A New Role

LOS ALAMITOS —  Lt. Col. James C. Ghormley III knows the pressures of military leadership.

He deployed troops from the Los Alamitos Armed Forces Reserve Center across the globe to Operation Desert Storm.

Then he sent them up the freeway to the Los Angeles riots and the Northridge earthquake and back down the other way to the Laguna Beach fires.

If that’s not enough, he’s in charge when Air Force One lands here.

But now, the 56-year-old base commander plans to enter a real hot zone: Hollywood.

After 24 years at Los Alamitos and nearly 33 years in the military, Ghormley will retire Tuesday to, among other things, pursue an acting career. But is a man more accustomed to being called “sir” rather than “babe” ready to take orders from producers and directors?

“I don’t have any fear,” Ghormley said. “What are they going to do, send me to southwestern Asia?”

The lieutenant colonel recently landed his first role, a Sears commercial.

“I was just being me,” Ghormley said of his audition, during which he affectionately talked about his family before a director and a camera he did not know was rolling.

Though Ghormley is a patriot, soldier, part-time historian, family man and volunteer first, the motion picture business beckoned like the blades of the Army choppers he flew for 26 years.

“Growing up so on the edge of the entertainment industry, I’ve always wanted to be a part of it,” said Ghormley, who grew up in Downey.

The Armed Forces Reserve Center is not unfamiliar with show business either. Scenes from “Apollo 13,” “King Kong” and “Clear and Present Danger” were shot there.

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At the urging of his wife, Ghormley enrolled in an Irvine acting school, Del Mar Media Arts, a few months ago with hopes of lending his deep voice to commercials.

A strong build, silver hair, a welcoming grin and focused eyes won him on-camera auditions. Being an Army lieutenant colonel didn’t hurt. He’s accustomed to public speaking and high-pressure situations.

“He has a presence, so I took him on,” said Jackie Ashman of Mission Viejo’s Burkett Talent Agency, who visited a class he was attending and was impressed with his monologue from 1954’s “The Caine Mutiny” starring Humphrey Bogart. “We’ve had some actors that never book. He went right off the bat and booked a major network commercial, and that’s pretty impressive.”

Ashman said the lieutenant colonel’s looks, voice and personable ways won over the director of the Sears spot, who hired him to play a bride’s father in a wedding-themed ad.

The rookie actor, green as fatigues, will remain for now in the acting boot camp of commercials. He wants bigger roles when he’s ready, maybe in a year or two.

“He’s new, so he’s not a seasoned actor for his age category,” Ashman said. “I don’t think he’s going to book feature films right off the bat. But he’s doing well in commercials, and that, quite frankly, is where the money is.”

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After enlisting in the National Guard in 1965 and attending Army flight school in 1969, Ghormley, then a captain, was posted to the Los Alamitos base in 1973, when the reserve center opened.

He served as public affairs officer and second-in-command before becoming base commander in 1996, when Gen. Guido J. Portante transferred to San Luis Obispo. Lt. Col. David Appel, recently stationed at state military headquarters in Sacramento, takes over Wednesday.

More than anyone else at the base, local elected officials say, Ghormley reaches out to surrounding Cypress, Los Alamitos, Rossmoor and Seal Beach, where he lives.

“Any time anyone in the community wanted the base’s involvement in anything, [they] automatically went to Ghormley,” said Los Alamitos City Councilwoman Marilynn M. Poe. “He was always willing to help and participate.”

The lieutenant colonel leads the center’s annual fireworks show, flies helicopters over parades, touts the guard on career days, takes children on base tours, attends meetings and luncheons of the Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club and American Cancer Society, and is an active member of St. Hedwig’s Catholic Church.

Though acting is a new curiosity, his retirement hardly banks on it. The lieutenant colonel’s plans were inked long before his nearly accidental foray into acting in commercials.

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Armed with a bachelor’s degree in history and a master’s in professional writing, both from USC, he has produced three manuscripts--a fictional book involving an antimissile defense system, a barbecue cookbook and a biography of Simon Ramo, the philanthropist, engineer and musician who is the R in TRW.

Then there’s his love of hunting, golf, wineries, model railroads, flying and biking.

Still, his priority is to spend more time with his wife, Barbara, 55, and his daughters, Jill, 26, and Jennifer, 29, in Chicago and Woodbridge, Va., respectively.

The couple celebrated 30 years of marriage Aug. 12. “I am still on my honeymoon,” he said.

She’s anticipating the change in lifestyle, though she will keep her job as librarian at Los Alamitos High School.

“It’s not really retirement, it’s commencement, graduation,” she said.