{"id":1003,"date":"2021-09-09T08:39:37","date_gmt":"2021-09-09T12:39:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=1003"},"modified":"2021-09-09T08:59:32","modified_gmt":"2021-09-09T12:59:32","slug":"get-back-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2021\/09\/09\/get-back-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Get Back Up"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Like a lot of children born during the depths of the Great Depression, Donnie Dunagan grew up in poverty.

But not many kids could say that they became the family breadwinner even before they could read and write.\u00a0 \u00a0

After winning a talent contest at the age of three-and-a-half, Donnie and his family moved to Hollywood.\u00a0 He appeared in a number of films, including Son of Frankenstein<\/em> (1939), where at the age of five he played the offspring of Baron Frankenstein. \u00a0That\u2019s the kind of role you can tell your friends about for the rest of your life.\u00a0 You were the son of Frankenstein?\u00a0 That\u2019s so cool.\u00a0<\/em>

Then there\u2019s the role Walt Disney asked Donnie to play in 1942 \u2013 the voice of the young Bambi in the famous animated feature.\u00a0

Bambi<\/em> was a smash hit.\u00a0 But it\u2019s not nearly so cool to tell your grown-up friends that you voiced the long-legged fawn who struggles to learn about life, love, and how to maintain one\u2019s balance on a frozen pond.\u00a0 That\u2019s especially true if you establish a hard-earned reputation as a tough guy \u2013 like, maybe, if you end up becoming the youngest-ever drill instructor in the history of the Marines.\u00a0

Which is exactly what happened to Donnie Dunagan.\u00a0

In 1952, at the age of 18, he enlisted in the Corps.\u00a0 Dunagan would go on to serve three tours in Vietnam, where as a battalion commander he was wounded on multiple occasions.\u00a0 Before his retirement in 1977 he had earned three Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star, and the rank of major.\u00a0

Later in life, Donnie was asked if he ever told his fellow Marines about his role as a cartoon deer.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0

\u201cNo chance!\u00a0 I never said a word to anybody.\u201d\u00a0 Dunagan dreaded the possibility that he might end up becoming known as Major Bambi.\u00a0 \u201cI didn\u2019t even tell my wife until well after we were married.\u201d

One of the realities of living in the Information Age, however, is that such secrets usually don\u2019t remain secrets forever. \u00a0

After his cover was finally blown, Dunagan came to appreciate his brief moment in the Disney spotlight. \u00a0Today, at 87, he admits, \u201cI love it now.\u00a0 When people realize this old jerk was Bambi and is still alive, it\u2019s pretty neat!\u201d

Donnie also came to realize he has had at least one real-life connection with the fictional deer.

The movie\u2019s most traumatic moment is the death of Bambi\u2019s mother, who is shot by a hunter.\u00a0 After he grows older Bambi himself is felled by a bullet.\u00a0 But he\u2019s still breathing.\u00a0 Dunagan reflects, \u201cNow Bambi is down.\u00a0 And when big animals are down, they don\u2019t get up.\u00a0 Their respiratory system turns bad, and they die.\u00a0 So Bambi is down and here comes his father, really close-up on camera.\u00a0 He stands over Bambi and says, \u2018Bambi, get up, get up, you must get up.\u2019\u00a0 Bambi does.\u201d

He then recalls one of the worst nights of his life.

\u201c<\/strong>In Vietnam I\u2019m in the mud, two o\u2019clock in the morning, close combat, incredibly violent.\u00a0 I\u2019m the commanding officer of a unit that needs me really bad, and I get hit.\u00a0 I\u2019m down.

\u201cI\u2019m half conscious; they need me to be conscious.\u00a0 I had to get on the radio to call for support.\u00a0 I\u2019m down, and I\u2019m in the mud, and a wonderful young Marine, great kid, stood over me: \u00a0\u2018Captain, Captain, Cap, we need you, sir, get up, get up!\u2019\u00a0 I did get up, enough to use a radio.\u201d

There\u2019s an old saying:\u00a0 A saint is just a sinner who fell down\u2026and got back up<\/em>.

Life is not easy.\u00a0 None of us is going to get out of this world unscathed.\u00a0 There are times that you will <\/em>go down.

You must get back up.

Others need you, even if you don\u2019t know it.\u00a0 God is not finished with you, even if you can\u2019t see it.\u00a0

At the end of his letter known as I Corinthians, the apostle Paul gathered multiple words of encouragement into what we now identify as a single verse:\u00a0 \u201cListen, stay alert, stand tall in the faith, be courageous, and be strong\u201d (16:13).\u00a0 \u00a0

Today you may feel more like Bambi than the son of Frankenstein.\u00a0 But God\u2019s message to you will always be the same:

It’s time to get back up.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like a lot of children born during the depths of the Great Depression, Donnie Dunagan grew up in poverty. But not many kids could say that they became the family breadwinner even before they could read and write.\u00a0 \u00a0 After winning a talent contest at the age of three-and-a-half, Donnie and his family moved to Hollywood.\u00a0 He appeared in a… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1004,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[13],"class_list":["post-1003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-resilience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1003"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1011,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003\/revisions\/1011"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}