Gene Wilder passes
I joined the Army in the year of Gene Wilder – he starred in both Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein in 1974. We’d entertain ourselves in the barracks during basic training with quotes from those two movies. Anyway, we get the sad news that Gene Wilder has passed. Wiki notes that, like most of his generation, he was an Army veteran;
Wilder was drafted into the Army on September 10, 1956. At the end of recruit training, he was assigned to the medical corps and sent to Fort Sam Houston for training. He was then given the opportunity to choose any post that was open, and wanting to stay near New York City to attend acting classes at the HB Studio, he chose to serve as paramedic in the Department of Psychiatry and Neurology at Valley Forge Army Hospital, in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. In November 1957, his mother died from ovarian cancer. He was discharged from the army a year later and returned to New York.
Category: Real Soldiers
He will be missed.
Damn-I knew cancer got his wife, Gilda Radner, but not his mother as well.
RIP
(And don’t shoot him, you’ll only make him angry)
Loved him in Young Frankenstein…..
RIP
Never knew he was a vet.
RIP Gene.
One of the good guys.
RIP sir.
It’s Fronk-en-steen!!!
The Transylvanian Lullaby.
https://youtu.be/X3vsB-f0HyY
A horse neighs.
“Where ya headed cowboy?”
“Nowhere special.”
“Nowhere special. I always wanted to go there.”
RIP. Thanks.
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: I am a scientist, not a philosopher! You have more chance of reanimating this scalpel than you have of mending a broken nervous system!
Medical Student: But what about your grandfather’s work, sir?
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: My grandfather’s work was doodoo! I am not interested in death! The only thing that concerns me is the preservation of life!
[jams the scalpel into his leg, lets go of the scalpel and it sticks upright out of his leg, grasps it again, then slowly crosses his legs to block the scalpel from view]
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: Class… is… dismissed.
Fair winds and following seas, Gene.
Dude was one hell of a comedian; he will be missed…
RIP, brother veteran…
I’M HYSTERICAL! I’M WET AND HYSTERICAL! I’M IN PAIN, I’M WET AND I’M HYSTERICAL!
Leo Blume, The Producers.
RIP Gene.
Being the Railnerd that I am, I enjoyed watching him in “Silver Streak” as well.
RIP, Gene.
Ahhh, another rail nerd ? I’m with ya brother. Gene Wilder was hilarious. I always liked him best in Charlie and the Chocolate factory. But, I must digress, I Love my trains.
Blasphemy! Gene Wilder starred in “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.” Yes, the book was “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” but calling Gene’s movie by that title allows confusion with that movie by that other guy.
The funny part of the end of “Silver Streak” was where they tried to pass off Toronto as Chicago, it was filmed in Canada.
Fellow ferroequinologist (aka “foamer”) here also.
RIP
btw..He couldn’t have been Medical Corps since he wasn’t a Physician and Paramedics didn’t exist in the US at the time.Dunno who did that write-up.
Enlisted Army medics are medical corps.
No they aren’t, Medical Corps is Physicians only. MD’s and DO’s
Put down the bong.lol
Looks at uniform insignia. Sees caduceus. Checks long history as enlisted Army medic. Passes bong back to IDC SARC.
lol, I believe you’re confusing Medical Corps with AMEDD.
Army Medical Department
Medical Corps,Medical Service Corps, Nurse Corps are all Commissioned Officers
Not confused at all thanks-https://www.army.mil/article/74780/Medical_Enlisted_Corps_celebrate_125_years
Medical Enlisted Corps is not Medical Corps…c’mon
You’re just fukking with me aren’t you
Next you’re gonna tell me a 91C is Nurse Corps, right?
No-vet techs, dental techs and other assorted medical MOSes all wear the caduceus. But if enlisted medical MOSes aren’t Medical Corps where else would they go?
We are the enlisted part of the Medical Corps, but still a part of that Corps.
No, I have always considered enlisted medics as part of the Medical Corps and I think this is a commonly accepted understanding. Where else would we go? Professional distinctions are made for lawyers and chaplains, but enlisted soldiers in those MOSes are Judge Advocate General’s Corps and Chaplains Corps. The reporter mentioned above was perfectly justified in saying that Wilder was a Medical Corps soldier-I take no position as to characterizing him as a Paramedic.
Whatever gets ya through the night, but the AMEDD organizational charts do not place enlisted personnel in the Medical Corps.
Link to one then. I’ve just looked at several that distinguish certain professional sections, but none that further divide those into commissioned and enlisted.
Not picking nits. But I think you two are arguing from different perspectives and getting caught up in terms.
MOST people don’t see/know a difference between AMEDD and “Medical Corps”. To many All Army medicine are “Medical Corps”.
Unfortunately, 68W58, IDC SARC is in the literal right here.
While enlisted may work with Med Corps they aren’t technically by the letter of the regs Med Corp.
“The Medical Corps consists of commissioned medical officers who are physicians (Doctors of Medicine and Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine) who have completed at least one year of post-graduate training (internship) or have been promoted from O-1 to O-3 following completion of medical school through USUHS or the HPSP.”
