I hope this gets cleared up for me, and many of you know more than I about the Duke and his life. I was with my Uncle Roger, a long time Duke fan, who informed me he had lost a lot of respect for the Duke because he had recently seen a documentary which labled The Duke a "draft Dodger" in World War II, he never served when Jimmy Stewart and many others did.

I recently read Pilar's book about her life with the Duke, she states "Duke was 34 and in no danger of being drafted" and that Herbert Yates would not release him from his recently signed contract with Republic, when the Duke informed him of his intention to enlist

Added to that was an old football injury which may have kept him from serving as well and these two reasons made John Wayne the super patriot he was for the rest of his life.

Do any of you have anything to add to this or have any of you seen this documentary?
Doug

Hello :rolleyes:
Doug if you go back to page 4 you will find the posting "Draft Dogger" :( Their is currently four pages of replies to this subject :unsure:

Monique ;)

Since the page position of a particular thread can change, I have taken the liberty of posting a link that will take you directly to that thread, regardless of it's position.

Here's the link:

http://www.dukewayne.com/index.php?act=ST&f=3&t=117

Monique is quite right, there is much information, and numerous opinions are shared, in that thread.

Chester

Friends, the link was helpfull, it illustrated that we know some things and other things we may not know. I KNOW this. The Duke would not have actively avoided service--I think what Pilar has written in her book to be very close to if not the absolute truth and that the one post that said something about the president asking him not to join to to help the war effort at home may be part of it as well as I seem to remember reading something about that somewhere as well. Pilar also states that The Duke was the first star ever, (ti his knowledge) that ever got the kind of contract he had just signed with Republic--Yates threatened to sue him for every dime he had and every dime he ever made if he enlisted and walked out on that contract. As I stated she also mentioned his football injury which did make him inelligible for a football scholarship, if it made him inelligible for that, he was most probably inelligible for military service anyway with that injury coupled with his being 34 or 35 years old.

In this time, this country seems to want to tear down everything it has built up over the year, honor, faithfullness, love of country. love of freedom, where you can't say or do anything, even hoist the flag, with out someone being insulted, casting dispersions on a dead hero who cannot defend himself is so low and sick that sometimes it makes me very sad so see our country go the way it seems to be going.

The Duke remains my hero, I bought Hatari on DVD today.
Doug--hard core John Wayne fan.

Doug :rolleyes:

I'm glad you have found the information :unsure: I'm also glad to see another active diehard John Wayne fan on the board :P

Monique ;)

doug,

Just for your interest. No contract is valid when you are called or volunteer to go into military service. Republic Pictures could try to sue, but wouldn't get anything out of that. It would never go to court. We were at war, and cilivan businesses could not override that. But also consider that Duke did have (4) four children under 10 years of age at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack. He was 35 and a half years old. Yes, James Stewart was around the same age, but not married and had no children (didn't marry until he was 41 years old).

The fact is that Duke had some injuries, but not related to a football injury, and I think someone did say that he was flat footed, which would have elimated him from service. I'm sorry that your uncle lost respect for him, but he needs to know the facts, before passing judgement. And if he would have been able to go into service, we possibly wouldn't know Duke as the legend today. He could have been killed in action, came home and never acted again or never get passed by the "B" movies, inujured or anything. James Stewart had already won an academy award, and so did Clark Gable. So their star status was safe.

Below are the Facts about Duke possibly not enlisting in the military when the U.S. entered into the war (qouted by me on May 31, 2003).

Listed are the obivious reasons for him not enlisted in WWII which is FACT.

1. He was 35 years old. (Average age enlisting is 24/25 years old) (Born May 26, 1907, at the time 35 years 6 months, 1 week, 4 days old)
2. He had four small children under 10 years of age. (Ages 8, 6, 4, & 2, when U.S. was attacked at Pearl Harbor)
3. He had mariatal problems with his first wife which he was trying to work out. (Divorced Josephine Saenz Wayne in 1944)
4. He had an injury from his college days (Not related to football) that would have 4F him (shoulder separation, and knee injury).
5. He just started to work in "A" movies. (First moive, Stagecoach released February 15, 1939)
6. He was under contract with Republic Pictures that would not release him.

Just think about that and present this to your uncle about Duke's reasons.

Cheers, Hondo B)

Monique, Hondo, and Chester:
Thank you very much for your support and assistance, my Uncle turns 70 on Aug 20 and I plan to call him with birthday wishes and I will relay our discussion and the facts you have helped me to find.
Doug

I stumbled across an interesting quote on a web site today stateing that Duke tried to enlist three times after the outbreak of WWII, if it had been enlist once I would not have paid attention, but "three times" is a little bit unusual. There was also a story input about Ford/Wayne relating to Duke and the war that was interesting. When I track down the site I will put the link here. I just wish there was some way of proveing whether or not he did try to enlist, I personally don't think he did. I also still feel he did more for his country via his movies but durring and psot war than he could have by serving in the war. Look what Josef Goebbles was able to do for Nazi Germany via the media and he never fought at all durring WWII.

:agent:

:angry: I was only a teen when the DUKE died, but from what all I read about him and had heard, he was NEVER a draft dodger and NEVER intended to be a draft dodger. In fact from what I gather he was so upset that his injery from football would not let him enlist, that is why he made so many WWII movies to help permote the war efforts. not to mention the war bonds he helped sell at the beginning of a lot of his movies. so next time your uncle tries to feed you BULL, don't beleive him. :headbonk: :stunned:

Robbie,

I'm sure you know what I'm going to say about your topic, so here goes, your information is incorrect and the web site is either completely false or has misleading in their page. If you could pass this along to the group, I myself would like to see that site, and see where they got their source.

We discussed this so much and I still stand by what I said, he did not enlist. He did tried to get into West Point, but didn't. If that is what they mean by enlisting, then I will agree.

He did not enlist when the U.S. entered into WWII.

Cheers, Hondo B)

Hondo I was expecting that responce from you, I will post the link here for you when I find it. I was just surprised to see the precise number of '3' included. A lot of web sites claim he tried to enlsit, I guess its just a rumour that spread.

:agent:

Thanks Robbie,

I know that I get bugged by this kind of information, when I have repeately found the inforamtion, and we still get into something about Duke and the avoidance of the draft. Can anyone understand he was 35 years, had 4 children under 10 years of age, and had injuries that kept him from going to war in WWII.

Just interested in where the information comes from, and why people keep trying to come to disgrace Duke. I'm not accusing you of anything, I'd like to get to the source, and shut it down once and for all.

Cheers, Hondo B)

Originally posted by Hondo Duke Lane@Aug 27 2003, 08:21 PM
Just interested in where the information comes from, and why people keep trying to come to disgrace the Duke.
Hondo,

I think you hit the nail on the head :headbonk: .

That's all they're trying to do, is discredit and disgrace the best hero America has ever had.

A bunch of low life commies . . . :angry: .

Chester

chester,

with fans like us they don't stand a chance in discrediting him we all know the truth and we tell others you just have to believe that the old grape vine word of mouth will prevail he's the best only the best yaya :D

cheers smokey

Amen, Smokey!
Let's keep Duke's movie alive, and continue to honor him. He's our greatest hero in America, and all over the world. Let's keep up with our campaign to keep the memory of John Wayne alive and going strong today.

Cheers, Hondo B)