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Why Hollywood Cowboy Tim McCoy Went to War Twice

Our American Stories / Lee Habeeb
The Truth Network Radio
May 14, 2026 3:03 am

Why Hollywood Cowboy Tim McCoy Went to War Twice

Our American Stories / Lee Habeeb

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May 14, 2026 3:03 am

Tim McCoy, a Michigan boy from a family of Irish immigrants, leaves college to become a cowboy in the American West, where he learns the Arapaho language and becomes a tribal brother, and later serves in the US Army, including in World War I and World War II, and becomes a Hollywood star, starring in 16 MGM movies and winning an Emmy for his TV show.

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This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human. Liberty has never been just a word to we Americans. It has guided every one of our endeavors for the past 250 years. And now it takes form in a new way.

The 2026 Semi-Quincentennial Coin and Metal Program from the United States Mint. It celebrates the founding ideals that have long shaped our coinage. Available one year only, this historic collection features new coin designs, limited edition releases, and reissues. Shop new official coins at usmint.gov forward slash semi-q. That's usmint.gov/slash S-E-M-I-Q.

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And we continue with our American stories, and it's time for another Hollywood Goes to War story from Roger McGrath. Tim McCoy was a major film star most noted for his roles in American Westerns. He was so popular with youngsters as a cowboy star that he appeared on the cover of Wheatie's Cereal Boxes. Roger McGrath is the author of Gunfighters, High Women, and Vigilantes, Violence on the Frontier, a U.S. Marine, and former history professor at UCLA.

Dr. McGrath has appeared on numerous History Channel documentaries, and he's a regular contributor for us here at Our American Stories. Here's McGrath with the story of Tim McCoy. From the late 1920s and through the 1930s, Tim McCoy was not only one of the top cowboy actors, he actually was a cowboy. He appeared in his first movie, The Thundering Herd, in 1925, and his last, Requiem for a Gunfighter, in 1965.

Altogether he appeared in ninety-three movies. In 1973, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. It was also in 1973 that that it was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. What is less known about Tim McCoy is a service in the U.S. Army.

In both World War I and World War II. Um Dorothy John McCoy was born in Saginaw, Michigan in 1891. His parents are Gaelic-speaking Irish immigrants. At 16 years old, the father enlist in the Union Army. When the civil war erupts.

He survives the Civil War unscathed, Only be wounded if In the Fenian invasion of Canada in July 1866, Hoping, along with other Fenians, to divert Britain's attention to Canada and allow Ireland to win her independence. The mother, Catherine Fitzpatrick, It's described as pretty, with dark auburn hair, a rosy complexion, and an ever present twinkle in her eye. She arrives in America in 1870 as a 15-year-old. Within months, she becomes a McCoy. The couple will have six children.

Tim is last. Um By the time Tim is growing up, His father is pleach chief of Saginaw. a lumber town that had experienced a boom in the eighteen sixties and seventies. Ours was a home Filled with warmth and affection. We called McCoy.

And my family orientation As might be expected, was nationalistically Irish and devoutly Catholic. His boyhead years are typical for youths of that era in the Upper Midwest. except his dad is the chief of police. And the commander of a local chapter of the Union Veterans Organization. the Grand Army of the Republic.

Because of police and Civil War veterans participating in parades, McCoy learns to play the drums and the bugle.

so he can march along with his father. There is also a Naval Reserve Unit in Saginaw. And needing a bugler, McCoy is asked to join. But he's underage. Only 13.

His case is plated up the chain of command. Even the Michigan governor gets involved. And finally, the Navy grants McCoy special permission to join. Five days before his 14th birthday, he's enlisted in the Naval Reserve. He drills weekly and goes on summer cruises.

He will stay in the reserve unit until he goes off to college three years later. At seventeen McCoy is admitted to Saint Ignatius College in Chicago. He lives off campus with maternal uncles and aunts. His courses are demanding, and he has to study like never before. Moreover, many of his classmates are intent on becoming priests and are academically brilliant.

