Editing Paul Newman (section)

=== Navy service ===
[[File:U.S. Navy portrait of Paul Newman.jpg|thumb|left|170px|United States Navy photograph of Newman]]
Newman served in the [[United States Navy]] in [[World War II]], in the [[Asiatic-Pacific Theater|Pacific theater]].<ref name="tiscali" /> He enrolled in the Navy [[V-12 Navy College Training Program|V-12]] pilot training program at [[Yale University]], but was dropped when his [[colorblindness]] was diagnosed.<ref name="tiscali" /><ref name="navy">{{cite web|url=http://www.history.navy.mil/bios/newman_p.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141125005231/http://www.history.navy.mil/bios/newman_p.htm|archive-date=November 25, 2014|title=Biographies in Naval History: Paul Newman|website=United States Navy, Naval History and Heritage Command}}</ref> He later recounted that it was "a bit more complicated" than colorblindness. He also "couldn't do the mathematical things that being a pilot requires". A subsequent test found that he was not colorblind.{{Sfn|Newman|2022|p=37}} Boot camp followed, with training as a radioman and rear gunner. He performed poorly as a gunner, and a friend from the service recounted in Newman's posthumous memoir that his friends lied to Navy trainers so he could pass.{{Sfn|Newman|2022|pp=40-41}}

Qualifying in [[torpedo bomber]]s in 1944, [[Radioman|Aviation Radioman Third Class]] Newman was sent to [[Barbers Point, Hawaii]]. He was assigned to Pacific-based replacement torpedo squadrons VT-98, VT-99, and VT-100, responsible primarily for training replacement combat pilots and aircrewmen, with special emphasis on carrier landings.<ref name="navy" /> He later flew as a turret gunner in an [[Grumman TBF Avenger|Avenger]] torpedo bomber. As a radioman-gunner, his unit was assigned to the aircraft carrier {{USS|Bunker Hill|CV-17|2}} with other replacements shortly before the [[Battle of Okinawa]] in spring 1945. The pilot of his aircraft had an earache and was grounded, as was his crew, including Newman. The rest of their squadron flew to the ''Bunker Hill''. Days later, a [[kamikaze]] attack on the vessel killed several hundred crewmen and airmen, including other members of his unit.<ref>{{cite book|author-link=Max Hastings|last=Hastings|first=Max|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CJjkIWfuGCkC|title=Retribution: The Battle for Japan, 1944-45|isbn=978-0-307-27536-3|year=2009|publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing|access-date=December 10, 2016|archive-date=February 20, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200220085727/https://books.google.com/books?id=CJjkIWfuGCkC|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Honoring Those Who Serve|url=http://newmansownfoundation.org/military|access-date=October 21, 2015|archive-date=July 29, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190729023228/http://newmansownfoundation.org/military|url-status=live}}</ref>

In a 2011 interview, screenwriter [[Stewart Stern]] recounted that Newman drew on an incident from his Navy years as an "emotional trigger to express the character's trauma" when acting in the 1956 film [[The Rack (1956 film)|''The Rack'']]. He said that Newman thought back to an incident in which his best friend was sliced to pieces on an aircraft carrier by a plane's propeller.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Shannon|first=Jeff|date=May 27, 2011|title=On "The Rack" with Paul Newman and Stewart Stern {{!}} TV/Streaming {{!}} Roger Ebert|url=https://www.rogerebert.com/streaming/on-the-rack-with-paul-newman-and-stewart-stern|access-date=February 14, 2023|website=RogerEbert.com|language=en}}</ref>