Who was the greatest American ever?

[regexcellent]

Chesty Puller was a highly decorate USMC General who is treated like a vaguely messianic figure in the Marine Corps for some reason.

[-Jrabbit]

Greatest American? Easy. Audie Murphy. I'm surprised Slowwy didn't pick him.

Wiki excepts:

Audie Leon Murphy (June 20, 1925 – May 28, 1971) was one of the most decorated American combat soldiers of World War II. He was awarded every U.S. military combat award for valor available from the U.S. Army, and was decorated by France and Belgium.
...
Murphy dropped out of school in fifth grade to pick cotton and find other work to help support his family, and his skill with a hunting rifle was a necessity for feeding them. His older sister helped him to falsify documentation about his birth date to meet the minimum-age requirement for enlisting in the military.
...
Suffering what would in later years be labeled post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), he slept with a loaded handgun under his pillow and looked for solace in addictive sleeping pills.
...
When actor and producer James Cagney saw the July 16, 1945 issue of Life magazine depicting Murphy as the "most decorated soldier",[95] he brought him to Hollywood. Cagney and his brother William signed him as a contract player for their production company and gave him training in acting, voice and dance.[96] They never did cast Murphy in a movie, and a personal disagreement ended the association
......
Murphy married actress Wanda Hendrix on January 8, 1949,[150] and their divorce became final on April 19, 1951.[151] Four days later he married former airline stewardess Pamela Archer on April 23, 1951.[152] Son Terrance Michael "Terry" Murphy was born in 1952.[153]
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His first wife, Wanda Hendrix, stated that he once held her at gunpoint.
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Murphy bred quarter horses at the Audie Murphy Ranch in Perris, California, and the Murphy Ranch in Pima County, Arizona.[i] His horses raced at the Del Mar Racetrack and he invested large sums of money in the hobby.[156] Murphy had a gambling habit that left his finances in a poor state. In 1968, he stated that he lost $260,000 in an Algerian oil deal and was dealing with the Internal Revenue Service over unpaid taxes.

So, an uneducated Texan and WW2 hero who was recruited into acting where he had a decent career and was also a drunken tax cheat, gambling addict, and divorcee with PTSD.

Quintessentially American, but the greatest? I think not.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Chesty Puller is a great porn name.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Ben Franklin makes Washington look deeply dull.

Writer. Inventor. Seditionary. Statesman. Abolitionist in later life. Proud member of the Hellfire Club. Shagged anything with an orifice in vaguely the right area.

[Ben Kenobi]

So, an uneducated Texan and WW2 hero who was recruited into acting where he had a decent career and was also a drunken tax cheat, gambling addict, and divorcee with PTSD.

Quintessentially American, but the greatest? I think not.

Audie Murphy?

http://www.cracked.com/article_17019_5-real-life-soldiers-who-make-rambo-look-like-*****_p2.html

Number 1, btw. Number 5 was the White Death.

He was sent into southern France in 1944. He encountered a German machine gun crew who pretended they were surrendering, then shot his best buddy. Murphy completely hulked out, killed everyone in the gun nest, then used their weaponry to kill every baddie in a 100-yard radius, including two more machine gun nests and a bunch of snipers. They gave him a Distiguished Service Cross, and made him platoon commander while everyone apologized profusely for calling him "Shorty."

About half a year later, his company was given the job of defending the Colmar Pocket, a critical region in France, even though all they had left was 19 guys (out of the original 128) and a couple of M-10 Tank Destroyers.

The Germans showed up with a ****load of guys and half a dozen tanks. Since reinforcements weren't coming for a while, Murphy and his men hid in a trench and sent the M-10s to go do the heavy lifting. They got ripped to shreds.

Then, this five-and-a-half-foot-tall kid with malaria ran up to one of the crippled M-10s, hopped in behind the .50 cal machine gun, and started killing everything in sight. Understand that the M-10 was on fire, had a full tank of gas and was basically a death-trap.

He kept going for almost an hour until he was out of bullets, then walked back to his bewildered men as the M-10 exploded in the background Mad Max style. They gave him literally every medal they could (33 in all, although he had doubles of a few, plus five from France and one from Belgium), including the Medal of Honor.

Yeah, most decorated American combat veteran, ever.

Audie gets bonus points for:

1. war vet
2. enlisted
3. texan
4. short
5. killing nazis
6. starred in a movie as himself
7. marrying an actress
8. Having a family

[MOBIUS]

I'd say Lincoln, but only because people would laugh at me if I said Bruce Willis.

Me either.

Hudson Hawk

[Ming]

Me either.

Hudson Hawk

OH COME ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
HUDSON HAWK... you've got to be kidding.
John McClane is da MAN!

[MikeH]

He also saved the earth from a giant humanity destroying asteroid.

[MOBIUS]

OH COME ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
HUDSON HAWK... you've got to be kidding.
John McClane is da MAN!

It certainly got the reaction I was looking for...

A deeply underrated film, IMHO.

[Ming]

And you got it

Hudson Hawk was a strange film. I expected a lot and it didn't deliver.
However, it does get better with multiple viewings and no expectations

[rah]

Hudson Hawk was not as bad as everyone thought it was. And yes after multiple viewing it does have some charm.

[molly bloom]

Well, who do you reckon? Suggest a pick, or just revel in a thread that isn't about the Evils of Feminists.

Baby Ruth Pontico.

[OneFootInTheGrave]

There can be only one in this thread - Ron Jeremy.

[PLATO]

Ben Franklin makes Washington look deeply dull.

Writer. Inventor. Seditionary. Statesman. Abolitionist in later life. Proud member of the Hellfire Club. Shagged anything with an orifice in vaguely the right area.

Franklin would definately be my number 2. Washington gets the nod from me due to his actions in pushing through the Constitution. My Philadelphia vacation last year was a very good education on Washington's role. Far more important than the lame public school history I was presented with....

[H Tower]

This is a depressing list.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gre...merican#Top_25

Lance Armstrong made the Top 25