Did Walt Disney serve in the U.S. Army?

[jaye614]

I've heard two stories..one yes and one no.

 

[dclpluto]

I've heard two stories..one yes and one no.

When he tried to join the army he was only 16 and of course was rejected for being too young. So he joined the Red Cross

 

[DVC-Don]

Yep, Too young to enlist in our armed forces, he joined the American Red Cross Ambulance Corps, but by the time he arrived in France it was after the armistice in 1918. Here is an article on his service there:

http://www.waltdisney.org/blog/over-there-walt-disneys-world-war-i-adventure

 

[rastahomie]

I read that his mother faked his birth certificate to read "1900" instead of "1901" - easy to do when everything was written in pen.

 

[VandVsmama]

There's a couple of great podcasts about this on the "Connecting with Walt" DIS Unplugged podcast series. Walt's mother refused to give permission for him to join the Armed Forces in WWI, so Walt forged the birth certificate and changed it from 1901 to 1900 so he could join the Red Cross. Then just before his Red Cross unit was set to be shipped overseas, he got that horrible flu that killed millions of people, so his departure was delayed.

1 of the "Connecting with Walt" podcasts talks about how the Disney studios participated in making war films during WWII. It's really interesting.