It's not easy time. For McCoy. especially because he has no desire to wear a clerical collar. For pleasure, he reads historical fiction about the Old West. Owen Wister's The Virginian.

is one of his favorites. His interest in the Old West was first peaked years before. By reading dime novels and meeting Buffalo Bill Cody, when the frontiers meant an entertainer. brought his Wild West show to Saginaw in eighteen ninety eight. McCoy was captivated by the spectacle of it all.

especially the writing and shooting. since his father was the police chief. McCoy was able to tag along with his dad to Cody's tent outside the arena. He said he stood awestruck before Buffalo Bill. During the fall of 1908, The Miller Brothers 101 Ranch Wild West Show.

comes to Chicago. McCoy slips away from Saint Ignatius. to watch the performances. His imagination is again set on fire. as it had been ten years earlier.

He makes up his mind to go out west. At the end of the spring semester in 1999, Without telling anyone, he boards a westward-bound train with only a few dollars in his pocket. On the train, he happens to find himself seated next to a horse trader from Landur, Wyoming. who is involved in shipping Mustangs to the East. At Grand Island, Nebraska, the horse trader puts McCoy to work with Jim Dollard.

Breaking Mustangs for the market. The horse trader tells McCoy that Dollard killed two men in one day in Wyoming.

Now look here, the eighteen-year-old McCoy tells the horse trader. I know I'm a newcomer to the West, but you don't have to feed me that dime novel stuff. Horse Treetor laughs. and tells McCoy it's all true. And Dollard has just been released from the penitentiary.

and is back to breaking horses instead of stones. Sporting a drooping red mustache, Dollar looked me up and down with his sharp green eyes, said McCoy. the coldest eyes I had ever seen. If a look alone could kill, Vallard was capable of disposing of considerably more than two men in a single day. And you're listening to Roger McGrath tell the story of Tim McCoy as a part of our Hollywood Goes to War series.

We've done stories on Clark Cable, Jimmy Stewart, and so many more. Go to ouramericanstories.com and search for our Hollywood Goes to War series. When we come back, more of Tim McCoy's story here on Our American Stories. Lee Habib here, the host of Our American Stories. Every day on this show, we're bringing inspiring stories from across this great country.

Stories from our big cities and small towns. But we truly can't do this show without you. Our stories are free to listen to, but they're not free to make. If you love what you hear, go to ouramericanstories.com and click the donate button. Give a little, give a lot.

Go to ouramericanstories.com and give. Liberty has never been just a word to we Americans. It has guided every one of our endeavors for the past 250 years. And now it takes form in a new way. The 2026 Semi-Quincentennial Coin and Metal Program from the United States Mint.

It celebrates the founding ideals that have long shaped our coinage. Available one year only, this historic collection features new coin designs, limited edition releases, and reissues. Shop new official coins at usmint.gov forward slash semi-q. That's usmint.gov/slash S-E-M-I-Q. Amazon Health AI presents painful thoughts.

I um I can't stop scratching my downtown. Mm-hmm. Yeah, but I'm not itching to go downtown and tell a receptionist I'm here to talk about my downtown.

Some things you'd rather type. Then say out loud. There's no question too embarrassing for Amazon Health AI. Chat your symptoms and get virtual care 24-7. Healthcare just got less painful.

Mm-hmm. Is your Jesus shaped more by culture than scripture? In our instant world, we've made Jesus a life coach, a therapist, a political ally. The Missing Messiah, a new book by Kyle Eidelman and Mark Moore, helps us understand how Western culture has gradually reshaped Jesus into our image and recognize the difference between a personalized savior and revolutionary king. If you believe there's a more dangerous, more majestic Messiah than the one you've inherited, visit missingmessiah.com to learn more today.

