Editing Ted Williams (section)

==Military service==
{{Infobox military person
|name=Ted Williams
|birth_date=
|birth_place=
|death_date=
|death_place=
|placeofburial_label=
|image=Ted_Williams_swearing_into_the_Navy_1942.jpg
|caption=Williams being sworn into the U.S. Navy Reserve on May 22, 1942.
|allegiance={{Flagu|United States|1912}}
|branch={{Flag|United States Navy|1864|size=23px}}<br />{{Flag|United States Marine Corps}}
|serviceyears= 1942–46, 1952–53
|rank={{Dodseal|USMCO3|25}} [[Captain (United States O-3)|Captain]]
|commands=
|unit=[[United States Navy Reserve|U.S. Navy Reserve]]<br />[[United States Marine Corps Reserve|U.S. Marine Corps Reserve]]
|battles=[[World War II]]<br />[[Korean War]]
|awards={{ribbon devices|ribbon=Naval Aviator Badge.jpg|width=25}}&nbsp;[[United States Naval Aviator|Naval Aviator Badge]]<br />{{ribbon devices|name=Air Medal ribbon|width=23}}&nbsp;[[Air Medal]] with two Gold Stars<br />{{ribbon devices|name=Navy Unit Commendation ribbon|width=23}}&nbsp;[[Navy Unit Commendation]]<br />{{ribbon devices|name=American Campaign Medal ribbon|width=23}}&nbsp;[[American Campaign Medal]]<br />{{ribbon devices|name=Asiatic-Pacific Campaign ribbon|width=23}}&nbsp;[[Asiatic–Pacific Campaign Medal]] with Bronze Star<br />{{Ribbon devices|ribbon=World War II Victory Medal ribbon.svg{{!}}border|width=23}}&nbsp;[[World War II Victory Medal]]<br />{{Ribbon devices|ribbon=Army of Occupation ribbon.svg{{!}}border|width=23}}&nbsp;[[Navy Occupation Service Medal]]<br />{{ribbon devices|ribbon=National Defense Service Medal ribbon.svg{{!}}border|width=23}}&nbsp;[[National Defense Service Medal]]<br />{{ribbon devices|ribbon=Korean_Service_Medal_-_Ribbon.svg{{!}}border|width=23}}&nbsp;[[Korean Service Medal]] with two Bronze Stars<br />{{ribbon devices|name=United Nations Service Medal for Korea Ribbon|width=23}}&nbsp;[[United Nations Service Medal]]<br />{{ribbon devices|ribbon=Presidential Unit Citation (Korea).svg{{!}}border|width=23}}&nbsp;[[Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation|ROK Presidential Unit Citation]]
|relations=
}}

===World War II===
[[File:Ted Williams while flight training at the Turners Falls MA Airport in 1942.jpg|thumb|Ted Williams (Right) while in Flight Training at Turners Falls, MA Airport]]
Williams served as a [[Naval Aviator]] during World War II and the [[Korean War]]. Unlike many other major league players, he did not spend all of his war-time playing on service teams.<ref name="bullock2004"/> Williams had been classified 3-A by Selective Service prior to the war, a dependency deferment because he was his mother's sole means of financial support. When his classification was changed to 1-A following the American entry into World War II, Williams appealed to his local draft board. The draft board ruled that his draft status should not have been changed. He made a public statement that once he had built up his mother's trust fund, he intended to enlist. Even so, criticism in the media, including withdrawal of an endorsement contract by [[Quaker Oats]], resulted in his enlistment in the U.S. Naval Reserve on May 22, 1942.

Williams did not opt for an easy assignment playing baseball for the Navy, but rather joined the V-5 program to become a Naval aviator. Williams was first sent to the Navy's Preliminary Ground School at [[Amherst College]] for six months of academic instruction in various subjects including math and navigation, where he achieved a 3.85 grade point average.

Williams was talented as a pilot, and so enjoyed it that he had to be ordered by the Navy to leave training to personally accept his American League 1942 [[Major League Baseball Triple Crown]].<ref name="bullock2004"/> Williams' Red Sox teammate, [[Johnny Pesky]], who went into the same aviation training program, said this about Williams: "He mastered intricate problems in fifteen minutes which took the average cadet an hour, and half of the other cadets there were college grads." Pesky again described Williams' acumen in the advanced training, for which Pesky personally did not qualify: "I heard Ted literally tore the sleeve target to shreds with his angle dives. He'd shoot from wingovers, zooms, and barrel rolls, and after a few passes the sleeve was ribbons. At any rate, I know he broke the all-time record for hits." Ted went to Jacksonville for a course in aerial gunnery, the combat pilot's payoff test, and broke all the records in reflexes, coordination, and visual-reaction time. "From what I heard. Ted could make a plane and its six 'pianos' (machine guns) play like a symphony orchestra", Pesky says. "From what they said, his reflexes, coordination, and visual reaction made him a built-in part of the machine."<ref>[[#Linn|Linn]], pp. 246–247.</ref>

Williams completed pre-flight training in [[Athens, Georgia]], his primary training at [[Grissom Joint Air Reserve Base|NAS Bunker Hill]], Indiana, and his advanced flight training at [[NAS Pensacola]]. He received his gold [[United States Aviator Badge|Naval Aviator wings]] and his commission as a second lieutenant in the [[U.S. Marine Corps]] on May 2, 1944.

