Most of the crew look about age 40.
I know they were drafting guys into their 30's during the war and taking some poor specimens, but these guys seem to old to be sending on a PT boat.
Except I guess, for the fact that in real life, the PT boats were death traps, and the navy gave the crews crap WWI torpedoes which couldn't hit anything. So maybe they got all these 40 year olds on PT 73 to free up young and healthy guys for other duty?
Ernest Borgnine - McHale was 45.
Tim Conway - Parker was 29.
Carl Ballantine - Gruber was 45.
Gary Vinson - Christy was 26.
Billy Sands - Tinker was 51 (the oldest of the bunch).
Edson Stroll - Virgil was 33.
John Wright - Willy was 20.
Gavin MacLeod - Happy was 31.
So of the eight that made up the crew there were three of them that were over 40.
Two of them were in their 30s.
And three of them were in their 20s.
Per your post, only 2 guys were under 30.
3 guys 45 and over.
2 guys over 30.
For a crew with highly hazardous duty, it seems skewed toward old guys.
Pappy Boyington, famous fighter pilot, was age 30 in 1942. Other guys called him Pappy because they considered him to be old.
Per your post you obviously can't read.
Three guys are in their 20s. Willy - 20, Christy - 26, Parker - 29.
Happy - 31, Virgil - 33.
McHale - 45, Gruber - 45.
Tinker - 51.
I was in the service and it was common for young and old alike to do a tour of duty together.
Yes, Gruber and Tinker looked as if they could have been in the American equivalent of that British tv comedy series, "Dad's Army," where older men were put in the home guard for Great Britain during WWII.
shareIf you think these guys are old, watch "The Phil Silvers Show". Corporal Fender was born in 1899 putting him in his mid-fifties. Private Doberman was in his forties. Private Paparelli who was played by Billy Sands aka Tinker bell on McHale's Navy was in his late forties.
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