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Complete disclosures available at public.com/slash disclosures. Mm-hmm. And we continue with our American stories and with Roger McGrath as he continues his storytelling in our Hollywood Goes to War series.

Now, let's continue with Tim McCoy's story. Here again is McGrath. After several days breaking horses with Dollard, McCoy boards a train with a horse trader. and begins the run to Lander in west central Wyoming. just south of the Wind River Reservation.

The line to Lander was completed only two years earlier. and the town gained the motto Where the rails end and the trails begin. A horse trader takes McCoy to an inexpensive boarding house. and then leaves for his own quarters. Dropping his gear in his room.

the coy steps out of the boarding house and on to the wooden sidewalks of Landers Main Street. which appropriately is dirt. Cowboys stroll into and out of saloons. Music comes from a dance hall. Horses are tied to hitch racks.

A few Indians stand about. Lacoyous thrill. by his first night in Lander. It's everything he dreamed the West to be. He treats himself to a steak dinner with all the trimmings, and pie and ice cream for dessert.

It cost him fifty cents. He retires to his room. and lies on his bed. Listening to the sounds of raucous cowboy laughter, Honky talk piano. and the clump of high heeled boots on the wooden sidewalks accented by jingling spurs.

The next morning, reality strikes. He's in the West. Still somewhat the old West, but he needs a job. Fortunately, the double diamond ranch Fifty miles to the north needs a few men to work hay fields. McCoy won't be a cowboy, but it's a start.

For the next two months he harvests and stacks hay on the double diamond. The foreman likes McCoy's work. And when the fall roundup begins, he puts the 18-year-old greenhorn on a horse. McCoy is elated. and rushes down Lander to buy all the trappings of a cowboy.

Meanwhile, McCoy writes his father. Seeing he doesn't want to be a college man. but instead a cowboy, and is now in Wyoming.

Well, son, replies his father, It's your own grave you're digging. I just hope you aren't going to be a horse's ass all your life. Yeah. During these years, He also comes to know the Indians well. especially the Arapaho.

a romantic by nature. McCoy is fascinated by the stories the older Indians tell of the days before the reservation. when they followed buffalo herds and fought their enemies. mostly other Indians. and only occasionally white men.

McCoy learns the Arapahoi language as well as the sign language common to the Indians of the High Plains. He becomes friends with several Arapah. including some who had fought at the Little Bighorn. Chief goes in lodge. makes him a tribal brother.

There are still cattle wrestlers in Wyoming. and ranchers still pay hired guns to track them down. The most feared hired gun in McCoy's day is Sam Berry. McCoy says Barry's arrival in any particular area usually puts a stop to wrestling without Barry having to fire a shot. Whenever he does kill a rustler, Barry slices off one of the wrestlers' ears as evidence of a job completed.

When McCoy goes to town, it's South Thalander, east to Thermopolis. or north to Cody. A town which features Buffalo Bill's Irma Hotel. The old showman can usually be found at the 30-foot long polished mahogany bar in the hotel's saloon. Cody drinks prodigious quantities of whiskey.

and captivates McCoy and all others standing at Irma's Bar with stories of Daring Dew in the Old West. By nineteen fifteen, McCoy files for a 640-acre homestead on Owl Creek. to the west of Thermopylae. He pays twenty seven dollars and fifty cents for the property. During the winter of 1917, The talk of America's possible entry into what is called the European War.

dominates many a conversation. McCoy's interest is especially piqued By a Theodore Roosevelt newspaper article. TR proposes an American force that he would lead. that would feature a cavalry. similar to the Rough Riders of Spanish American war fame.

Roosevelt theorizes the cavalry could break through the German front and wreak havoc operating as raiders behind the enemy's lines. At the time I read that article, said McCoy, I was 26 years old. bursting with energy, enjoying good health. and filled with that roving spirit which has always constituted a substantial part of my makeup. And like many young people, I had the brashness or spunk that comes when you've passed most of your time on life's hills rather than down in the valleys.

