10 Days Before His Death, Ernest Borgnine Confessed The Navy Rumors

10 Days Before His Death, Ernest Borgnine Confessed The Navy Rumors

I’ve still I have from the the old first ship I was ever on, the USS Lamberton.  And it was an old destroyer. And I tell you, old four-stacker. For 70 years, Ernest Borgnine let the world believe McHale’s Navy was just comedy. It wasn’t.  Buried underneath the laughs was a real war, real fear, and  a truth he barely spoke about in public.

 Before he was an Oscar winner, before Hollywood ever knew his name, an 18-year-old boy from Connecticut climbed aboard a rusting navy destroyer just  to escape the Great Depression. What happened to him at sea, the ship he served on, the war he lived through, the promise he made to the navy,  shaped every single day of his life afterward.

 That’s what we’re going to find out. The boy who ran from the depression. In January 1917, in Hamden, Connecticut, a baby boy was born to Italian immigrant parents.  His name was Ermes Effron Borgnino, and at the moment of his birth, it was impossible to imagine that this boy would become a movie star, honored actor, and an Academy Award winner.

 His childhood and teenage years were marked by family  problems and financial difficulties that haunted him for the rest of his life. At the age of two, Ermes’ parents got divorced, and his mother  returned to Italy with him. They lived there for about four and a half years while Ermes’ father was busy getting ready to join them.

 Eventually, his  parents made peace with each other, and Ermes’ mother returned to Connecticut with her son. The family lived in Connecticut for the rest of their lives. Later, Ermes and his brother changed their family name from Borgino to Borgnine,  which would become famous worldwide. Borgnine was very lucky to be born in Connecticut at the beginning of the 20th century.

 However, not all the citizens of the state could say the same thing. Like many other Americans, young Borgnine  lived through the times of the Great Depression. During that period, the whole country was in hardship, and people had serious difficulties with employment, income,  and even with food and housing. After graduating from high school in New Haven in 1935, Borgnine faced the reality that millions of other Americans had to live with every day.

>>  His best bet was to find a job as a vegetable seller to have at least some income. Yet, one day, while delivering the vegetables,  he saw a poster with the words, “US Navy wants you.” For an unknown young man like Borgnine,  going into the military service meant getting another chance in life.

 It was a way to escape his bleak future and live somewhere in a place where his previous life and worries  did not follow him. Thus, in October 1935, he enrolled in the Navy. Decades later, Borgnine would refer to himself as a depression sailor. The service in the military was certainly not a heroic act, as many people think about it now.

 It was more like an act of desperation due to financial instability and economic crisis. Many young men wanted to serve, as they did not have other opportunities. Therefore,  young Borgnine decided to make this career move to change his future and fortune. This decision probably did not seem like much at the time when he was struggling with hunger and cold weather.

However,  it turned out to be the most crucial step in his life. All of that was before he became a movie star. Life aboard the USS Lamberton. When Ernest Borgnine signed up for the United States Navy,  he had no idea that he would be tied to the Navy for the next 9 years. At the time, Ernest Borgnine was a young man trying to carve a path for himself in the world.

 The Navy provided him with an opportunity to make a career for himself, while also  teaching him discipline. The Navy assigned Borgnine to serve on board the four-stack destroyer, the USS Lamberton, which was  a ship built during the First World War. By the time Borgnine was assigned to the Lamberton in the late 1930s,  the ship had been decommissioned as a fighting vessel.

 The ship was stationed in San Diego, where it was used for training purposes. It was  the duty of the Lamberton to tow targets for other warships, submarines, and planes in the Navy. The job may not have been as glamorous as one might expect, but it was an important job nonetheless.  It was hard work that demanded a lot of the sailors stationed on board.

 The ship was also used for experimental mine sweeping operations.  It is no surprise that the mine sweeping duties became an essential part of the ship’s duties as the world situation started  to deteriorate. The Navy officially converted the Lamberton into a destroyer mine sweeper in November 1940.

  For the duration of the Second World War, the ship would serve as both a mine sweeper and a target towing vessel. For the time being, it was this hard work that Borgnine found himself engaged in as a sailor in the United States Navy. The life of a sailor in the United States Navy  was not as glamorous as it was portrayed in Hollywood films.

It was a hard life that demanded a lot from the soldiers.  Hard and tiring duties, drills, cleanings, and repairs had to be done, and the sailors had to do them all without fail. This was the life that Borgnine chose  for himself, and he was determined to make the best out of it.

 Borgnine always looked back on his time in the Navy with fondness. He said that the Navy taught him a lot of valuable lessons that set the pace for the rest of his  life. He grew up a troubled child, and his teenage life had been full of challenges. It was the Navy that taught him how to be a man, how to stand tall, and how to serve his country with honor and dignity.

The Navy made him responsible and gave him a sense of belonging, which he lacked  in his early life. It made him a better person and a better soldier. He was respected  by his fellow soldiers, and he always carried himself with pride. It was October 1941  that Borgnine was discharged from the Navy after about 6 years of service.

