Ball Players who Served

[Brian Van Horn]

Buddy Lewis.

From Wikipedia:

"During World War II, Lewis served in the United States Army Air Forces as a transport pilot. He flew more than 500 missions in the China-Burma-India Theater and won the Distinguished Flying Cross before returning to the Major Leagues in 1945."

[Chris-Counts]

Here's two Reds from the late 1930s who served in both wars, Hank Gowdy and Ted Kleinhans.

Both distinguishing themselves during the brutal trench warfare of WWI. Here's a quote about Gowdy from one of his commanding officers: “Every outfit ought to have somebody like Hank. The boys idolize him and he gets them all stirred up with his baseball stories. He helps ‘em forget about the terror of war. He carried the flag. He was one of them who heaved gas bombs at the enemy. He was fantastic!”
Kleinhans was wounded in the same campaign that killed Eddie Grant.

In WWII, Gowdy enlisted and served as chief athletic officer at Fort Benning, Georgia. Kleinhans — who earlier made his major league debut at 35 — served as a medical administrator in a hospital that treated soldiers from D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge.
“He was a superb gentleman,” said a doctor who served with Kleinhans, “a great leader, and an inspiration to anyone who was associated with him – particularly his athletes on his baseball teams.”