As soon as he finishes reading Roosevelt's article, McCoy begins writing a letter to the former president. McCoy says he will recruit a force of 400 Cowboys from Wyoming and Montana for Roosevelt. McCoy addresses the envelope to The Honorable Theodore Roosevelt. New York City, New York. Reckoning the Post Office will get the letter to TR.

Two weeks later, a writer dispatched from Thermopylae gallops up to McCoy and hands him a telegram. It's a reply. from the former president. Bully for you, do proceed. Article and telegram in hand.

McCoy spends the next several weeks recruiting. In less than two months he has four hundred men signed up. with Wyoming, Montana under a deep blanket of snow and little to do. Everyone is raring to go. Anticipating a grand adventure in Europe.

No one is more excited than McCoy. who sends word of his success to Roosevelt. In late March, McCoy receives another telegram from Roosevelt. President Wilson will not approve the plan. Wilson gives several excuses.

But the real reason is his fear that Roosevelt would once again be catapulted into the presidency. A week after Wilson scuttles Roosevelt's plan, Congress declares war. McCoy is immediately on a train for Cheyenne. where he gets a letter of recommendation from the governor. and then on to Fort Logan near Denver.

After several twists of fate, He sent to OCS at Fort Snelling near St. Paul, Minnesota. He excels in officer school. and then even more so in cavalry school. where is promoted to captain upon graduation.

The promotion is an unusual distinction. normally bestowed only upon veteran lieutenants. Before he leaves for posting at Fort Riley, Kansas, He marries his girlfriend from Wyoming. Agnes Miller. Suddenly, McCoy is a captain of cavalry in the U.S.

Army. and a married man. At Fort Riley, McCoy becomes part of the Officer Corps. tasked with turning recruits into cavalrymen. His life is made easier.

only when he's allowed to make Cowboys non-coms to eat in the training. Morale is high. All are preparing for the power. For the day when they will be making thunderous and glorious saber-wielding dashes on the backs of galloping steeds through enemy lines. Realists.

rather than romantics win the day, though. The use of modern machine guns and artillery pieces on the front in Europe. is making it clear. The days of cavalry charges are over. and word comes of Fort Riley, that the bulk of the cavalry forces will be converted to field artillery.

And you're listening to Roger McGrath tell the story of Tim McCoy and you can't make it up. Can you imagine writing a former president? Known for putting forces together, known for swashbuckling, and get a response, and then put together 400 folks to go ahead and fight a foreign war? It sounds crazy. Except it really happened.

And so many things like it happened back then. And my goodness, look at his life. A Michigan boy. His father's a police chief, fought in the Civil War. And what does he decide to do?

Tell dad, I'm not a college boy anymore. I met this guy named Buffalo Bill. And I've got other ideas. And so with love he said to his dad, I disagree. With the way you and I are going to live our lives.

And hopefully, our fathers, well, they don't just say, You know, well, what his dad said, which was wishing him actually not good things. When we come back, we're going to cover more of this remarkable American story, Tim McCoy's story, here on Our American Stories. Liberty has never been just a word to we Americans. It has guided every one of our endeavors for the past 250 years. And now it takes form in a new way.

The 2026 Semi-Quincentennial Coin and Metal Program from the United States Mint. It celebrates the founding ideals that have long shaped our coinage. Available one year only, this historic collection features new coin designs, limited edition releases, and reissues. Shop new official coins at usmint.gov forward slash semi-q. That's usmint.gov/slash S-E-M-I-Q.

Amazon Health AI presents painful thoughts. I um I can't stop scratching my downtown. Mm-hmm. Yeah, but I'm not itching to go downtown and tell a receptionist I'm here to talk about my downtown some things you'd rather type. And say out loud.

There's no question too embarrassing for Amazon Health AI. Chat your symptoms and get virtual care 24-7. Healthcare just got less painful. Mm-hmm. Is your Jesus shaped more by culture than scripture?

