Word: gunner
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Naish entered show business in his teens as a song plugger for Irving Berlin. At 17 he enlisted in World War I, and enjoyed an unruly military career as bombardier, naval orderly and Army machine gunner. After the war he stayed on in Europe, knocking around the Continent as a variety-hall clown and soldier of fortune. The European years fed his talent for mimicry, and left him fluent in five languages and competent in three others. He was on a slow boat to Shanghai when a storm at sea diverted him to Hollywood in 1927. After three years...
...Hero. As an intelligence officer, Joe often went along on missions in the rear gunner's seat. He had his picture taken there, and saw that it made Wisconsin papers. Joe used to shoot up everything in sight, on the theory that any coconut tree might hide a Jap. He hated to see a crew come home with any ammunition left. On his tent, marines hung a sign: "Protect the coconut trees-Send McCarthy back to Wisconsin...
...gunner on the Mississippi told him: "Chaplain, back in Pearl, I had a hard time behavin'. Up here with them Jap subs somewhere around, it ain't no trouble at all. I'm afraid I'll grow wings." Chaplain Sheehy replied: "We have been 62 days at sea, and we are now drawing on the ship's reserve supplies. Each man has a reserve tank of virtue in him-and the fact of danger may make him tap it. Don't rely upon it for long. It soon runs dry . . . -"There is a spark...
...sprung into the air from each trap house at 70 m.p.h.; 2) double shots from stations 1, 2, 6 and 7, at birds sprung simultaneously, one coming toward him, one going away; 3) an optional shot from any station (bringing the total to 25 and usually taken wherever the gunner misses his first bird...
...fall back; the North Koreans were attacking in force. The 24th was grouped for the withdrawal when the first enemy waves crashed into their positions. Two doughboys grabbed machine guns, started pouring lead into the charging ranks. Willie Thompson was one of them. Enemy fire got the other machine gunner. Willie kept blasting away, spraying belt after belt of withering fire to hold back the Reds. His platoon formed up again and started moving out. The lieutenant ordered Private Thompson to retreat. He refused. He said he was going to stay, and if he couldn't make it back...