Did you know that Gene Autry enlisted in the Army in World War II? As a tech sergeant, then hegot his military pilot's rating, and flew a C-109, the commercial version of the B-24

after a year at Luke Field in Arizona, while he continued to broadcast his radio show, he earned his Service Pilot rating in June 1944. 

With a private pilot's license under his belt, Gene set out to earn his wings as a Flight Officer. After basic training at the Santa Ana Air Force Base, and serving at Luke Field, Thunderbird Field, and Phoenix Airport, he was eventually accepted for flight training at Love Field in Dallas

He was assigned to the 91st Ferrying Squadron of the 555th Army Air Base Unit, Air Transport Command at Love Field. Flight Officer Autry served  as a C-109 transport pilot with this unit from July 1944 to October 1945 where he took part in flying cargo over "the Hump."

The C-109's were used to haul fuel in the China-Burma-India theatre of operations. Flight Officer Autry made one trip to the CBI theatre via the Azores, North Africa and the Middle East. Enroute to the Azores the plane he was co-piloting had to reverse course to avoid a typhoon, flying five hours back to Newfoundland, where it landed at Gander Bay with one engine out and low on fuel. Fog rolled in and the crew was grounded for two weeks.

After the end of the war, "Autry was reassigned to Special Services, where he toured with a USO troupe in the South Pacific before resuming his movie career in 1946."

Gene Autry is the only entertainer to have all five stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one each for Radio, Recording, Motion Pictures, Television, and Live Theatre/performance.

https://simpleflying.com/singing-cowboy-the-hump-gene-autry-wwii-c-109-pilot

https://www.geneautry.com/geneautry/geneautry_flightofficer.php