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40 Insights into the Lives of Famous War Veterans

Khalid Elhassan July 13, 2019 26 min

4. Johnny Carson joined the Navy when he was 17

Johnny Carson joined the US Navy in 1943, aged 17. He wanted to become a pilot, but the Navy had other ideas. After completing the Navy College Training Program, he was commissioned an ensign in 1945, and then sent to the Pacific Theater, where he was assigned to the battleship USS Pennsylvania as a communications officer. Carson also took up amateur boxing while in the Navy, and ran up a 10-0 record, with most of the matches taking place aboard the Pennsylvania.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.