Jimmy Stewart
-written by Jason, read by Chrissie

Listen here: www.spreaker.com/user/bqn1/hwts151

Jimmy Stewart today is remembered as one of the greatest American actors of the twentieth century. He is best remembered for Vertigo, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and, of course, It’s a Wonderful Life.  Perhaps more interesting than his time on the silver screen is that he spent almost three decades serving in the Army Air Corps and its successor, the US Air Force.

Stewart’s origins were rather humble: Elizabeth and Alexander Stewart lived in the small coal mining town of Indiana, Pennsylvania, where they ran a hardware store. Their eldest, and only, son, James, was born in 1908; he was followed by two daughters, Mary, in 1912, and Virginia, in 1914. Alexander was a veteran of the Spanish American War and, despite having small children at home, also served at the end of the First World War.

            Jimmy, as he came to be called, set his sights on becoming a pilot, and he felt that entering the United States Naval Academy was the best way to do this. However, his father pushed him to attend Princeton University, where he studied architecture.  While there, he also got involved in the music and drama clubs. He graduated in 1932 into the height of the Great Depression, a moment with little need for architects. However, a friend working on Broadway offered to help Jimmy find work with small parts: these little roles soon went to larger parts and in 1935 he was discovered by Hollywood.

Between then and 1940, Stewart filmed an impressive twenty-one movies, starring alongside some of the biggest names of the era.  When not on the production lot, Jimmy pursued his private pilot’s license, racking up over 400 hours of flying time.  As the clouds of war darkened the skies of Europe, Stewart felt he had a moral obligation to help his fellow man: in 1940, he attempted to join the United States Army but was rejected for being “underweight.

However, following the Japanese surprise attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Stewart was the first Hollywood actor to sign up.  When asked why he would leave such a successful career behind, he said “this country's conscience is bigger than all the studios in Hollywood put together, and the time will come when we'll have to fight.”  Initially, his fame was used by the military to help raise money for war bonds and bring in additional recruits, but this was not what Stewart wanted. At 33, he was told that he was too old to be placed into the regular aviation cadet schools and (perhaps more importantly) that his presence might distract other students.  It wasn’t until 1942 that he was able to force the issue and get assigned to a training unit in New Mexico.

Stewart spent a year learning how to handle the notoriously difficult B-24 Liberator Bomber.  The Liberator was designed as a very-long range heavy bomber that could strike targets deep within enemy territory.  B-24s were used by the American Army Air Corps for some of the most dangerous bombing missions in Europe, including raids  around the oilfields of Ploesti, Romania as the American Fifteenth Air Force struggled to cut off Hitler’s fuel supply.  This formation operated out of North Africa, and later, Italy, conducting raids on southern Europe.

While these raids were taking place in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations, Stewart was assigned to the 453rd Bombardment Group, a component of the Eighth Air Force, which operated out of England.  The Eighth Air Force and British Bomber Command planned twenty-four-hour assaults on German targets.  American bombers conducted “precision daylight raids” on factories and military targets while the RAF conducted terror bombing around those areas at night.  The general principal was to make it impossible for German factories to produce war materials while also breaking the morale of the German people.

The standard for bomber crews was to complete 25 missions before being (potentially) taken off the front lines.  While twenty-five missions may not sound a high number, most Allied aircrews survived only between eight and twelve missions because Germany had heavily fortified many of their important cities with batteries of anti-aircraft guns and numerous squadrons of fighters.  Stewart and his crews successfully flew twenty missions before the end of World War II. He was awarded two Distinguished Flying Crosses, four Air Medals, a Presidential Unit Citation, and the French Croix de Guerre for valor.  Even with these commendations, the toll of losing so many men under his command haunted Stewart.  Although he was only 37 at the time of his discharge, friends and contemporaries thought he looked fifty.

He returned to the United States, and Hollywood, in 1946.  His first postwar role was George Bailey, the central character in Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life.  Stewart didn’t need any coaching from the director for how he was to portray the world-weary and somber Bailey: the shock of war and loss were still writ plain in Jimmy Stewart’s face.

Despite continuing a successful movie career, Stewart did not retire from the United States military. He remained as a reserve officer in the newly minted Air Force, earning promotions as he continued to fly bombers and other planes. It was not until 1968 that he retired, having earned the rank of Brigadier General. His acting career continued for another two and a half decades.