Some Memorial Day Trivia

"TOMORROW begins our Memorial Day weekend. So today I was remembering: Harvey Keitel, a Marine at 16 who served in Lebanon: Everyone should serve. I don't be lieve in a volunteer armed forces. We shouldn't leave it for the other guy to fight America's wars. It robs our young men of vital experience. They can't have an identity they can respect without being aware it's necessary to stand up and defend the liberties they cherish."

Kirk Douglas, WWII communications officer on a sub in the Pacific, was wounded in a depth-charge attack by a Japanese destroyer . . . Ed McMahon, Marine fighter pilot in 1944, flew 85 combat missions, remained in the Reserve as a test pilot, and retired as a colonel . . . Michael Caine, then Michael Micklewhite, served with the British Commonwealth Division in the Korean War . . . Kris Kristofferson, helicopter pilot in Vietnam; MPs were Chuck Norris and Rip Torn . . . After his Army plane crashed in the Pacific, Clint Eastwood had to swim three miles to safety through jellyfish . . . Sean Connery still receives nine shillings a week disability allowance from the British Royal Navy.

And it was Capt. Ronald Reagan who signed the discharge papers for Major Clark Gable in June 1944 . . . And it was naval officer Richard Nixon who set up WWII's only hamburger stand in the South Pacific. Nixon's Snack Shack served free burgers and Australian beer to flight crews . . . And it was at West Point that Dwight Eisenhower was demoted from sergeant to private for "wild dancing."

Walter Cronkite flew World War II bomber missions over Germany and survived a glider crash landing . . . Roger Moore was in military intelligence; Gene Hackman a Marine Corps radio operator . . . Six years as a Marine helped Drew Carey overcome severe depression and suicide attempts . . . Ralph Nader? An Army cook (who subsequently always worried that germs could be transmitted during large dinner assemblies) . . . Shoeshine boy/high school dropout Bill Cosby never appreciated the value of education until the Navy, where he earned a high school diploma through correspondence courses . . . Morgan Freeman joined the Air Force after high school: "I wanted to be a fighter pilot like those I saw in war movies. But after napalm and rockets and realizing whoever you kill is going to stay dead, I realized this is not what I want for life."

Alan Alda: "At boot camp in Fort Bening, Ga., I'd go AWOL weekends to see my then-fiancée Arlene, who worked 800 miles away in Houston's symphony orchestra. We'd meet halfway at a motel in New Orleans. It was high-risk, and I could have been thrown in solitary. The military doesn't care about romance."

Dr. Ruth Westheimer: "As a teenager in the Israeli army, I was a lethal sniper who could hit a target farther away than anyone and was accurate with hand grenades. Even today I can load a Sten automatic rifle in one minute blindfolded. On my 20th birthday in 1948 in Jerusalem, my legs were almost ripped off from a Jordanian cannonball that threw me 20 feet. All I could think about was would there be blood on the brand-new shoes I'd just gotten for my birthday that morning."

Tony Curtis: "I was on a submarine in Guam and got hit at the base of my spine. Doctors thought I'd be paralyzed for life. I prayed in English, Hungarian, every language I could think of. I was terrified I'd never walk again. I was mostly afraid my penis was dead. That area was completely numb. I had a good body, handsome face, and sex was all I thought about. Then one morning I felt a tingling. As the swelling at the base of my spine lessened, my nerves came back. As did everything else. Boy, was I afraid it mightn't."

Soldier Tony Bennett's duty was digging out Nazi mass burial sites . . . Military combat engineer Mel Brooks' duty was deactivating land mines. And when Germans broadcast propaganda to GIs via loudspeakers, Brooks responded with an Al Jolson rendition of "Toot, Toot, Tootsie" . . . Dennis Franz, in the 101st Airborne in Vietnam, "heard bullets whizzing over my head and got as close to being shot as I care to" . . . Paul Newman enlisted in the Navy. Rejected from being a pilot because of colorblindness, he became a radioman third class . . . Oliver Stone, who won the Bronze Star for Valor and the Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster: "I can't even walk a straight line in daytime. I've no sense of balance. I lost my hearing in Vietnam."

Griffin Dunne: "At 18, my father, Dominick Dunne, fought in the Battle of the Bulge. As he was retreating, he saw a very wounded guy, moaning, legs broken, lying by the road under a car. Remembering the terrain, he snuck back after dark, crawled past Nazi sentries and, terrified he'd be shot on the spot because the Nazis were taking no prisoners, carried this guy for hours back to the company." Dominick Dunne was awarded the Bronze Star."