Baseball Great Joe DiMaggio Also Served During WWII

By David Vergun, Pentagon News Throughout center fielder Joe DiMaggio's years with the New York Yankees, 1936 to 1942 and 1946 to 1951, the team won nine World Series championships, and DiMaggio set a record for the longest hitting streak — 56 games from May 15 to July 16, 1941, a record still unbroken by any Major League Baseball player. While away from the Yankees for three years, DiMaggio served in the military during World War II. On Feb. 17, 1943, DiMaggio enlisted in the Army Air Forces in San Francisco. He then went to Santa Ana Air Base, California, for training. efore entering the service, he earned about $43,000 a year as a baseball player, and as an Army airman, his annual salary dropped to a meager $600. DiMaggio reportedly applied for combat duty but was rejected and instead served out his enlistment stateside as a physical education instructor. DiMaggio also played for the Armed Forces All-Stars, managed by baseball great Babe Ruth, who was a post-World War I soldier in the 104th Field Artillery Division of the New York Army National Guard. In 1944, DiMaggio was transferred to Honolulu. On Sept. 14, 1945, he received a medical discharge, a type of honorable discharge, because of chronic stomach ulcers. He got out as a staff sergeant. The baseball champion eventually got his wish of landing in a combat zone. In 1966 and later in 1967 during the Vietnam War, DiMaggio visited South Vietnam to boost morale for the U.S. troops and for those at the base hospital recovering from their wounds. DiMaggio was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1955, with a lifetime batting average of .325 and 361 home runs. He was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Gerald R. Ford in 1977. American folk music duo Simon & Garfunkel paid tribute to DiMaggio, who is mentioned in their 1968 song, "Mrs. Robinson." A month after DiMaggio's death in 1999, the duo sang the song in Yankee Stadium. Musician Billy Joel also paid tribute to DiMaggio, including his name in his 1989 hit song, "We Didn't Start the Fire." DiMaggio was born in Martinez, California, Nov. 25, 1914, and died in Hollywood, Florida, March 8, 1999.