The FReeper Foxhole Remembers Sergeant Bill Mauldin (1921-2003) - October 24th, 2003

http://ww2.pstripes.osd.mil/02/nov02/mauldin/ ^ | see educational sources

[snippy_about_it]

Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
.

FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.


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U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues

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William Henry "Bill" Mauldin


Sergeant, United States Army and Cartoonist

Many people have described their wartime experiences in letters home. But very few have chronicled war for the people doing the fighting. Bill Mauldin, World War II's most famous cartoonist, is one of them.


"Radio th' ol' man we'll be late on account of a thousand-mile detour."

William Henry Mauldin was born October 29, 1921 in Mountain Park, New Mexico. Though he did not graduate from high school, he took a correspondence course in cartooning, and later attended the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. In 1940, just five days before the National Guard was federalized, Bill Mauldin enlisted in the Arizona National Guard. This is truly where his career as the world knows it began. While serving in Oklahoma Mauldin began doing drawings for the Oklahoma City newspaper, and the 45th Division News.

Sergeant Bill Mauldin, K Company, 180th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division was with the division when it shipped out for combat duty in the European Theater of Operations in 1943, when he was 21. Upon his arrival in Sicily, he joined the Stars & Stripes, while still drawing for the 45th Division News.


"So I told Company K they'd just have to work out their replacement problem for themselves."

After Ernie Pyle, America's most popular journalist in the Second World War, wrote an article about the work of Mauldin, he was picked up by United Feature Syndicate in 1944 and his cartoons began appearing in newspapers all over the United States. He later recalled that: "I drew pictures for and about the soldiers because I knew what their life was like and understood their gripes. I wanted to make something out of the humorous situations which come up even when you don't think life could be any more miserable."



Mauldin earned a Purple Heart at Cassino. He did not spend all of his time cartooning and working for the 45th Division News during the war. He made sure he spent time with K Company, his fellow infantrymen. In fact, around Christmas 1943, while sketching at the front, a small fragment from a German mortar hit his shoulders, as he noted in The Brass Ring, "My only damage was a ringing in my ears and a fragment in my shoulder. It burned like a fury but was very small. The wound hardly bled." When Mauldin received the Purple Heart for his injury he protested that he had "been cut worse sneaking through barbed-wire fences in New Mexico," the aid told him to take the medal, which might get him discharged earlier at the end of the war.


"Nonsense. S-2 reported that machine gun silenced hours ago. Stop wiggling your fingers at me."

Willie and Joe, Mauldin's now famous cartoon characters, were two combat hardened dogfaces. These were muddy and exhausted, but their spirit was never broken. They hated every second of sitting in rain filled foxholes, trudging through hills and valleys loaded down with rifle and pack, and facing enemy fire, but they never gave up.


"Able Fox Five to Able Fox. I got a target but ya gotta be patient."

Mauldin's characters were the average GI. He depicted their boredom, rebellion against bad food, lousy living conditions, and clueless officers. Willie and Joe came to be loved by the lower ranks, and by their families back home.

In his classic book "Up Front," Mauldin wrote that the expressions on Joe and Willie are "those of infantry soldiers who have been in the war for a couple of years. If he is looking very weary and resigned to the fact that he is probably going to die before it is over, and if he has a deep, almost hopeless desire to go home and forget it all; if he looks with dull, uncomprehending eyes at the fresh-faced kid who is talking about all the joys of battle and killing Germans, then he comes from the same infantry as Joe and Willie."


Mauldin draws Pvt. Robert L. Bowman in May 1944.

A notable exception to the American love of Bill Mauldin's Willie and Joe was General George Patton. In 1945 he wrote a letter to the Stars & Stripes threatening to ban the newspaper from Third Army if it did not stop carrying "Mauldin's scurrilous attempts to undermine military discipline."


"Awright, awright — it's a general! Ya wanna pass in review?"

General Dwight Eisenhower did not agree and was concerned that any attempt at censorship would undermine morale. In hopes of reconciling the differences he set up a meeting between Mauldin and Patton. Mauldin went to see Patton in March 1945. He had to endure a lengthy lecture on the dangers of producing "anti-officer cartoons". Mauldin's response was the rightful argument that the soldiers had legitimate grievances that needed to be addressed.



Bill Maudlin wrote about his meeting with General George Patton in his book, The Brass Ring (1971)

There he sat, big as life even at that distance. His hair was silver, his face was pink, his collar and shoulders glittered with more stars than I could count, his fingers sparkled with rings, and an incredible mass of ribbons started around desktop level and spread upward in a flood over his chest to the very top of his shoulder, as if preparing to march down his back too. His face was rugged, with an odd, strangely shapeless outline; his eyes were pale, almost colorless, with a choleric bulge. His small, compressed mouth was sharply downturned at the comers, with a lower lip which suggested a pouting child as much as a no-nonsense martinet. It was a welcome, rather human touch. Beside him, lying in a big chair, was Willie, the bull terrier. If ever dog was suited to master this one was. Willie had his beloved boss's expression and lacked only the ribbons and stars. I stood in that door staring into the four meanest eyes I'd ever seen.

