Mlitary Newspaper Stars and Stripes

[Deleted]

Andy Rooney worked for the same paper mentioned in the Waltons. Do we know if Mr. Hamner also worked for Stars and Stripes during the war?

True to his often cantankerous nature, Rooney noted that he hated being recognized on the street. So if you see him in a restaurant, he said as he signed off, "please, just let me eat my dinner."

He's had a long career as a writer, and that's how he saw himself. He worked for the military newspaper Stars and Stripes and wrote four books about World War II.

[River]

No he did not.
In 1943, in the middle of his sophomore year, Earl Hamner was drafted into the U.S. Army. He trained initially at Fort Knox where he almost learned to drive a Sherman Tank. He succeeded in getting one so stuck in the mud that to this day no one has quite beat his record. There he became friends with a fellow soldier, Paul Nusnick, a Jewish man from Philadelphia, and one of the most profound influences on his life. Nusnick hated the Army, but loved American literature and introduced Hamner to a long list of authors, including Thomas Wolfe, Sherwood Anderson, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and William Faulkner. Hamner then spent several months at the 19th Replacement Depot in England learning how to diffuse land mines, one of the most dangerous of Army jobs. Two months after D-day he landed on Omaha Beach, and, because his officers had discovered that he knew how to type, he was re-assigned to the 542nd Quartermaster Corps which he served in Paris. He loved Paris, learned to speak French, and made friends with the French people including a special girl named Jeanine. It was here, after the end of the war, that he began in earnest sending off stories for publication and amassing rejection slips.
From: www.earlhamner.com/about.html

[dfnmeows44]

This can ezplain serveral episodes.
Earl's metting Paul Nusnick can account for The Unthinkable episode in which Jason was involved.
Making friends with Jeannine in Paris can account for The Premonition episode in which Johnboy meets
Simore Berringer and also writes about and helps to diffuse land mines.
The rejection slips from Paris can be explained in The Revel where Johnboy becomes discouraged over
the rejection of his book that he appeals to Belle Becker for help and retuns to the Mountain for
inspiration.