Paul Dietzel earned a football scholarship to Duke in 1942. Before he took the field, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps instead.

Dietzel was a B-29 bomber pilot who flew missions over Japan in a plane his crew dubbed the “Banana Boat.” Though Dietzel led LSU to the 1958 national championship, he later said the two-plus-year stint he spent in the Air Corps was the greatest part of his life.

The Army never left Dietzel’s mind. After serving as an assistant coach there in the late 1940s and early 1950s, he returned to Army as its head coach in 1962 before later returning to LSU as athletic director in 1978. Dietzel died in 2013.

Source: Scott Rabalais: Remembering LSU’s heroes; a Veterans Day spotlight on Tigers who served | LSU | theadvocate.com