Here's one of my favorite Bill Mauldin cartoons.
If you ask any of the men carrying the extra weight, they will tell you that they don’t mind. These are boys in their prime, with lots of kick and energy, an extra 150 or 200 rounds of weight is not what they worry about. Staying alive is.
By the way AnAmericanMother, Bill Mauldin (Willie & Joe) once had Thanksgiving dinner with us. He was my Dad’s first cousin.
My dad loved Mauldin's cartoons, they used to look for Stars and Stripes to come out just to see what he'd come up with this time. Dad served in the same theater (Italian campaign) and he always said that everything in the cartoons was true!
When Mauldin was so sick at the end of his life, a reporter for the Orange County Calif. paper put out the word that the only thing that gave him pleasure was to hear from his fellow soldiers. My dad and his Army buddy, who went through basic together and are now retired and living 5 miles apart, sent him a card and the good word from the 34th Infantry Division.
Here's one of my favorite Bill Mauldin cartoons.