He probably thought that his life in the Navy was over and he could finally get on with his life. He had spent  a significant chunk of his life in the Navy and he was ready to get back to his normal life. Little did he know that his discharge  from the Navy was only the beginning of another chapter of his life, one that would see America involved in a war that  would test his skills and abilities as a soldier.

 Pearl Harbor and  the return to duty. On December 7th, 1941, the Japanese launched a surprise attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. This assault,  coming with little warning, profoundly influenced the lives of millions of Americans, including those who had recently served in the military. The attack marked the beginning of a new era for the US  and forced it into World War II.

For Ernest Borgnine, the event created an especially powerful impression, which made him quickly return to the military. A month after the Pearl Harbor incident in January 1942, Ernest Borgnine returned to service. He was sent back to the Navy,  where he served for several years before being honorably discharged in October 1941.

The reasons for re-enlisting  were understandable given the circumstances, as the US was now formally at war and needed all available hands. However, this time, Ernest Borgnine was  not sent to the Pacific Ocean, but the Atlantic, where American ships were under threat from enemy  submarines.

Borgnine was sent to the patrol yacht screw Sylph, a converted patrol boat turned anti-submarine vessel. The yacht was significantly smaller and less impressive  than the battleships or aircraft carriers one usually associates with World War II combat. Nevertheless, the Sylph served a vitally important purpose, as it tracked down the enemy submarines  that were plaguing the Atlantic Ocean.

Those submarines were U-boats and their campaigns of destruction were especially intensified in 1942.  They appeared close to American harbors, attacking merchant ships, and disappearing back into the ocean depths before their crews could react.  Thus, the U-boats essentially ruled the waves and were a significant hazard to Allied naval traffic and maritime trade.

While serving on the Sylph, Ernest Borgnine patrolled the coast of New York from Tompkinsville.  He also spent some time in New London, Connecticut on the Sylph. His duties included scanning the horizon for  enemy submarines that could appear at any time. Unlike in regular ship-to-ship combat, anti-submarine warfare was  a prolonged and tedious affair that often required patience and boldness.

Even when nothing seemed to be happening,  there was always a possibility that an encounter with an enemy submarine would occur. As a result,  every day spent on the Sylph was a day spent in danger. The danger was compounded by the fact that many incidents occurred because of poor decisions  or sheer misfortune.

And that was the reality for many sailors who served on the Sylph. That experience would stick with Ernest Borgnine for the rest of his life. The quiet war  against the U-boats. By fall of 1943, the USS Sylph had been transferred to Quonset Point in Rhode Island where she continued her patrol along with the problem of German submarines in the Atlantic Ocean.

Approximately a year later, the USS  Sylph was ordered to Port Everglades in Florida. This time, Borgnine found himself in a completely different situation since the Sylph was no longer patrolling and hunting submarines.  But she was a part of the Atlantic Fleet anti-submarine development detachment.

>> [snorts] This detachment was formed to develop the most effective methods of hunting German U-boats for the Navy. The work of  this detachment was highly productive, though it was not reported in the press. The ship where Borgnine  served, the USS Silf, was engaged in training sonar operators and testing various equipment needed to  detect submarines under the water surface.

During the 1940s,  the art of using sonar was undergoing improvement, and the Navy was eager to develop new ways to spot German  submarines since they were a constant threat to Allied ships in the ocean. Moreover, U-boats had  a significant advantage over Allied ships since they could submerge under the surface and wait for an adequate time to attack.

  Thus, sonar operators played a vital role in the battle against German submarines. A sonar operator needed to be focused and patient  to get relevant information about detecting enemy ships under the waterline. Information  received from such operators could save ships and sailors’ lives since it would allow other vessels to avoid  potential attacks.

In addition, this intel could provide other ships with an opportunity  to engage German submarines in the fight and eliminate them as a threat to the Navy. This is how Borgnine spent his time during the war, performing useful but dull routine tasks, helping his shipmates in the Navy. It can be seen that Borgnine’s experience during the war did  not involve any heroic deeds or significant battles.

He was not eager to become a war hero, and his time spent  in the military involved mainly useful but boring tasks and multiple hours of patience. He served his  country by doing his duty as a sailor during the most dangerous times for the United States as a whole. During Borgnine’s  service, he gradually climbed up the ranks and was promoted from gunner’s mate to gunner’s mate first class.

By the time World War II officially ended in September  1945, Borgnine had served almost 10 years in the Navy. He had only spent a short service period before he was discharged for the second time. Thus, in September 1945, Borgnine was honorably discharged the second time from the Navy.

 He left the service as a mature and responsible sailor,  having greatly contributed to the Navy’s work in its largest conflict. He entered the Navy as a teenager to escape the hardships of the Great  Depression. And he left it as a mature sailor who served during the most dangerous time for the United States. Yet, he was unaware  that a whole new page of his life was waiting for him to be opened, from sailor to Sergeant Fatso.

 When Ernest Borgnine got out of the service in 1945,  he had no idea what to do with his life. After almost 10 years in the Navy, where every day was regimented and he always had a duty to perform,  civilian life and its own certainties seemed utterly dissatisfying. Back in New Haven, Connecticut,  he got a job in a factory, hoping that the routine of work would be as satisfying as the discipline of the Navy.

