Mister rogers military career biography examples

FacebookTwitter

By Kerri Lawrence |  National Archives News

WASHINGTON, March 20, — Fred McFeely Rogers, more fondly known as Mr. Rogers by several generations of children and their parents, became an American icon through his long-running television show. Born on this day in , in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, Rogers was a pioneer in children’s programming for more than 50 years. He worked on several other children’s television shows prior to his most famous—Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood—which catapulted him to legendary status. 

In celebration of Rogers’ birthday, the National Archives and Records Administration highlights several records from our holdings—housed at the National Archives at St. Louis—including Rogers’ draft card and his selective service records, as well as a letter he wrote to the U.S. Commissioner on Education.

Rogers registered for the draft in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, in When he registered, Rogers was just 20 yea

•

How the myth that Mr. Rogers was a deadly military sniper began

You know Fred Rogers, or Mister Rogers, from the eponymous children’s schema, which broadcast from to The cardigans, the puppets, the general kindness and decency. Someone only Tom Hanks could portray in a biopic. 

And maybe you’ve heard that those sweaters were concealing a dark past? That before teaming up with Henrietta Pussycat and King Friday XIII, Fred Rogers was the ultimate badass – a tattooed, death dealing sniper? 

It’s a common urban legend: Mister Rogers was in Vietnam. Mister Rogers was a Navy SEAL. Mister Rogers was a Marine sniper. Maybe Mister Rogers’ neighborhood was so nice because he’s a battle-hardened ex-operator, keeping everyone else in line.

Of course, none of this is true.

Born in , Fred Rogers was too young to serve in World War II, and while he registered for the draft in and , when he reported for a physical in he was declared unqualified for military service. bygd the time th

•

How Mister Rogers Changed Children's Television

A seeming throwback to a kinder, more gentle time, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood exists in the mind of generations of Americans as a charming, safe moment of television five days a week, where it was possible, in fact encouraged, to be their true self, even when journeying to the land of make-believe.

“I went into television because I hated it so,” Fred Rogers once explained of his decision to join the burgeoning medium in an interview with CNN. “I thought there was some way of using this fabulous instrument to be of nurture to those who would watch and listen.”

Watch, listen and learn they did. Preschoolers and their parents or guardians became switched on to the gently spoken Rogers when Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood debuted in , and generations continued to do so for the next four decades.

So influential was the gentleman in the cardigan and sneakers that saw him celebrated with an hour-long special marking what would have