumcorpssnare:usmc:
Go to snopes.com, I think-it has all the urban legends. Keeshan was too young to be at Iwo-he never served in the Pacific-he was in, or just finished training. Lee Marvin was wounded before Iwo, did not participate, No Navy Cross!!!

Jarhed87
12-12-06, 01:58 PM
http://www.snopes.com/military/marvin.asp

Zulu 36
12-12-06, 02:18 PM
Lee Marvin was WIA on Saipan.

drumcorpssnare
12-12-06, 02:32 PM
Anybody ever hear the story (or urban legend) about the Marine Captain who was in hot water regarding the hand-painted sign he stuck on the beach in the Phillipines?
When MacArthur returned to the Phillipines, of course the newsreel crews were there, with lesser Gens., Cols., etc. "Dugout Doug" did three or four "takes" for the cameras, of him stepping ashore. He noticed a sign that said,

"THERE BY THE GRACE OF GOD, AND A FEW MARINES...
MacARTHUR RETURNS TO THE PHILLIPINES!"

Well, needless to say...Dougie was NOT HAPPY! He had his people find out who posted the sign. The Marine Capt. supposedly got an official reprimand.

I thought the story was hilarious!

drumcorpssnare:usmc:

capmarine
12-12-06, 05:16 PM
captain kangaroo did not serve in combat. lee marvin was wounded at Saipan

iamcloudlander
12-12-06, 05:17 PM
I realize that this is a bit off subject but while reading this post I remembered something my Platoon Commander told us in boot camp. It takes three Marines to fight a battle, one with a rifle,one with a camera, and one to field strip.
Yes I know it was probably a joke.

10thzodiac
12-12-06, 09:14 PM
My father was stationed in China right after the war. He said the Chinese had warehouses full of captured jap stuff(swords, rifles, etc.) If you wanted something you just had to fill out the paper work. He had two sons at the time so he got two swords. They are basic military, NCO, type swords, not high value stuff (Chinese ain't stupid).Since I was born after they returned I got screwed out of a sword.:cry: Seems the old man should have known he would knock up mom at least once more and gotten an extra damn sword. :mad: He also had pictures of a jap officer and nco the Chinese had captured after the end of the war-they were beheaded later in the day after he took the picture-feelings run deep over there. Geneva convention don't play in the orient!

As far as I know my uncle who was a driver/guard for field hospital in the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:country-region><ST1:place>Philippines</ST1:place></st1:country-region> never got war souvenirs up and close like the infantry.<O:p></O:p>

He was in the occupation of <st1:country-region><ST1:place>Japan</ST1:place></st1:country-region> in <st1:City><ST1:place>Niigata</ST1:place></st1:City> and <st1:City><ST1:place>Sendai</ST1:place></st1:City>. During the occupation he said some of the GI's would walk up to Japanese soldiers an cold cock them. When being transported on Japanese trains he noticed other trains with Japanese troops sitting in open gondola cars passing his train, he said they looked in bad shape.

Before shipping home his commanding officer told him to take a truck, go to a warehouse, and get Japanese swords for everybody in the outfit. He spotted two wrapped in rice straw, the ones I mentioned earlier he kept, plus a few short ones. He said, "the warehouse was knee deep in samurai swords." Not the mass produced cheap blades they used on the battlefield.

He had given those swords to his oldest boy who had a drinking problem. One day before the boy could pawn them, I offered to buy them in his dads presence; his son was hot to sell and I caught my uncle looking down hurt, so I withdrew my offer out of respect for my uncles feelings. The swords are in some pawn shop today, long gone !

My brother as a prank ran one our uncles Bonsai flags up the flag pole at school right after the war, end of that flag.

The way I understand it, the Japanese were ordered to turn all their swords in and in time they would be given back.

My son got a German helmet from my uncles other boy, that boy married a Jewish girl and couldn't keep the helmet, though I think he like it better than the American one I got him http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/tsmileys2/27.gif. The German helmet was a war trophy from my uncles step sister's husband.

My son then 16 y/o sold the helmet without my knowledge to help pay for a lawyer to keep his ass out of jail.

