Did ted williams see combat in ww2?

Question

seems to me that a lot of these ww2 guys..who later played (or lost years to war)...always came back alive...makes me wonder if they actually seen any combat. do you know if he seen combat? (i think heard he did).

was there ever a REAL BASEBALL STAR..who was killed in combat?

reva yeah i have that same exact page and that's why im asking. he apparently was in ww2 (because the korean conflict didn't happen until the 50's. ..but i'm asking about ww2..did he see combat?

yankee D..I heard the EXACT SAME THING..that's why i am asking this question...i think that their service..wasn't what people are making it out to be.

as for your father and gable..well i heard similar stories about him..that he wasn't really there.

Answer 1

Who really knows what major league veterans did during the world. I know that Clark Gable was in the same squadron with my father in England and flew 5 combat missions as a captain in the Army-Air Force. My dad has pictures of them all together.

Many (almost all) of the major league players actually were part of a group of baseball touring teams that went around the states as well as Europe playing exhibition games. That's all they did during their active duty time.

Answer 2

Ted Williams didn't see any combat in WWII, he was a flight training instructor in FL for most of the war. In Korea, he flew combat missions and was often the wingman of future astronaut John Glenn.

A lot of stars from several sports were put into exhibition teams that would play for troop morale around europe and the US during the war. Some actually saw combat, but a significant number did not

Answer 3

Seems to me that since you are a top contributor in baseball you should already know that answer.
Williams was a Marine fighter pilot and flew in both wars. No exhibition baseball games for him.
There were several major leaguers killed in the wars but no real, as you put it - "stars."
Probablly the one that stands out that almost died is Christy Mathewson. He was gassed in the trenches in France during WW-1. His health was never the same when he resumed his playing career.
I read Joe DiMaggio's book and he played a lot of softball.
Bob Feller was a gunner on a Navy ship for 4 years.
Ralph Houk was a total war hero.
Read the Moe Berg Story sometime.

Answer 4

There are several methods to improve quickly and naturally eye sight.
To know how to do that you can find here a complete method based on researches done by some scientist, for a cheap price ( http://improve-vision.kyma.info )

I can give you just some tips but I suggest to give a look to the method that i posted above, for example you can take more food that contains vitamin A such as carrots may help to naturally improve your eye sight.
We can also always do exercises. There are exercises such as rolling your eyeball to form an invisible square that are always recommended by the doctors to improve one's eyesight.
I don't know about quickly as there is no fast way to reach one's goal.

Vegetarians can help to improve one's eye sight. I believe it because I am a vegetarian and my eye short-sightedness power remains the same without any increase after about 2 years.
The doctor was shocked because teenagers at my years will usually have a most increase since we are always watching TV, playing computers and also reading.
I do not know whether it is totally true or not but it does affect a bit on the result.

Answer 5

Ted Williams, as a number of answerers have noted, served in the Marines in World War Two and Korea, but saw combat in Korea. He lost the better part of 5 seasons. Once during the 1999 season when the Allstar game was in Boston he was asked in a radio interview what achievement he was proudest of, his answer was to have been a Marine aviator.

Other ballplayers served in the military in World War II, including Moe Berg who served in the OSS, the forerunner of the CIA. Athletics pitcher Lou Brissie served in the Army in Italy where he lost part of his leg below his knee and had it replaced with some kind of metal prothesis. In 1947 or 1948, Ted Williams lined a shot off Brissie's leg, knocking him down. Williams ran to first then immediately ran to the mound to check on Brissie. Brissie later was a Veterans Affairs administrator.

Answer 6

ted williams combat ww2

Answer 7

And in Korea Yes. He was a fighter pilot in the Marine Corps. In the Korean conflict, one of other pilots in his unit was John Glenn. Yeah, the astronaut.

Define REAL. Yes, there were players who had major league experience who were killed in both WWI and WWII. But wars are generally fought be relatively young men, and most of them were too young to have been established MLB players.

Do you see those gaps in Williams' career?

I guess you missed the first word in my response - AND.

Answer 8

While a lot of players just played baseball while they served in the Armed Forces, Ted Williams did actually operate a fighter jet.

From Wikipedia:

Williams served as a United States Marine Corps pilot during World War II and the Korean War. During World War II he served as a flight instructor at Naval Air Station Pensacola teaching young pilots to fly the F4U Corsair. He finished the war in Hawaii and was released from active duty in January of 1946; however he did remain in the reserves.

In 1952, at the age of 34, he was recalled to active duty for service in the Korean War. After getting checked out on the new F9F Panther at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina, he was assigned to VMF-311, Marine Aircraft Group 33 (MAG-33) in Korea.

On February 16, 1953, Williams was part of a 35 plane strike package against a tank and infantry training school just south of Pyongyang, North Korea. During the mission a piece of flak knocked out his hydraulics and electrical systems causing Williams to have to crash land his fighter jet. After scrambling out of the jet he made the comment, "I ran faster than Mickey Mantle."[citation needed] For bringing the plane back he was also awarded the Air Medal.

Williams eventually flew 38 combat missions before being pulled from flight status in June of 1953 after an old ear infection acted up. During the war he also served in the same unit as John Glenn. While these absences, which took almost five years out of the heart of a great career, significantly limited his career totals, he never complained about the time devoted to military service.

Answer 9

Ted Williams was a true American hero. Not only did he serve in WWII , but also in Korea. He lost 5 YEARS of his career. He was an amazing hitter because of his eyesight, and that was also why he was a great fighter pilot. Yes, he saw combat.

Answer 10

Korea

Answer 11

The Korean War was his !!!

http://www.tedwilliams.com/index.php?page=milkorean&level=2