May 20 is Armed Forces Day, created in 1949 to pay tribute to our brave men and women serving in every branch of the U.S. Military.
In honor of them, let’s look at three famous Texans who, as it happens to be, also served in the U.S. Armed Forces.
Gene Roddenberry: Born in El Paso in 1921, Gene Roddenberry is best known for writing and producing the “Star Trek” TV series in the 1960s. He got his start in Hollywood in the 1950s as a spokesman and speechwriter for the Los Angeles Police Department, where he became a consultant on the police show “Dragnet.” For close to 10 years after that, Roddenberry wrote for such shows as “West Point,” “Naked City” and “Have Gun, Will Travel.” Before his career in Hollywood, though, Roddenberry served four years as a pilot in the U.S. Army Air Corps. He flew 89 combat missions. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal. Roddenberry died at the age of 70 in 1991.
George Strait: Award-winning country music artist George Strait was born in Poteet in 1952. He was raised on a nearby farm in Pearsall and dabbled in rock ‘n’ roll bands as a teenager. After dropping out of college in 1971, he enlisted in the U.S. Army, where he soon began performing in an Army band called Rambling Country. By the time he left the Army in 1975, he was a seasoned player. He later went on to record hits like “Living and Living Well,” “Cowboys Like Us” and “Give It Away.” He has won CMA’s Entertainer of the Year three times and landed the Academy of Country Music’s Entertainer of the Decade. He has since retired from touring. He performed his last concert in Arlington in 2014.
Kris Kristofferson: Many know Kris Kristofferson for his acting, singing and songwriting abilities. The Texas native was born in Brownsville in 1936, and he found success in the music industry when performers like Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis (just two among hundreds) recorded his songs. By the early 1970s, songs like “Me and Bobby McGee,” recorded by fellow Texan Janis Joplin, began to pay off for the songwriter. The talented Kristofferson also found success as an actor, appearing in dozens of TV shows and movies like “A Star is Born” and “Lone Star.” But before his career as an entertainer, Kristofferson served in the U.S. Army during the first half of the 1960s as a helicopter pilot. He was stationed in Germany and left the Army in 1965 with the rank of captain.
