Mr. Ermey’s 11-year career as a Marine was ended “by a rocket” in 1969, but he would not talk about the war for the Times article, saying: “If a person’s wife and children were killed in a terrible automobile accident, 20 years later it will bother him to talk about it.”

With shrapnel still lodged in his back and arm, Mr. Ermey spent four months in a hospital. Eventually, he moved to the Philippines, where he married, attended college briefly and acted in television commercials.