The "John Wayne chickened out of WW2" comment is a lie that took a 30 second google search to disprove. He
DID want to serve but had an ongoing contract with a movie studio company that would sue the shit out of him if he broke it to go serve. He was one of their top stars and losing him would cost the studio serious money.
View attachment 4310815
He was also 34 with a family at the time which is not at all optimal for going into the military. And honestly, if a middle aged man with a family didn't want to go risk his life in a war who the fuck cares? You can be patriotic and not go fight.