John Coltrane’s first recording on the alto saxophone was made in July 1946 while he was a member of the U.S. Navy. Coltrane had enlisted in the Navy on August 6, 1945, one day after the U.S. dropped the first atomic bomb on Japan. In late 1945, he was shipped to Pearl Harbor as an apprentice seaman. He joined the base swing band and became one of few servicemen in the Navy who served as musicians without having a musicians’ rating. Because the band had only white members, Coltrane played as a “guest performer.”
Harry Belafonte
Harry Belafonte felt that he could be part of a great cause when he joined the navy, and in a way he still was. He courageously enlisted in 1944 to join the fight in World War II, but to his disappointment, he never received the order from higher command to report overseas. He never got to fight, although he had served the military in his own small capacity.
His dreams of action never realized, Belafonte decided to pursue his studies at the New School for Social Research just after he was discharged. He then studied acting at the New School’s dramatic workshop and performed with the American Negro Theatre in the 1940s, singing in clubs to earn enough to pay for his acting classes.
Drew Carey
The popular host of The Price is Right and Who’s Line is it Anyway? got a foretaste to his stand-up career while serving the military. He served his time in the US Marine Corps, where he spent six years as a corporal. And big as he is today, he still supports the troops by touring overseas with the USO like a true patriot.
He admits that, had he not gotten a big break in his comedic career, he’d probably still be in the armed forces up to this day; a path he would still have been happy with. He loved the camaraderie... and now you know why he’s always maintained that clean-cut hair.
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Scott Fitzgerald is forever cemented in history as one of America’s finest writers. When World War I broke out, he dropped out of Princeton and joined the military, where he awaited to be shipped out from Fort Leavenworth. He still had not abandoned his dreams of being a successful writer, so he devoted his free time, while waiting for word from command, to working on his stories in the hopes of leaving a legacy, even if the war ended his life.
Fortunately, in 1918, the armistice was signed just before he was about to be shipped out. His most popular novel, The Great Gatsby, is now a classic in American literature.
Paul Newman
Paul Newman was a voice actor, film director, producer, race car driver, indy car owner, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. With all his numerous achievements in life, he still had more dreams: he wanted to become a pilot.
Newman joined the US Navy through a college training in Yale V-12, but his aspirations were a no-go. He was diagnosed as being color blind, and his dreams of taking flight abruptly crashed. Instead he became a rear-seat radioman and a gunner for the torpedo bombers. He was discharged in 1946 and decorated with military honors.