On the OTHER hand if medical MOS enlisted are working directly for or assigned to “Medical Corps” functions/location, it is generally acceptable to call them part of Med Corp.
Isnala-AMEDD is too broad an organization for that to work IMHO, you can’t just say Army enlisted medical personnel are AMEDD since that is true of all Army medical personnel. Plus it entails groups that are distinct from the Medical Corps such as Medical Supply and Medical maintenance, which are medical support functions, but not actually medical. So again, my question is “if we aren’t a part of the Medical Corps, where do you put us?”
I think he second part of your answer addresses that.
No dog in this fight other than I had a brother who was a 91B/C, and thinking the words Corps and Branch are being used interchangeably, but here’s my question.
Where did/do Warrant Officer Physicians Assistants fall in this?
Neither enlisted nor commissioned.
Just asking.
PAs are Medical Specialist Corps.
No more PA warrants anymore.
There are warrants for medical maintenance-not sure about them.
Agree with you 68W58, in my mind if you work for/are assigned to what is considered “Medical Corps” functions, then you are Med Corp regardless of rank. But the on paper divisions with in AMEDD don’t necessarily support this view point.
From my quick research most of the “Corps” concept was built around dividing Officer functions with little to NO regard to the enlisted elements. There are some “Corps” such as Signal that does have officers and enlisted within it, on paper.
For medical from what little I have been able to find in my short research on paper, right or wrong, ALL army enlisted medical MOS’s are lumped into the “Medical Enlisted Corps”, regardless of where they would fit into the AMEDD officer Corps dividers.
To answer Claws’ question there are some “Corps” within AMEDD that allow warrant officers.
Isnala-I’ve tried looking at AMEDD structure and didn’t see anything determinative. I was an enlisted medic for most of my career (near the end I had to change to logistics because of a reorg), we always thought of ourselves as Medical Corps.
I know that professional medical officers are distinct, but then so are Chaplains and Lawyers and yet enlisted fall under those respective Corps. It may be that the Corps concept as we are using it here applies mainly to officers, but nobody says boo when an 88 series enlisted soldier says they are Transportation Corps.
And to the point of Jonn’s article it seems perfectly justified to say Wilder was Medical Corps-which was the original none of contention.
Again COMPLETELY agree with you!
Sedagive?!!!
RIP Gene Wilder… you will be missed
Give it up for The Waco Kid:
“What Knockers”
“Why thank you, doctor”
RIP Funnyman
Where does all the light go when we die?
Where and when does it then pretend to hide?
And if I should die, oh well goodbye
Please just know that I only tried,
I tried to save you – unknown poet
Rest well.
I can only imagine he will be making them laugh upstairs.
“Young Frankenstein” and “Blazing Saddles” we’re masterpieces. God rest him.
“So, what do you like to do?”
“I dunno. Play chess. Screw.”
“Let’s play chess!”
Time to put the candle back. May the demons that dementia tortured you with be driven into darkness as you rest in the arms of the Lord.
RIP you made all our lives better.
I will miss him and hope that he gets the gilded road to Heaven he so deserves for bringing such joy and laughter to all that were able to watch him..
Richard Pryor and Gene worked together on so many films and they were all great.
Silver Streak was great but my favorite line with the two of them was
“That’s right, we bad, we bad” Shuckin’ and jivin’ all the way.
I would imagine that the Wilder/Radner house was the scene of such hilarity that the whole thing should have been filmed.
Those two were such a beautiful couple, I cried when Gilda passed. I would imagine that the pain he felt was absolutely horrible, he was madly in love with her and she with him too.
As you Navy guys say. Fair winds and following seas to both of you.
“……Mongo sad.”
RIP, Gene.
https://youtu.be/BHqL7dNujNc
DVDs are going to stay in their cases for a while. Too painful to watch.
He would want you to laugh, not grieve.
Stir crazy was one odd flick but blazing saddles was LMAO !!!!!
Rest Well
I will miss the laughs
I am a youngin’ by most of your standards, but I do think that the world is a little less funny today. I was raised on the comedies of the 1960’s and 1970’s, and Blazing Saddles is probably my favorite and most quoted movie outside of the original Pink Panther movies. They just don’t make movies like those anymore; which is a sad commentary on what Hollywood thinks we find funny.
It’s not what they think is funny, it’s what they think sells tickets.
And it amazing how far off the mark they are there as well.
I remember when they filmed some scenes from Stir Crazy at the titty bar outside the front gate at DMAFB in Tucson around 1976. Gene and Richard Pryor were supposed to run out to the car and drive off the parking lot. Problem was they kept going and didn’t come back. They blew through some red lights and were GONE. Director says “That’s it for today!”
One last thought. To whomever the Bill Skolnik individual is in the Facebook replies, your comment about a man who just died and his wife who suffered with, and subsequently died from 27 years ago, Ovarian Cancer for their entire marriage, was a totally inappropriate and IMO, classless comment.
Have you no sense of decency? In short, you Bill, can GFY.
Amen.
Jonn, that could stand to be deleted.
Comment deleted.
Thank You, Jonn.