I’m rewatching All the President’s Men (for the umpteenth time) and in my usual movie-watching mode, I’m pausing every 5 minutes to look stuff up on Wikipedia. Fans of the book/movie/conspiracy will find this little tidbit amazing:
During World War II, on December 29, 1944, Dardis was a gunner with the 468th Antiaircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Battalion in General George Patton’s Third Army in the Battle of the Bulge.[6] After twelve hours, Dardis’s crew and that of another half-track had shot down four German aircraft with 37-mm cannons and .50 caliber machine guns, while pinned down by aerial bombing and artillery and small arms fire along the Arlon-Bastogne road, for which the other crew were awarded Silver Stars.[4][6] He and his comrades also rescued downed pilot Kenneth H. Dahlberg behind enemy lines;[2] Dahlberg almost shot Dardis before the airman realized he was friendly.[4] Their paths would cross again many years later.