Pat Sajak
Before “Wheel of Fortune,” Pat Sajak worked as a DJ on Armed Forces Radio — and he sometimes felt bad for how easy he had it. “I used to feel a bit guilty about my relatively soft duty,” he said. “After all, I was billeted (lodged) in a hotel, and there were plenty of nice restaurants around. But I always felt a little better when I met guys who came into town from the field and thanked us for bringing them a little bit of home.”
Bill Cosby
Long before Bill Cosby played Dr. Heathcliff Huxtable, the funny-yet-firm TV dad, and even longer before his April 2018 conviction for sexual assault, he was a U.S. Navy hospital corpsman. From 1956 through 1960, Cosby served aboard ships and at the Bethesda Naval hospital where he worked with Korean War casualties. He was honorably discharged, and in 2011 he was given the title of honorary chief petty officer. The Navy has since revoked the title, citing the allegations that led to Cosby’s court troubles and stating that they conflict with the Navy’s core values.
Bob Barker
During his career in the U.S. Navy, Bob Barker flew eight different airplanes. He originally enlisted and then stayed at Drury College in Springfield, Missouri to complete the two years of college he needed to qualify to become a naval aviation cadet. Reporting for duty in June 1943, he was commissioned as an ensign and trained at eight different wartime locations over 18 months.
Carl Reiner
Funny man, actor, director, writer — let’s just say the whole package, Carl Reiner is best known for his show where he was the producer, writer, and actor of “The Dick Van Dyke Show.” During the 1940s, the draft had all-hands-on-deck policy, and Reiner was drafted into the U.S. Army Air Force in 1943 where he rose to the rank of corporal.
Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in 1950 and completed his training at Air Force bases in San Antonio, Texas. Cash was assigned to the U.S. Air Force Security Service in Germany as a Morse-code operator when he put together his first band. He served four years and was honorably discharged. Cash’s four daughters were born of his marriage to his first wife, Vivian, a native San Antonian who he met while in Air Force training.