In our instant world, we've made Jesus a life coach, a therapist, a political ally. The Missing Messiah, a new book by Kyle Eidelman and Mark Moore, helps us understand how Western culture has gradually reshaped Jesus into our image and recognize the difference between a personalized savior and revolutionary king. If you believe there's a more dangerous, more majestic Messiah than the one you've inherited, visit missingmessiah.com to learn more today. Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public, you can build a multi-asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto, and now generated assets, which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI.

It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high-free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one-of-a-kind index, and lets you backtest it against the SP 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's.

Go to public.com/slash podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com/slash podcast. Paid for by Public Investing. Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. member FINRA and SIPC.

Advisory Services by Public Advisors LLC, SEC Registered Advisor. Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available at public.com/slash disclosures. Mm.

And we continue with our American stories and the story of Tim McCoy. My goodness, part of the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the Western Performers Hall of Fame, both in the same year in 1973, one of the iconic actors in American life in his day, the cover of Weedies, which tells you everything. That's more than just an iconic actor when you get to the cover of Wheaties. You're sort of an iconic brand at that point. Let's return to Roger McGrath for the rest of Tim McCoy's story.

McCoy is sent to West Point, Kentucky. where he leads a funeral march of hundreds of cavalry troops. all wearing black armbands, with heads bowed. while a band plays a dirge. In the center of the procession is a caisson.

with a black draped casket in the words United States Cavalry Died 1918. Rest in peace. McCoy is now assigned to Fort Sill, Oklahoma. for Officers Artillery School. Upon graduation, He's put in command of an artillery battery.

Now a lieutenant colonel. McCorrie is champion at the bit for deployment to France. but the armistice is declared. and he musters out of the army. He isn't home for long before the new governor, Bob Kerry, an old friend from McCoy's first Roundup.

offers McCoy the job of Adjutant General of Wyoming. McCoy accepts immediately. and is now a brigadier general at the age of twenty eight. McCoy's headquarters are in the State Capitol Building at Cheyenne. The Arapaho are especially impressed with their young friend.

who is now a mighty chief with a star on his shoulder. They decide he needs a new name. In a ceremony conducted by the medicine man Yellow Calf, McCoy is Kristen. Bertney Natchaw. meaning soldier chief.

During the next several years, McCoy buys another 1,500 acres of land and leases an additional 2,500 from the federal government. His Owl Creek Ranch now spreads over 5,000 acres. McCoy and his wife now have three children. Two boys and a girl. Mm-hmm.

In the fall of 1922, Into McCoy's office in the Capitol building, Comes a small naturally dressed man. with an alligator skin briefcase. The man says his Hollywood Motion Picture Company is making a Western. The covered wagon. and 500 Indian extras are needed.

The man says it's proving impossible to get to Indians and with the movie behind schedule and over budget, financial disaster is near. The man is Jesse Lasky. one of the pioneer movie makers. He offers McCoy big bucks. and McCoy can provide the needed Indians and rescue the movie.

McCoy signs a contract for not only providing the Indians. but also for serving as technical adviser for the movie. McGoy also insures contractually that the Indians will be well paid. Yeah. Within weeks, McCoy has 500 Arapaho, Shoshone and Bannock.

and the necessary horses at the filming location in Utah. In two months, the location shoot is completed. Likoy is a hero, and Lasky now wants him in Hollywood to stand on stage with some of his Indian buddies to introduce the movie before each of its showing at Groman's Egyptian theater. Lasky offers to pay the Indians and cover all their expenses. and a contract of $1,000 a week for McCoy.

McCoy resigns as Wyoming's Adjutant General. and is off to Hollywood. After a four-month wildly successful run at Gromman's, It's off to London for six more months of the same. In the meantime, the covered wagon is released nationwide in the U.S. and the movie is a spectacular success.

