“Toughest Men in America”

In 1975, I was stationed at Camp Geiger (Camp Lejeune), NC. I was assigned to Company B, 1st Battalion, 8th Marines. In the mid 70’s, there was a television show called “Movin’ On”, which was about two semi truck drivers who would travel around the country getting into different adventures. The program starred actors Claude Akins (as Sonny Pruitt) and Frank Converse (as Will Chandler).
In one episode, Sonny is interviewed for an article in a national magazine. The article is entitled “The Toughest Men in America” and, in the article, he claims that truck drivers are the toughest men in America. When the article is published, men from other professions challenge Sonny’s claim. One of the challenges comes from Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant Harris, played by actor Don Galloway. Gunny Harris challenges Sonny and Will to spend a week with a Marine Corps rifle company to prove how tough they really are. Being an ex-Navy man, Sonny accepts the challenge and Will reluctantly goes along.
This is where Company B 1/8, along with other Marines, comes into play. Our unit and barracks were used in the filming of the episode. We spent the better part of a week taking part in the filming and the cast and crew spent another week completing the show. One of the things I learned during the week was that television shows aren’t filmed in the order that they are seen. Filming each day was dependent on the weather, availability of filming locations, availability of the cast (including us Marines), etc.
It was fun getting to work with Claude Akins, Frank Converse and Don Galloway, but they weren’t the only well-known people we got to meet. Rosey Grier (as Benjy), of NFL fame, played the role of a truck driving competitor of Akins and Converse and heavyweight boxing champion Smokin’ Joe Frazier played the role of a Marine corporal who participates in a boxing match with Will. The “boxing match” took place at the field house at Camp Lejeune. Toward the end of the scene, the Marine extras in the audience were supposed to act like they were erupting into a brawl initiated by Benjy and his truck driving partner, Moose (played by Art Metrano). Of course, it didn’t take much motivation for Marines to start throwing punches and some of them were a little too real!
Our final day of filming was on a Saturday and it was to be a war games scene. Even though it had been a fun week of filming, none of us were very excited about having to work in the field on a hot summer day. To top it off, we saw cases of C-rations piled up nearby and assumed that they were for our lunch. Toward midday, two box trucks pulled into the training/filming area and began unloading tables and chairs. Box lunches and drinks were also unloaded and we found out they were for us. Our morale suddenly improved! At the end of the day’s filming, we were lined up and each given $40 for our work that day. It may not seem like much money now, but for Marines at that time and toward the end of the pay period, it was a welcome sight!
When the episode aired later in the fall, we were all excited to see ourselves on television. I remember thinking I was going to be in several scenes (and told my family I would be), but I was only in the background in one scene doing close order drill with other Marines. Of course, you couldn’t tell it was me because of our distance from the camera. In the end, Sonny and Will learned that Marines were definitely “The Toughest Men in America” and we had fun proving it to them!

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