Hartman, a fictional character created by actual combat veteran Gustav Hasford - who also couldn't stand Ermey - would later influence Ermey's other roles, such as a drill instructor in The Boys in Company C, a space drill instructor in Space: Above and Beyond, a ghost drill instructor in The Frighteners, a cartoon drill instructor on Family Guy, and a cartoon drill instructor for horses on Angry Beavers. Ermey's carefully constructed persona of Gunnery Sgt. Hartman, whose terrorized Marine recruits eventually rebel against his POG ways by spending the entire second half of the film attached to grunt units in Vietnam and actually killing people. In the film he plays fictional drill instructor Gunnery Sgt.
#COMBAT 3 POG FULL#
Ermey developed a talent for acting, and later achieved fame in the 1987 film Full Metal Jacket. He had a long and distinguished career, from the Buy Me Drinky bars on Okinawa to the brothels of Manila, to his tour in Vietnam where he served in an elite REMF Wing Wiper unit guarding the chow hall at Da Nang Air Base.Īfter moving on from the Marine Corps, Staff Sgt. Lee Ermey, who passed away earlier this week.Įrmey, a former supply clerk from Marine Wing Support Group 17 and winner of the coveted Meritorious Unit Award, served in the Marine Corps from 1961 to 1972 before starting a second career playing actual infantry Marines. Marines everywhere were saddened at the death of former Marine and committed POG Staff Sgt.