Product Details

• Format: Black & White, Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: A&E Home Video
• VHS Release Date: September 4, 1998
• Run Time: 100 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• ASIN: 6305236275
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #408,858 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A interesting and Brilliant account of nine US military Officers, May 20, 2007

By 

spchlgr 3985 "A.G. Ward" (Virginia, USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: America's Five Star Heroes [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This video is a impressive account of the nine men in the United States Military to hold the rank of five-star. Fritz Weaver does an excellent job narrating the interesting and challenging lives of nine of the most brillant men that the United States was fortunate to have in the ranks of it's military. Weaver explains how Omar Bradley who had a humble beginning, and was the son of back woods people. But Bradley's parents moved up just a notch, his father was a school teacher who built libraries in the Higby, Missouri schools. While working for the Wabash Railroad Omar Bradley met a sudden opportunity to take the test for West Point.
In the fall of 1940 when Japan joined Germany and Italy in a Tripartite Military agreement, George Marshall promoted Bradley to the rank of Brigadier General (one star), skipping him over the rank of full colonel and making him the first member of his 1915 West Point class to achieve the rank of General Officer.
Then there are other generals- George Marshall, the Army Chief of Staff. Everywhere Roosevelt turned he heard that Marshall was the best the army had. Douglas MacArthur who fought the Japanese in Pacific Theatre and would lead a daring amphibious end run on September 15, 1950 at Inchon in the Korean War before being dischared by President Truman for his standard head-strong arrogance. Dwight D. Eisenhower who would become the Supreme Allied Comamder and lead the invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. He would also turn the tide in the Battle of the Bulge in December of 1944 when the German dictator Adolf Hitler threw 24 divisions and 2 Panzer armies against the thinly held sector on the Belguim-German border. We can't forget Hap Arnold, who brilliantly led the Army-Air Forces, and became the only officer to wear five-stars in two services, the Army Air Coprs, and the Air Forces and the only five-star general in the United States Air Force.
Weaver narrates well and keeps your attention as he tells about Admiral William F. Halsey, an agressive sailor who earned his pilot wings at age 52. Halsey's agressive fighting spirit helped to defeat an enemy that seemed to be an unstoppable force-the Japanese Imperial Navy. On November 13, 1943 in the battle of Guadalcanal the US Navy and Japanese ships faced each other at close range. In the flaming night battle, the USS Atlanta went down, the Juneau was sank, taking with it the Sullivans all five brothers of a single family, Admirals Scott and Callaghan were killed, US lost of life exceed the enemy's, but Japanese offensive strength was broken. Then there is Admiral Ernest King, who had a keen eye for those who would succeed and those who would not. No commander would go into action without King's stamp of approval.
There's Admiral Chester Nimitz who stood seventh in his class at the Naval Academy. He commmanded the Pacific Fleet, and moved a naval force of aircraft carriers, battleships, destoyers and thousnads of men across the Pacific to defeat the Japanese.
Admiral William F.Leahy was a advisor to President Roosevelt and then Truman. He informed Truman that if United States military had invaded the Japanese homeland, the casualities would be a blood bath that the American people would not bea able to withstand.
There has not been a Five-star appointment since 1950. But those men who were appointed to that rank help bring America from tragedy to triumpth. If you want to know more about thier military careers, the positions they held after the war, you need to see this video.