But it failed to provide him with the feeling of purpose he was longing for. It was no surprise to anyone who knew Borgnine that he struggled  to adjust to the new environment, as throughout his adult life, he only ever felt comfortable among others who relied on him and who,  in turn, he could lead.

 His acting career was not something he had thought much about or  even considered, but his mother felt that his booming voice and charisma could be  put to good use in the theater. Such an idea seemed far-fetched for a discharged sailor who had spent the better part of a decade on naval ships. [snorts] But Borgnine agreed,  and soon enough, he was using his GI Bill, which was created to assist veterans  in returning to civilian life after serving in World War II, to pursue his studies at the Randall

School of Dramatic Art, a prestigious institution  based in Hartford, Connecticut. Thus, the actor was born and he would go on to change his life forever. Borgnine may have left the Navy, but he would never truly leave the life he had led as a sailor as it would become  an integral and essential part of who he was as an actor.

For instance, he starred in the war movie From Here to Eternity in 1953 as the fearsome and coarse Sergeant Fatso Judson  and he delivered a performance so realistic that viewers may forget that he was not actually a part of the  military. The veteran actor demonstrated incredible acting range when he portrayed a very different kind  of man in comparison to Judson as he embodied the lovable and forlorn  Bronx butcher Marty Piletti in the movie Marty which was released in 1955. 

Marty is a touching film that displays the internal world of a single man who desperately wants to find romance and settle down. And it earned Borgnine the Oscar for Best  Actor. McHale’s Navy, an ABC television show that would become one of the most famous of the 1960s,  was another role that demonstrated the incredible acting range of Ernest Borgnine.

>>  It was in McHale’s Navy that the actor played Lieutenant Commander Quinton McHale and for the five seasons that the TV series was on air, viewers all over America were enthralled  by the comedic yet poignant adventures of a group of sailors which were brought to life by none other than Borgnine himself.

  But the actor’s time in the Navy was not just a source of inspiration for his career, but an opportunity for him to fulfill his long-held desire to serve his country as he spent 10 years as a sailor during one of the most pivotal and terrible events in human history. A lifetime bond with  the Navy. Even as Borgnine’s Hollywood career soared over the following decades with roles in films like Bad Day at Black Rock, The Wild Bunch,  and The Dirty Dozen, his connection to the Navy never faded.

Unlike many actors who leave their military service behind as a footnote in their biography, Borgnine kept the Navy close for the rest of his  life. In 1997, he received the United States Navy Memorial’s Lone Sailor Award, an honor given to former Navy personnel  who achieved success in their civilian careers while embodying the values of naval service.

In 2000, the Veterans Foundation named him Veteran of the Year. And in 2004, and perhaps the clearest sign of how much the Navy still respected  him, Borgnine was given the honorary rank of Chief Petty Officer directly from Terry D. Scott, who at the time was the Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy, the highest-ranking enlisted sailor in the entire United States Navy.

  In 2008, during a visit to the Navy Memorial, Borgnine reflected on his life with a line that captured exactly how he saw himself. He said he felt like he’d had three  tours of duty, two of them with the real United States Navy, and the third with McHale’s Navy. It was a simple joke, but it revealed something honest about how deeply  the two chapters of his life were intertwined in his own mind.

He never treated his Navy years as a stepping  stone he used to get to Hollywood. He treated them as the foundation his entire life was built on. The final salute. Ernest Borgnine passed away on July 8th, 2012 at the age of 95 following a career that had spanned  more than six decades in film and television.

But even in his final wishes,  the Navy remained central to who he was. Borgnine specifically requested that people attending his  funeral donate to the Navy and Marine Corps Relief Society instead of sending flowers. A request  rooted in the same sense of service that had defined his life since he was 18  years old.

At his funeral on July 14th, 2012 at Forest Lawn Memorial Park  in Los Angeles, a full US Navy Honor Guard paid tribute to him giving him a military  send-off befitting a man who had served his country with distinction. Borgnine himself had once said he wasn’t sure he’d truly earned a military funeral, but that he couldn’t imagine a more fitting way to leave the world  than surrounded by his Navy men and women.

A month later on August 12th, 2012,  the Navy Memorial held a special tribute called The Spirit of ’45 honoring Borgnine’s lifetime of service both in and out of uniform.  What makes Borgnine’s story so compelling isn’t a hidden scandal or a deathbed confession.  It’s something more grounded and in many ways more powerful.

It’s the story of a scared, broke teenager during  the Great Depression who found direction through military service, survived a real and dangerous war  against German U-boats, and carried the values of that service with him for the rest of his life. All the way from the deck of a Navy  destroyer to an Academy Award stage, and ultimately back to a Navy Honor Guard at his own funeral.

The secret of Ernest Borgnine’s  Navy years was never really a secret at all. It was simply a story that got overshadowed  by his fame. A real war quietly carried by a man who spent  the rest of his life trying to live up to what it taught him. If you enjoyed this story, make sure to like the video, subscribe to the channel, and turn on notifications for more stories about the lives and hidden histories  of Hollywood’s greatest stars.