The war with Japan still raged, and Audie Murphy would make excellent copy. Here was this handsome youngster with his ready smile and open face, who had won every medal that the USA had to give and had killed 240 “Krauts” in the bargain, but had emerged from it all unscathed. Wouldn’t he be an inspiration to all those other eager teenage hopefuls, ripe for some desperate glory in the Pacific? This was the real John Wayne!
