Before I was your devoted Fanboy, I was Corporal Beard, R.J., United States Marine Corps, so believe me when I tell you that the Armed Forces are rife with nerdery.
For every pack of tattooed hard chargers cleaning their rifles on a Sunday night, there's also a DM organizing the weekly game in a barracks room two doors down. (Plus, speaking from experience, I can attest that a couple government- issue wool blankets can be fashioned into a fairly screen-accurate set of Jedi robes.)
The latest example of glorious geekiness among jarheads is the work of Captain Kyle Ugone of Marine Corps Air Station, Yuma.
Rather than perusing the latest batch of nudie mags at Hastings, knocking back pints at the officer's club, or taking in all the culture that Yuma has to offer Ugone dedicated his honor, courage and commitment to set a new Guinness World Record for the most completed Lego sets in a private collection (1,091).
With this accomplishment, Captain Kyle joins the pantheon of nerdy icons who have worn the Eagle, Globe and Anchor - and who are immortalized in the "special book" that USMC recruiters use to attract band nerds (guilty), drama geeks (yep) and other assorted milksops (now you're just being hurtful) to join their beloved Corps .
Here are five more nerds who are also Marines ...
5. James Carville
If you're considering a career as a scrawny, mouthy pundit - you'd best know how to back up your rhetoric. The mouth from the South learned how over a two-year stint in the Marines during the Vietnam era - although I can't imagine what it was like be Carville's bunkmate. Probably like sharing a fighting hole with Foghorn Leghorn. Cripes!
4. Captain Kangaroo
It sounds unlikely, but this one isn't an email fiction for Snopes to debunk. Nope, the good Captain, was actually Sergeant Bob Keeshan in World War II, but enlisted too late to ever see combat. Fun fact, though, Captain Kangaroo's cohort Mr. Green Jeans (Hugh Brannum) was also trained by the Corps to kill commies for Mommy, but the two never served together.
3. Don Adams
The man who played Maxwell Smart and did the voice of Inspector Gadget came stateside to be a Marine Corps drill instructor after surviving the Battle of Guadalcanal. Go- Go Gadget Badass!
2. Gene Hackman
The blind hermit in Young Frankenstein and one half of the irrefutable Caine/Hackman Theory did a hitch as a USMC radio operator at the age of 16. Knowing this calls the whole story of Superman into question. After all, a Parris Island trained Lex Luthor would have no trouble creating a kryptonite bayonet to deal with the Big Blue Boy Scout - at the very least it might have spared us The Quest for Peace
1. Drew Carey
Yeah - that Drew Carey, he of Whose Line.. and The Drew Carey Show served six years in the Marine Corps Reserve. Now as the host of The Price is Right, he's shed his previously bulky physique and got back to (dare I say) fighting weight. The lesson here, if Corporal Carey ever asks you to play Plinko, you'd better f*&%ing do it.
