HOW THAT WEIRD MR. ROGERS SNIPER MYTH BEGAN
Picture this: You’re shipped off to Vietnam to fight in a war that is thousands of miles away from your home. Your mission is to preserve freedom at all costs and to help stop the spread of Communism. As you make your way over the Pacific Ocean, you look over, and there’s a man who greets you with “Hello, neighbor!” as he polishes his Remington Model 40x rifle. Mr. Rogers, sniper for the American Armed Forces, at your service. Or was he? Learn the truth about Mr. Rogers’s alleged military career and other fun facts. More like this:Famous Veterans: You’ll Never Believe These Celebrities Actually Served
Was Mr. Rogers a Sniper in the Army?
Fred Rogers is known by many as the kind face and warm voice that entertained and advocated for children throughout the United States and the world. There are also many rumors depicting him as Mr. Rogers Army sniper, a member of the SEAL team, or whatever flavor of Mr. Rogers military sniper you can think of. Was Mr. Rogers a sniper? No, but he did register for the draft in 1948. He was declared unfit for military service, however, in 1950 after failing a mandatory physical. Just to clear up a few other misconceptions about Mr. Rogers, the sniper that never was, here are a few other fun myths to dispel:
- Mr. Rogers did not have full sleeves of tattoos, sorry ink lovers.
- Mr. Rogers was not gang-affiliated. Seriously, how did this even come about?!
- And once again, no matter which military myth you’ve heard, Mr. Rogers wasn’t a part of the U.S. Army or any American Armed Forces in any capacity.
Obviously, Fred Rogers still served his country through his life’s work, which would build him an undeniable legacy. But the myth and legend of Mr. Rogers sniper extraordinaire didn’t just “happen.” There is a clear theory as to how the myth came to be and why it spread throughout the country.
Fred Rogers Served in the Military
Before you think we’ve gone crazy, you should know that this Mr. Rogers isn’t the Mr. Rogers. When the movie A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood came out, screenwriters Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster obviously had a lot of research they needed to do. In an interview speaking on the movie and how Mr. Rogers wasn’t a sniper or Navy SEAL, some light was shown on how the rumor came to be. “So there was actually a guy named Fred Rogers, who was a Marine, who was a sharpshooter, who started a security business. And he for a moment put up FredRogers.com as his business… it was almost immediately taken down. But people found that,” said Harpster. It’s beyond plausible that this helped fuel rumors of Mr. Rogers being a sniper, but long before the pull of the Internet, viral videos, and social media, this rumor persisted. So, what caused it to spread throughout schoolyards and playgrounds in the United States? We may never know for sure, but there is an intrigue about a man seen as so pure to have a darker side. Not to go into the morality of war, but it's fair to say that there is a stark difference between combat and teaching children how to deal with their feelings and make friends.
Mr. Rogers's Legacy Is Larger Than Any Rumors
The impact that Mr. Rogers had on children and adults alike can’t be overstated. He is a source of comfort, and his Senate statement on PBS funding helped save the network. For more than 30 years, he worked with psychologists and other professionals to bring joy and inspire confidence in children throughout America and beyond. It’s interesting that a man of such a good nature, whose very purpose was sparked by his hatred for the lack of accessible, appropriate content for children on television, would be portrayed as the opposite of who he was. Although we never received the Mr. Rogers sniper serving his country in the jungles of Vietnam, we were gifted the man born with a heart of gold that touched generations with positivity and love. Read next:Veteran TV Competitors: Reality Shows Featuring Veterans