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January 8

Van Heflin in World War II

Van Heflin's article says first he served in a United States Army artillery unit (Smithsonian article, Oklahoma Historical Society), and later in the article as a United States Army Air Forces combat photographer in Europe as part of the First Motion Picture Unit (Smithsonian again, [1], [2]). It seems odd and unlikely to me that he did both, but I suppose it's not impossible (though none of the sources I've found mention both together). Can somebody figure this out? Clarityfiend (talk) 04:20, 8 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Heflin had been a successful film actor before the US entered WWII in December 1941, as in the 1940 hit Santa Fe Trail. So when Owen Crump started recruiting in earnest for the First Motion Picture Unit from the Hollywood studios, it was not strange that they scooped up Heflin from active duty, just as they had done with Jimmy Stewart a few months earlier. While Heflin, like other First Motion Picture Unit actors such as Clark Gable, played a role in films shot by the 1st Combat Camera Unit, I do not readily see that he was active in the Combat Camera Unit itself. This would in fact have been strange, since he had no experience behind the camera. --Lambiam 13:23, 8 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Strange or not, the statement that Heflin served as a combat photographer can be cited to a RS – but this was before he joined the FMPU. --Lambiam 10:46, 11 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]