Stacy Keach as the downed air force pilot in Red Dawn. Maybe, in a pure sense, Col. Kurtz (Brando) played the same role in Apocalypse Now.
The fact that they were military officers was only pivotal to the The Anarchy Themata. In fact, the military theme of Apocalypse Now was adapted, not even relevant or necessary to the story in original.
Hogan’s Heroes
Actually, I think Powers Boothe played the downed pilot in Red Dawn.
Replying to a post further up about military being an easily used background for a character who shows up infrequently, I think there was a character (either one-shot or recurring) from Seventh Heaven who was a Marine. I suspect he was a brother of a female love interest of one of the characters, or something like that.
Yeah, I can see how having the character be in the military would add hassle due to the fact that folks would expect the soldier to be doing some soldiering at some point, though if you could find some trucks and paint them green, you have a base motorpool right there (of course, someone will say that you could save yourself some green paint and have him work at a truckstop instead 
)
I suppose I’ll have to write a TV script with such a character, his military background serving no purpose except seasoning, and the plot of the show will never make any particular use of it. He’ll probably be named Chekov, and the first time we see him, he’ll hang a gun up on a wall, the gun also never being used again, but always being prominently displayed in the background. 
In case anyone’s noticed, yes, I have heard of “Chekov’s Rifle” and don’t think highly of the literary theory. 
Call to Glory had Craig T. Nelson as a USAF Colonel/Pilot, and if I recall correctly, that blonde person from Leaving Las Vegas and Adventures in Babysitting as his daughter. They had plenty of military stuff, and plenty of civilian stuff.
Just remembered:
Sergeant Bilko, both the TV series (Phil Silvers) and movie (Steve Martin).
Taps, about a bunch of rebellious military-school cadets taking on the National Guard. Zany hijinks ensue.
Jesus, people, ease off on the egg-nog and pay attention, okay?
Main characters who are active in the military but the military is not important to the main plotline of the show. Somebody’s second cousin who was in five episodes and then left the show to join the army does not count, okay? Retired military don’t count. Shows that take place on military bases about the lives of people in the military don’t count.
Not that I have any examples, mind you. I’m thinking any accurate portrayal of somebody who’s in the military is going to have to have the military be a major part of that character’s life, like being a tech geek would be a major part of any show about my life.
Okay, here’s one: Lost in Space. The co-pilot, Major West, was in the military. I don’t recall it ever coming up in the show, but there you go.
The first season of the War of the Worlds TV series had one character - Col. Ironhorse, I think the name was - who was a military liaison to a team of scientists.
(I’m using the word “scientist” in its loosest possible sense, there, obviously. If you don’t remember the War of the Worlds TV series, all I can say is, I envy you.)
I’m thinking that Major Dad is a good choice. While they did live on a Marine base and were moved from one base to another, the show wasn’t about the military. They had some military sub-plots, and while they had military people on all the time they could have made it a show about almost anything.
Dharma and Greg Greg spent one episode in the Army Reserve as a legal officer. I think they sent him homebecause he was a pain in the ass.
His father, at times, would mention something that happened to him when he was in the army, years ago.
Hey Steve! Been too busy to post much lately, have you? :eek:
I guess we’ll be seeing more of you around here now that you’ll have plenty of spare time on your hands.
Do the Ipswich jailers let you use the 'puter 24/7 or only at certain times?
D & R
Actually, retired military, if it’s fairly important to the character, would count. Thinking more, I remember a Scottish TV show my mom and I were watching on PBS (our PBS station in Texas picked up the BBC feed at night) where the dad of the main character is a WWII veteran, though I’m not sure how often this came up, since I only saw the last season of the show when they had it on TV.
Looking online, “Monarch of the Glen” is what I was thinking of.
Ooh, that’s fairly good. I think they worked with that a lot more in the movie than in the show, with Major West and Dr. Robinson arguing over who should be in charge, until Dr. Robinson (Dr. Robinson’s wife, of course) threatened to declare themselves both medically unfit and take command herself. For the most part, he did soldier-y kinda things, trying to protect the family and fly the ship.
Claok and Dagger was on TV the other night and although Davey’s Dad was in the Air Force it wasn’t really important until the end - then of course it became a major plot point.
Probably doesn’t count. 
How about Girls Just Want to Have Fun? Her father was ex-military.
Actually, that counts, I think. I thought it was cool how the dad went undercover as an airline pilot simply by trading hats with one of the airline guys, correctly assuming that they couldn’t tell an Air Force uniform apart from an Airline uniform (It would have worked better if he was a Naval officer, since most Airline uniforms ARE based on Navy uniforms, but that’s hardly important).
Well, dunno, maybe it doesn’t count, but the only way his being in the military was centrally important was that he happened to be wearing his uniform.
There was a mercifully brief period when certain Air Force uniforms were basically blue and silver copies of the Navy uniforms. These were widely despised, in part because the Air Force ROTC uniforms use the same scheme, and because they lok just like airline uniforms.
What’s funny is Air Force JROTC uniforms. We COULD have just used the same ranks as the college ROTCs did, or even the same that the other JROTCs used (which I want to say is what Army ROTC uses, or at least what Texas A&M’s Corps of Cadets uses). The AFJROTC ranks use a series of silver chevrons on a blue sheild, distinguished from eachother pretty much the same way the silver stripes on a black background are for AF ROTC ranks. Thing is, due to the smallish size of the sheild pins, it can be difficult to distinguish the varying thicknesses of the chevrons, which could lead to the occasional confusion between a Cadet First Lieutenant and a Cadet Major.
The Army JROTC guys used a system that was both weirder and easier to deal with, a series of moons and diamonds, anyone richer than you (more diamonds) or with more moons got saluted, and that was easy enough to deal with. 1-3 moons was Cadets 1st/2nd Lieutenant and Cadet Captain, and 1-3 diamonds covered the ranks of Cadets Major-Colonel. Four diamonds is, as far as I can tell, reserved for Reveilee, the highest ranking cadet (and only Rough Collie) in the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M.
Unless someone makes (or has made) a TV show based around Texas A&M, this isn’t really relevant to the thread though.
However, it could probably be a really good show.
The Skipper was Navy vet; his having seen action at Guadalcanal figured into a couple of episodes.
Hey, nobody mentioned one of my childhood favorites? A little show called “Calvin and the Colonel” Not to be confused with a cartoon show with a totally different plot. It was about a military school and the wackiness that abounded between the schoool’s chief scamp, AKA Calvin, aided and abetted by his not-so-bright friends, and the school’s commandant, AKA Colonel, played very well by character actor Allen Joslyn(he, the master of the slow burn) Who always reminded me of the cartoon character Clyde Crashcup. Thanks for the walk down Memory Lane.