> Subj: Fwd: COLONEL ED HAS DIED
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Yesterday's edition of the Times is filled with
> > page
> > after page of accolades spewing forth about the
> > greatness and complexity of
> > Michael Jackson.
> >
> > The other day, they had a
> > couple of paragraphs on Ed McMahon's Hollywood
> > career and aptly noted he
> > died a pauper.
> >
> > Something wrong with American
> > journalism?
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > COLONEL
> > ED HAS
> > DIED
> >
> > He
> > wanted to be a Marine fighter pilot. The US was
> > building up their military
> > force, but they were not at war yet and the Navy
> > required all its potential
> > Navy and Marine pilots to have two years of college.
> > So Ed started
> > classes at Boston College.
> >
> > When Pearl Harbor was
> > attacked the Army and the Navy both dropped the college
> > requirement and Ed
> > applied to the Marines. His primary flight
> > training was in Dallas and
> > then he went to Pensacola, Florida. He was
> > carrier qualified, which
> > means he knew how to perform a controlled crash of his
> > single engine fighter
> > onto the rolling deck of a Navy floating runway.
> >
> >
> > It took Ed almost two years to get through all the
> > Navy flight training. His problem was he was a very
> > good pilot and the
> > Marines needed flight instructors. He had a great
> > command presence and
> > public speaking ability, which landed him in the
> > classroom, training new
> > baby Marine pilots.
> >
> > His orders to the Pacific
> > fleet and the chance to fly combat missions off a
> > carrier came in the spring
> > of 1945, on the same day the atomic bomb was dropped on
> > Hiroshima. Of
> > course his orders where changed. He never went to
> > sea and he was out
> > of the Marines in 1946. Ed stayed in the USMC as
> > a reserve officer.
> > He became a successful personality in the new TV
> > medium after the war.
> > His Marine command presence helped.
> >
> >
> > He
> > was recalled
> > to active duty during the Korean War. He never
> > got to fly his fighter
> > aircraft, but he saw his share of raw combat. He
> > flew the Cessna O-1E
> > Bird Dog, which is a single engine slow-moving unarmed
> > plane. He functioned
> > as an artillery spotter for the Marine batteries on the
> > ground and as a
> > forward air controller for the Navy and Marine fighter
> > bombers who flew in
> > on fast moving jet engines, bombed the area and were
> > gone in seconds.
> > Captain Ed was still circling the enemy looking for
> > more targets, all the
> > time taking North Korean and Chinese ground
> > fire.
> >
> >
> > He
> > stayed with
> > the Marines as a reserve officer and retired in 1966 as
> > a Colonel. The
> > world knows Ed as Ed McMahon of the Johnny Carson,
> > Tonight Show. One night I
> > was watching the show when the subject of Colonel
> > McMahon earning a number
> > of Navy Air Medals came up. Carson, a former Navy
> > officer, understood
> > the significance of these medals, but McMahon shrugged
> > it off, saying that
> > if you flew enough combat missions they just sort of
> > gave them to you.
> > McMahon flew 85 combat missions over North Korea; he
> > earned every one of
> > those Air Medals. The casualty rate, for flying forward
> > air controllers in
> > Korea sometimes exceeded 50% of a squadron's
> > manpower. McMahon was lucky to
> > have gotten home from that war.
> >
> > Once a Marine,
> > always a Marine.
> >
> > When the public was spitting
> > (taking their personal safety into their own hands) at
> > Marines on the
> > streets of Southern California during Vietnam, Colonel
> > McMahon was taking
> > Marines off the streets and into his posh
> > Beverley Hills home. I
> > spoke to a retired Marine aircrew member the day
> > Colonel McMahon died and he
> > personally remembered seeing McMahon at numerous Marine
> > Air Bases in
> > California in the 1960s. He was known for going to the
> > Navy hospitals
> > and visiting the wounded Marines and Sailors from this
> > country's conflicts,
> > even in the last years of his life.
> >
> > Colonel
> > McMahon presented awards and decorations to fellow
> > Marines and attended many
> > a Marine ceremony and the annual Marine Corps Birthday
> > Ball. He stayed true
> > to his Corps as a board member of the Marine Corps
> > Scholarship Fund and as
> > the honorary chairman of the National Marine Corps
> > Aviation Museum. After
> > retiring from the Marine Reserve, one night on the
> > Johnny Carson show,
> > members of the California Air National Guard came on
> > stage. Colonel
> > McMahon was commissioned a Brigadier General in the Air
> > Guard in front of
> > millions of Americans who watched it happen live. You
> > will not see anything
> > like that on TV anymore.
> >
> > The three core values of
> > a United States Marine are: honor, courage and
> > commitment. This is
> > what a Marine is taught from the first day of training
> > and this is what that
> > Marine believed. That was Colonel Edward P.
> > McMahon Jr. USMCR Retired.
> > Before he was a national figure he was a
> > true combat
> > hero.
