Actor Jimmy Doohan, who played Chief Engineer “Scotty” on Star Trek (original series) passed away earlier today.

What I didn’t know about him was his heroic exploits during World War II:

At the outbreak of World War II, aged 19, Jimmy Doohan joined the Royal Canadian Artillery, and was eventually commissioned as a lieutenant. His first combat assignment was the invasion of Normandy at Juno Beach on D-Day. Shooting two snipers along the way, Doohan led his unit to higher ground through a field of tank mines and took defensive positions for the night. Crossing between command posts at 11:30 that night, Doohan took six hits from a German machine gun: four in his leg, one in the chest, and one through his middle right finger. The chest bullet was stopped by his silver cigarette case; the shot finger was amputated, and on screen he would generally conceal this. Despite his wounds, Doohan remained in the military, trained as a pilot for the Royal Canadian Air Force, and flew an artillery observation plane, though he was once labeled the “craziest pilot in the Canadian Air Forces”.

As Instapundit would say, “I’ll raise a glass of Saurian brandy to him tonight.”