SF
10th

drumcorpssnare
12-13-06, 06:39 AM
When I was a kid, I was forever playing "combat" with other neighborhood kids. Our parents, being WW II vets, had tons of captured enemy paraphanelia. We had German and Jap flags, a few German helmets, assorted bayonets, tunics, even a Luger! Plus lots of "army surplus"...cartridge belts, canteens and covers, packs, shelter-halves, uniform shirts and trousers, stripes, patches, mess kits.
We had fox holes dug throughout the back yards, barbed wire strung out, stone walls, abandoned buildings to fight from...
But the best part was capturing the "enemy" flag. (Unless you consider having the girl next door "nurse" your ketchup-stained wound back to good health!:banana: )
drumcorpssnare:usmc:

10thzodiac
12-13-06, 07:25 AM
When I was a kid, I was forever playing "combat" with other neighborhood kids. Our parents, being WW II vets, had tons of captured enemy paraphanelia. We had German and Jap flags, a few German helmets, assorted bayonets, tunics, even a Luger! Plus lots of "army surplus"...cartridge belts, canteens and covers, packs, shelter-halves, uniform shirts and trousers, stripes, patches, mess kits.
We had fox holes dug throughout the back yards, barbed wire strung out, stone walls, abandoned buildings to fight from...
But the best part was capturing the "enemy" flag. (Unless you consider having the girl next door "nurse" your ketchup-stained wound back to good health!
drumcorpssnare:usmc:

Hey, I did that too ! Once a bigger kid took over my hilltop position by pushing us little kids out. I found a tree limb like a baseball bat, snook up on his rear and cold cocked that MF'er with all I had right on the top of his head.
Goes to show you, you should always listen to your Sergeant and wear your helmet and never underestimate your enemy even if they are little guys! Never saw that kid again, probably was my DI and I didn't know it. http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/tsmileys2/18.gif

When I went out to play, forget about Mr. Rodger's neighborhood, it was:
"To Hell and Back" http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/tsmileys2/11.gif

SF
10th

drumcorpssnare
12-13-06, 12:27 PM
10thz- We took our childhood "combat" pretty serious! Crabapples and horsechestnuts launched by wrist-rocket. Darts! BB guns, and for Arty...we would bend a sapling, put a can on the end, and let 'er go! It was good for 50 to 100 yds. Prisoners were hand-cuffed and roughed-up a little. We made some booger eatin' moron eat a "Fizzies" tablet and told him it was poison!
drumcorpssnare:banana:

booksbenji
12-13-06, 03:11 PM
:evilgrin: :evilgrin:

http://www.snopes.com/military/marvin.asp

read bout 1/2 way and see wear the Cap't did not serve in WW2.

10thzodiac
12-14-06, 01:14 PM
10thz- We took our childhood "combat" pretty serious! Crabapples and horsechestnuts launched by wrist-rocket. Darts! BB guns, and for Arty...we would bend a sapling, put a can on the end, and let 'er go! It was good for 50 to 100 yds. Prisoners were hand-cuffed and roughed-up a little. We made some booger eatin' moron eat a "Fizzies" tablet and told him it was poison!
drumcorpssnare


Just like now, if you got rats, I got beavers :thumbup:


We had crab-apples too, plus Acme fireworks plant was a block away.

Once after digging in the garbage at Acme, I not only blew the window out of our back porch, dam near peppered my dad with glass from an exploding mason jar that I filled and capped with wet sparkler compound in it. Turn out to be a carbide bomb; good for fishing, like a ****** grenade.

After I broke into one of the storage sheds at Acme, you could barely walk in my basement there were so many aerial bombs. Dam near killed the neighbor lady, not to mention the buggy she was pushing with her baby in it. It didn't go off way up in the air like it was supposed too, it acted like a "Victor-Tango-Hotel-Echo-Round" and blew up about 10 feet off the ground in front of her; shook all the windows on the houses http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/tsmileys2/34.gif. You couldn't find me after that one !

Got a hold of a bunch of silver salutes without fuses, blew one up in my face trying to poke a hole in it for a wick, with the wire from a sparkler. I thought for sure I blinded my dumb ass and lost some fingers. I was lucky, just a loud ringing in my ears, a face that felt like it was sandblasted and sun burned and fingers that tingled.

Before that day, I couldn't spell combat engineer, today I are one http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/tsmileys2/04.gif


SF
10thz

Sgt Leprechaun
12-15-06, 06:39 AM
I love this thread! I've been collecting military stuff since I was about 8 years old; I grew up about 500 feet from an auction house, and it was my first job. My Dad bought me a huge piece of canvas...