> >
> > Your war is over. Thank you, Colonel
> > McMahon.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Yesterday's edition of the Times is filled with
> > page
> > after page of accolades spewing forth about the
> > greatness and complexity of
> > Michael Jackson.
> >
> > The other day, they had a
> > couple of paragraphs on Ed McMahon's Hollywood
> > career and aptly noted he
> > died a pauper.
> >
> > Something wrong with American
> > journalism?
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > COLONEL
> > ED HAS
> > DIED
> >
> > He
> > wanted to be a Marine fighter pilot. The US was
> > building up their military
> > force, but they were not at war yet and the Navy
> > required all its potential
> > Navy and Marine pilots to have two years of college.
> > So Ed started
> > classes at Boston College.
> >
> > When Pearl Harbor was
> > attacked the Army and the Navy both dropped the college
> > requirement and Ed
> > applied to the Marines. His primary flight
> > training was in Dallas and
> > then he went to Pensacola, Florida. He was
> > carrier qualified, which
> > means he knew how to perform a controlled crash of his
> > single engine fighter
> > onto the rolling deck of a Navy floating runway.
> >
> >
> > It took Ed almost two years to get through all the
> > Navy flight training. His problem was he was a very
> > good pilot and the
> > Marines needed flight instructors. He had a great
> > command presence and
> > public speaking ability, which landed him in the
> > classroom, training new
> > baby Marine pilots.
> >
> > His orders to the Pacific
> > fleet and the chance to fly combat missions off a
> > carrier came in the spring
> > of 1945, on the same day the atomic bomb was dropped on
> > Hiroshima. Of
> > course his orders where changed. He never went to
> > sea and he was out
> > of the Marines in 1946. Ed stayed in the USMC as
> > a reserve officer.
> > He became a successful personality in the new TV
> > medium after the war.
> > His Marine command presence helped.
> >
> >
> > He
> > was recalled
> > to active duty during the Korean War. He never
> > got to fly his fighter
> > aircraft, but he saw his share of raw combat. He
> > flew the Cessna O-1E
> > Bird Dog, which is a single engine slow-moving unarmed
> > plane. He functioned
> > as an artillery spotter for the Marine batteries on the
> > ground and as a
> > forward air controller for the Navy and Marine fighter
> > bombers who flew in
> > on fast moving jet engines, bombed the area and were
> > gone in seconds.
> > Captain Ed was still circling the enemy looking for
> > more targets, all the
> > time taking North Korean and Chinese ground
> > fire.
> >
> >
> > He
> > stayed with
> > the Marines as a reserve officer and retired in 1966 as
> > a Colonel. The
> > world knows Ed as Ed McMahon of the Johnny Carson,
> > Tonight Show. One night I
> > was watching the show when the subject of Colonel
> > McMahon earning a number
> > of Navy Air Medals came up. Carson, a former Navy
> > officer, understood
> > the significance of these medals, but McMahon shrugged
> > it off, saying that
> > if you flew enough combat missions they just sort of
> > gave them to you.
> > McMahon flew 85 combat missions over North Korea; he
> > earned every one of
> > those Air Medals. The casualty rate, for flying forward
> > air controllers in
> > Korea sometimes exceeded 50% of a squadron's
> > manpower. McMahon was lucky to
> > have gotten home from that war.
> >
> > Once a Marine,
> > always a Marine.
> >
> > When the public was spitting
> > (taking their personal safety into their own hands) at
> > Marines on the
> > streets of Southern California during Vietnam, Colonel
> > McMahon was taking
> > Marines off the streets and into his posh
> > Beverley Hills home. I
> > spoke to a retired Marine aircrew member the day
> > Colonel McMahon died and he
> > personally remembered seeing McMahon at numerous Marine
> > Air Bases in
> > California in the 1960s. He was known for going to the
> > Navy hospitals
> > and visiting the wounded Marines and Sailors from this
> > country's conflicts,
> > even in the last years of his life.
> >
> > Colonel
> > McMahon presented awards and decorations to fellow
> > Marines and attended many
> > a Marine ceremony and the annual Marine Corps Birthday
> > Ball. He stayed true
> > to his Corps as a board member of the Marine Corps
> > Scholarship Fund and as
> > the honorary chairman of the National Marine Corps
> > Aviation Museum. After
> > retiring from the Marine Reserve, one night on the
> > Johnny Carson show,
> > members of the California Air National Guard came on
> > stage. Colonel
> > McMahon was commissioned a Brigadier General in the Air
> > Guard in front of
> > millions of Americans who watched it happen live. You
> > will not see anything
> > like that on TV anymore.
> >
> > The three core values of
> > a United States Marine are: honor, courage and
> > commitment. This is
> > what a Marine is taught from the first day of training
> > and this is what that
> > Marine believed. That was Colonel Edward P.
> > McMahon Jr. USMCR Retired.
> > Before he was a national figure he was a
> > true combat
> > hero.
> >
> > Your war is over. Thank you, Colonel
> > McMahon.