Back in Hollywood from London, McCoy goes to work as a technical advisor on the second movie. The Thundering Herd. When his work is finished, McCoy is hired to introduce John Ford's The Iron Horse in the same manner he had introduced the covered wagon. His Indian friends are making more money than they ever dreamed of. And so too is Tim McCoy.

The Indians are calling him by a new name. High ego. Because he seems so powerful and wise, soaring high and observing all. McCoy now formally names as Owl Creek Ranch. Eagle's nest.

Irving Thalberg of MGM. thinks McCoy has the makings of the cowboy's star. McCoy is a six-foot, handsome, blue-eyed blonde who can ride and rope, shoot and fight. and sign and track like an Indian. Studio publicity agents won't have to invent a matinee idol.

In reality, McCoy is a cowboy. and Arapahoe blood brother. A rancher and a cavalry officer. From nineteen twenty six to nineteen twenty nine, McCoy stars in 16 MGM movies. mostly Westerns.

He even writes the script for one movie when Thalberg grows upset with the staff writers. McCoy makes the studio gobs of money. and gobs for himself.

However, McCoy is away from home nearly all the time. and his marriage is suffering. He tries to strike a new deal with MGM. that will give him more time off. But when Louis Maier stalls and equivocates, McCoy says goodbye.

In 1931, McCoy signs with Columbia Pictures. Instead of slowing down, the pace picks up, and And over the next four years he makes 32 movies. It's during this time that Hollywood begins timing Western stars on their quick draws. By counting the number of frames on film, From hand movement to smoke from the gun barrel, McCoy is a frame or two faster than anyone else. His success in Hollywood, though, destroys his home life.

and Agnes and he are divorced. McCoy leaves Columbia and makes movies with production companies that allow him to tour with the Ringling Brothers Circus. and with his own Wild West show. During late 1930s and into the early 1940s, McCoy stars in 27 more Westerns. Then comes the Japanese sneak attack.

on Pearl Harbor. McCoy is 50 years old. And he's a cowboy star. But he turns his back on Hollywood. and joins the Army Air Corps as a lieutenant colonel.

He's sent to Europe. serving in intelligence and in operations, and occasionally is at the front. In August 1944, he's in Paris for the liberation of the city. By the time the war is over, McCoy has been promoted colonel. He returns to Hollywood, But he's now in his mid-50s and his career.

as a store of westerns is over. He appears in only four more movies, and only in minor roles. He does have a highly successful T V show though. in which he tells stories about the Old West. gives lessons in Indian Sign Language.

and interviews old timers about life in the mining camps and on the cattle ranges. His old Indian pals make frequent appearances. In 1953, McCoy Show is awarded an Emmy. In the meantime, McCory remarries and has two more children. He dies in 1978.

at age eighty six. Tim McCoy lived one of the fullest, most varied, Most adventurous. and most accomplished lives imaginable. including proudly serving his country, in two world wars. He wasn't an invention of Hollywood.

He was the real McCoy. Uh Indeed, and great production work as always by Greg Engler. And a special thanks to Roger McGrath, as always, for telling these terrific stories about America's past, reminding us of who we were. And of course, who he can always be. Hollywood goes to war.

And my goodness, here he is at the peak of his powers, wealth beyond any measure, and a 50 years old, 50 years old volunteers to give up his craft and go represent his country. And of course, leaves a full bird colonel. The story of Tim McCoy here on Our American Stories. Liberty has never been just a word to we Americans. It has guided every one of our endeavors for the past 250 years.

And now it takes form in a new way. The 2026 Semi-Quincentennial Coin and Metal Program from the United States Mint. It celebrates the founding ideals that have long shaped our coinage. Available one year only, this historic collection features new coin designs, limited edition releases, and reissues. Shop new official coins at usmint.gov forward slash semi-q.

That's usmint.gov/slash S-E-M-I-Q. I'm U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. Yeah. The sound of a seatbelt.

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