Appreciating Those Who Served on This Veterans Day

While I’m a die-hard pacifist, I also have a fair number of military folks in my family, including my father, grandfather, and their fathers several generations back, plus I have friends who served in the armed forces more recently. So I have a little idea of the sacrifices they made to do their jobs with honor, and it is only fitting that the United States have at least a day (if not more) to pay them respects.

I hope it’s not too trivial to share some favorite historical movie men in uniform on this day. But I think it’s a simple way for us civilians to appreciate the military and sneak a peek into that world. We may never fully understand what a person goes through in the armed services or during war, but watching movies and TV shows, however romanticized, at least keeps them in mind. And being easy on the eye can’t hurt!

1998-2003 Horatio Hornblower — Ioan Gruffudd as Horatio Hornblower

1993-2008 Sharpe — Sean Bean as Richard Sharpe

Note: I didn’t make that meme, but hey, I don’t disagree!

1953 From Here to Eternity — Burt Lancaster & Deborah Kerr in “From Here to Eternity” (he’s a sergeant, there’s a uniform earlier, really)

1995 The Tuskegee Airmen — Cuba Gooding Jr. in the HBO movie “The Tuskegee Airmen”

Sean Astin in "Memphis Belle" (1990) — Sean Astin in “Memphis Belle”

More Frock Flicks

6 thoughts on “Appreciating Those Who Served on This Veterans Day”

You forgot the entire cast of The Great Escape.

Trystan says:

November 11, 2014 at 12:57 pm

Lordy, there were so many to choose from :)

MUST. HAVE. THE COMPLETE. SHARPE SERIES! I just love Sean Bean.
And let’s not forget “Master and Commander” with a salt-encrusted Russell Crowe and scruffy Paul Bettany (he’s a spy, so he counts as a military man); loved that movie, even though it deviates from the books.