What actor was dropped from the Navy's pilot program because of color blindness?

Good Old Blue Eyes himself, Paul Newman, was a decorated sailor, having earned a distinguished Combat Action Ribbon and Combat Aircrew Wings as a rear-seat gunner and aerial radioman in U.S. Navy torpedo bombers in the Pacific during WWII.

According to the Navy records, Newman enlisted on Jan. 22, 1943, four days short of his 18th birthday, after graduating high school and attending Ohio University.

Newman wanted to be a pilot and enrolled in the Navy V-12 pilot program at Yale University. Unfortunately, he was dropped from the program because he was color blind.

Following boot camp, Newman was trained as a radioman and rear gunner.

Aviation Radioman Third Class Newman qualified in torpedo bombers in 1944 and was sent to Barbers Point, Hawaii. He was subsequently assigned to a base and was responsible primarily for training replacement combat pilots and air crewmen, with special emphasis on carrier landings.

Later, he flew as a turret gunner in an Avenger torpedo bomber. As a radioman-gunner, his unit was assigned to the USS Bunker Hill along with other replacements shortly before the Battle of Okinawa in the spring of 1945.

After the Japanese surrender, Newman spent the final seven months of his Naval duty in Seattle. He was discharged Jan. 21, 1946.