Did You Know: Celebrities who served

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Today is the mellow painter and the man who refused to move to the back of the bus. Yes the second one is a little hard of a hint but saying the first black man in modern day baseball seemed to easy. So lets get to it. Jack Roosevelt Robinson: known as Jackie Robinson. Jackie is known as the first black man to play in Major League Baseball in the modern era. On April 15th 1947 he would start at 1st base for the Brooklyn Dodgers and break the racial segregation in professional baseball. This was not the first time he would do this. Did You Know... In 1942 Jackie was drafted into the segregated Army cavalry unit in Fort Riley, Kansas. Robinson, along with other Black soldiers, applied for Officer Candidate School, their applications were delayed several months until Joe Louis (yes the heavyweight boxing champ) another soldier protested in Robinson's case. He was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in January 1943. On July 6, 1944 his military career would derail, he boarded a military bus that the Army had commissioned as unsegregated, but the driver would tell Robinson to move to the back of the bus. Robinson refused and when the bus got to the end of the line the driver reported to the MP's and he was taken into custody. Although many along the line tried to throw many charges at him, he fought it all the way and was finally acquitted. He received his Honorable Discharge in November of 1944. Robert Norman Ross: know as Bob Ross, The Joy of Painting guy. Bob hosted and painted on the PBS show The Joy of Painting from 1983 - 1994. Known for the slow mellow voice, it was relaxing to watch him paint almost hypnotic. Did You Know...In 1961, 18 year old Bob Ross joined the U.S. Air Force? He started as a medical records technician in Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska. He would work his way to rank of master sergeant and served as the first sergeant. Having held military positions that required him to be, in his own words, "tough" and "mean", "the guy who makes you scrub the latrine, the guy who makes you make your bed, the guy who screams at you for being late to work", Ross decided that if he ever left the military, he would never yell or raise his voice again. On the next Did You Know things will be a little different. The first one well talk about was mentioned above. Since sports are mentioned why not tell you about the man who was a professional then served his county and then became a professional again. Hmm, that is a tricky hint. Again and as always thank you to all the men and women who have served.