Mel Brooks
In a person’s professional life, the combination of comedy and military duty is akin to fitting together the two opposite poles of the world in a single picture. Despite this, we’ve already come across a few folks who have completed this goal. Mel Brooks is yet another name to add to the increasing list of celebrities. During World War II, the creator of film farces and funny parodies found himself recruited into the military.
As a corporal with the 1104 Engineer Combat Battalion during the Battle of the Bulge, he was responsible for detonating several field mines. He frequently chuckles at the scenario he was placed in, noting, “I was a Combat Engineer, which was absolutely out of character for me.” Isn’t that a complete farce? Combat and engineering are the two things in the entire universe that I loathe the most.”