You don't have to be an Army Ranger to get inducted into their Hall of Fame--Tom Hanks did it! Here's how

Although Tom Hanks has never served in the military, in 2006 he was the first actor inducted as an honorary member of the US Army's Ranger Hall of Fame—for a part he played in a film!

In the movie Saving Private Ryan, Hanks plays Cpt. Miller, a WWII Army Ranger company commander opposite Matt Damon, a young soldier that Hanks' character is tasked with bringing home from war.

The induction was partially awarded because of Hanks' dedication to honoring war heroes through his work as a national spokesman for the WWII Memorial Campaign and as a chairman of the D-Day Museum Capital Campaign. He was also one of the writers and producers on Band of Brothers, an Emmy-award winning miniseries about the Western front.

It's difficult to get inducted to the Ranger Hall of Fame without being a career soldier. Most inductees, aside from the honorary ones, must have served in a Ranger unit or be graduates of the prestigious Ranger School located in Fort Benning, GA.

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