{"id":58666,"date":"2017-02-23T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-02-23T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2017\/02\/23\/battle-bracket-2017-help-us-choose-our-field-of-64-great-military-characters\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T10:52:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T10:52:08","slug":"battle-bracket-2017-help-us-choose-our-field-of-64-great-military-characters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/special-projects\/battle-bracket\/2017\/02\/23\/battle-bracket-2017-help-us-choose-our-field-of-64-great-military-characters\/","title":{"rendered":"Battle Bracket 2017: Help us choose our field of 64 great military characters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In past years, Military Times has used the month of March to decide such critical issues as the greatest military movie ever made (&#8220;<a class=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/story\/entertainment\/2015\/04\/08\/military-movie-madness-full-metal-jackett-ermey-modine\/25411557\/\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Link: http:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/story\/entertainment\/2015\/04\/08\/military-movie-madness-full-metal-jackett-ermey-modine\/25411557\/\">Full Metal Jacket<\/a>&#8220;) and the greatest piece of military hardware ever designed (the <a class=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/story\/military\/2016\/04\/05\/nimitz-class-carrier-takes-battle-bracket-crown\/82652674\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nimitz-class aircraft carrier<\/a>). This year is no different.<br\/><br\/>We&#8217;ll be asking our readers to vote for their favorite fictional military character from film and television. But before we can do that, we&#8217;ll need to narrow the field to 64 worthy contenders, spanning all eras and genres. While some favorites come to mind immediately, the rest of the entries can be tough calls &#8230; and that&#8217;s where you come in.<br\/><br\/>Below are four polls designed to help us with some tough choices. Cast your vote to help set the bracket, and leave your reasoning in the comments below. <br\/><br\/>Don&#8217;t see your favorite fictional character listed? It&#8217;s probably because he or she is already safely in the field, but if you&#8217;ve got an unheralded character we might&#8217;ve overlooked, leave us your suggestions in the comments. <br\/><br\/><b>1. Narrowing down &#8216;The Duke&#8217;<\/b><br\/><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"apester-media\" data-media-id=\"58adbd8f3d7ca9a841f33603\" height=\"512\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<script async=\"\" src=\"\/\/static.apester.com\/js\/sdk\/v2.0\/apester-javascript-sdk.min.js\"><\/script>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>2. Sci-fi fighters<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"apester-media\" data-media-id=\"58adbc843d7ca9a841f335ff\" height=\"512\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<script async=\"\" src=\"\/\/static.apester.com\/js\/sdk\/v2.0\/apester-javascript-sdk.min.js\"><\/script>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>3. Big stars and blockbusters<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"apester-media\" data-media-id=\"58adbd543d7ca9a841f33602\" height=\"512\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<script async=\"\" src=\"\/\/static.apester.com\/js\/sdk\/v2.0\/apester-javascript-sdk.min.js\"><\/script>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>4.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>Classic heroes<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"apester-media\" data-media-id=\"58ada8343d7ca9a841f33506\" height=\"512\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<script async=\"\" src=\"\/\/static.apester.com\/js\/sdk\/v2.0\/apester-javascript-sdk.min.js\"><\/script>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We&#8217;ll unveil the full bracket next month; follow any of the Military Times publications on Facebook or Twitter for updates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s not quite March, but that&#8217;s no reason to delay the madness of our annual audience-participation tournament<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":96040,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":83,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[83,17],"tags":[],"coauthors":[799],"class_list":["post-58666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-battle-bracket","category-special-projects"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"TN5PBNX2BFDKLLOMO7I4QPDQ7I","arc_canonical_url":"\/special-projects\/battle-bracket\/2017\/02\/23\/battle-bracket-2017-help-us-choose-our-field-of-64-great-military-characters\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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