Stack, Robert, LT

French

Italian

This Military Service Page was created/owned by Steven Loomis, IC3 to remember Stack, Robert (born Charles Langford Modini Stack), LT.

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Robert Stack
( born: Charles Langford Modini Stack )
Movie Star and Naval Gunnery Officer
US Navy, WWII PB4Y (B-24 Liberator) Gunnery Instructor

American actor who first became known as a
polo player, racing driver, and as a skeet shooter.

Not all of Stack's early films were throwaways - he earned critical praise for his role as a young Nazi Party member in Frank Borzage's "The Mortal Storm" (1940), which led Hitler's regime to ban all MGM product from Germany.  He was placed on Adolf Hitler's Hit List. Tweaking his nose again at the Third Reich, he also appeared opposite his boyhood crush, comic actress Carole Lombard, in Ernst Lubitsch's comedy classic, "To Be or Not to Be" (1942). Lombard served as a mentor to Stack until her sudden death by plane crash while selling war bonds in January, 1942. "To Be or Not to Be" was released posthumously, while the world - and certainly Stack - mourned her premature passing. Stack would never get over her death, often commenting on her for documentaries even decades later.

Stack joined the Navy during World War II, serving as an aerial gunnery officer/instructor for three and a half years. During his service, he earned numerous medals and commendations, particularly for his skill at sharp-shooting. He was a top-notch air-to-air gunnery instructor. Because of his expertise as an Olympic champion skeet shooter, (U.S. 20-gauge champion skeet marksman before WWII, he holds the record for more than 350 consecutive skeet hits) he was assigned to teach anti-aircraft gunnery. Robert Stack was inducted into the National Skeet Shooting Hall of Fame in 1971.
 

Although some accounts show Stack joining the Navy in 1939, most show him as commissioned as an ensign after he enlisted in the Navy in 1942. No doubt, he was determined to make the world safe for democracy. Five Stack family members were in the Navy during WWII including an admiral who served as an aide to President Roosevelt and another was a seaman second class. Stack was discharged in 1945 as a full lieutenant. Always a supporter of what he terms "the good guys," Stack felt a deep respect for uniformed men and women who serve in the armed forces and in state or local police.