Williams served as a [[flight instructor]] at NAS Pensacola teaching young pilots to fly the complicated [[F4U Corsair]] [[fighter plane]]. Williams was in Pearl Harbor awaiting orders to join the Fleet in the [[Western Pacific Ocean|Western Pacific]] when the [[War in the Pacific]] ended. He finished the war in Hawaii, and then he was released from active duty on January 12, 1946, but he did remain in the [[United States Marine Corps Reserve|Marine Corps Reserve]].<ref name="autogenerated1"/>

===Korean War===
[[File:Ted Williams (210331-N-N1526-004) (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.7|Williams aboard the [[USS Haven (AH-12)|USS ''Haven'' (AH-12)]] in 1953]]
On May 1, 1952, 14 months after his promotion to [[Captain (United States O-3)|captain]] in the Marine Corps Reserve, Williams was recalled to active duty for service in the [[Korean War]].<ref name="Fortitudine">{{cite journal |last1=Aquilina |first1=Robert V. |year=2003 |title=The 'Splendid Splinter' Dies at 83 |url=http://www.marines.mil/Portals/59/Publications/Fortitudine%20Vol%2029%20No%204.pdf |journal=[[United States Marine Corps History Division|Fortitudine]] |publisher=[[Marine Corps Historical Center]] |volume=XXIX |issue=4 |access-date=March 11, 2015}}</ref> He had not flown any aircraft for eight years but he turned down all offers to sit out the war in comfort as a member of a service baseball team. Nevertheless, Williams was resentful of being called up, which he admitted years later, particularly regarding the Navy's policy of calling up Inactive Reservists rather than members of the Active Reserve.

Williams reported for duty on May 2, 1952. After eight weeks of refresher flight training and qualification in the [[F9F Panther]] [[jet fighter]] with [[VMF-223]] at the [[Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point]], [[North Carolina]], Williams was assigned to [[VMF-311]], [[Marine Aircraft Group 33]] (MAG-33), based at the [[Pohang Airport|K-3 airfield]] in [[Pohang]], South Korea.<ref name="autogenerated1"/>

On February 16, 1953, Williams, flying as the wingman for [[John Glenn]] (later an [[NASA Astronaut Corps|astronaut]], then U.S. Senator), was part of a 35-plane raid against a tank and infantry training school just south of [[Pyongyang]], North Korea. As the aircraft from [[VMF-115]] and VMF-311 dove on the target, Williams' plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire, a piece of [[flak]] knocked out his hydraulics and electrical systems, causing Williams to have to "limp" his plane back to K-3 air base where he made a [[belly landing]]. For his actions of this day, he was awarded the [[Air Medal]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Condon |first1=John P. |url=https://archive.org/details/CorsairsToPanthers |title=Corsairs to Panthers U.S. Marine Aviation in Korea |last2=Merskey |first2=Peter B. |publisher=[[Marine Corps Historical Center]] |year=2002 |isbn=978-1499550740 |pages=41–43}}{{PD-notice}}</ref>

Williams flew 39 combat missions in Korea, earning the Air Medal with two [[5/16 inch star|Gold Stars]] representing second and third awards, before being withdrawn from flight status in June 1953 after a hospitalization for pneumonia. This resulted in the discovery of an [[inner ear]] infection that disqualified him from flight status.<ref>[[#Mersky|Mersky]], p. 190.</ref> [[John Glenn]] described Williams as one of the best pilots he knew.<ref>{{cite web |date=July 5, 2002 |title=Glenn: 'No one more dedicated to this country' |url=https://www.espn.com/classic/obit/s/2002/0705/1402612.html |publisher=[[ESPN Classic]] |agency=[[Associated Press]]}}</ref> In the last half of his missions, Williams was flying as Glenn's wingman.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Scott |first1=Nate |title=Ted Williams flew as John Glenn's wingman during the Korean War |url=https://ftw.usatoday.com/2016/12/ted-williams-flew-as-john-glenns-wingman-during-the-korean-war |work=[[USA Today]] |date=December 9, 2016}}</ref>

Williams likely would have exceeded 600 career home runs if he had not served in the military, and might even have approached Babe Ruth's then record of 714. He might have set the record for career RBIs as well, exceeding [[Hank Aaron]]'s total.<ref name="bullock2004">{{cite book |author=Bullock |first=Steven R. |url=https://archive.org/details/playingfortheirn0000bull |title=Playing for Their Nation: Baseball and the American Military during World War II |publisher=[[University of Nebraska Press]] |year=2004 |isbn=0803213379 |pages=112–115, 128–129 |url-access=registration}}</ref> While the absences in the Marine Corps took almost five years out of his baseball career, he never publicly complained about the time devoted to service in the Marine Corps. His biographer, Leigh Montville, argued that Williams was not happy about being pressed into service in South Korea, but he did what he thought was his patriotic duty.

Following his return to the United States in August 1953, he resigned his Reserve commission to resume his baseball career.<ref name=Fortitudine/>