Patton demanded: "What are you trying to do, incite a goddamn mutiny?" Patton then launched into a lengthy dissertation about armies and leaders of the past, of rank and its importance. Patton was a master of his subject felt truly privileged, as if I were hearing Michelangelo on painting. I had been too long enchanted by the army myself to be anything but impressed by this magnificent old performer's monologue. Just as when I had first saluted him, I felt whatever martial spirit was left in me being lifted out and fanned into flame.

If you're a leader, you don't push wet spaghetti, you pull it. The U.S. Army still has to learn that. The British understand it. Patton understood it. I always admired Patton. Oh, sure, the stupid bastard was crazy. He was insane. He thought he was living in the Dark Ages. Soldiers were peasants to him. I didn't like that attitude, but I certainly respected his theories and the techniques he used to get his men out of their foxholes.

Frederick S. Voss wrote about the meeting between Bill Maudlin and George Patton in his book, Reporting the War (1994)

Pulling from a drawer some clipped samples of Mauldin's work, he asked their creator to justify their anti-officer tone. In doing so, Mauldin thought he acquitted himself fairly well. By making soldiers laugh at their grievances and letting them know that someone else understood them, he said in effect, he was helping them to let off steam in a relatively harmless way and thereby preventing the mutiny that Patton was so sure he was causing. Patton was clearly unconvinced. "You can't run an army like a mob," he declared when Mauldin was done, and after a handshake and a smart parting salute from Mauldin, the interview was over.

Official recognition for his work came in 1945, when Mauldin was awarded his first Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning. The award read, "For distinguished service as a cartoonist, as exemplified by the cartoon entitled, 'Fresh, spirited American troops, flushed with victory, are bringing in thousands of hungry, ragged, battle-weary prisoners,' in the series entitled, 'Up Front With Mauldin." Bill Mauldin was 23 years old at the time.


Fresh, spirited American troops, flushed with victory, are bringing in thousands of hungry, ragged, battle-weary prisoners.

The first collection of cartoons "Up Front" was published in 1945 in book form, and later republished for it's 50th Anniversary in 1995. His first collection of postwar cartoons was entitled "Back Home" and was published in 1947. These cartoons focused on the plight of the GI upon returning to the States, and the political situations that abounded.


"He thinks the food over there was swell.
He's glad to be home, but he misses the excitement of battle. You may quote him."

Mr. Mauldin became a national phenomenon for awhile. He was on the cover of Time magazine, acted in two movies in 1951 -- "The Red Badge of Courage" and "Up Front". He wrote about the war in Korea for Collier's magazine, and unsuccessfully ran as a Democratic candidate for Congress from the state of New York.

As a member of the United Feature Syndicate Mauldin's cartoons attacking racism, the Ku Klux Klan and McCarthyism appeared in newspapers all over the United States. Mauldin's cartoons were unpopular with the newspapers in small towns and he had difficulty getting them published. Disillusioned, Mauldin gave up cartooning.



He returned in 1958 and found a home with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 1958. He proceeded to win his second Pulitzer prize the following year. In this prize winning cartoon, Mauldin was commenting on the plight of Soviet author Boris Pasternak. One prisoner in a Siberian camp says to another, "I won the Nobel Prize for literature. What was your crime?"



The year 1962 found Mauldin working for the Chicago Sun-Times. While there, one of his best-known cartoons was created. After the assassination of President John F. Kennedy this cartoon (showing Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial, with his hands covering his face) was published.



During his career Mauldin wrote and illustrated more than twelve books. This included Up Front (1945), Back Home (1947), Mud and Guts (1978), Hurray for B.C. (1979), Bill Mauldin's Army (1983) and Let's Declare Ourselves Winners and Get the Hell Out (1985).

On Wednesday, January 22, 2003 Bill Mauldin died of complications from Alzheimer's disease, including pneumonia, at a Newport Beach nursing home, said Andy Mauldin, 54, of Santa Fe, New Mexico, one of the cartoonist's seven sons.

"It's really good that he's not suffering anymore," he said. "He had a terrible struggle." He was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery. Section 64, Grave 6974. Accordingly, he is now at rest among his beloved GI's.

For many years on Veteran's Day, Charles Schulz, the "Peanuts" creator, had Snoopy dress in his old uniform and go over to Bill Mauldin's house to reminisce and quaff a few root beers. Symbolically, this was a tribute to all veterans, their sacrifice, their loss of innocence. Snoopy would become sentimental and sometimes end up in tears. It was also a tribute to Mauldin and his importance to the G. I.s of World War II. Schulz himself had been a machine gunner in Europe. Mauldin didn't romanticize war. His was a war of rain and mud, hunger and stupidity, arrogance and ignorance, and Willie and Joe did their best to just keep going.

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FReeper Foxhole Armed Services Links

[snippy_about_it]

Bill Maudlin, Up Front (1945)


"... forever, Amen. Hit the dirt."

The surest way to become a pacifist is to join the infantry. I don't make the infantryman look noble, because he couldn't look noble even if he tried. Still there is a certain nobility and dignity in combat soldiers and medical aid men with dirt in their ears. They are rough and their language gets coarse because they live a life stripped of convention and niceties.


"Th' hell this ain't th' most important hole in th' world. I'm in it."

Their nobility and dignity come from the way they live unselfishly and risk their lives to help each other. They are normal people who have been put where they are, and whose actions and feelings have been molded by their circumstances. There are gentlemen and boors; intelligent ones and stupid ones; talented ones and inefficient ones.


"Joe, yestiddy ya saved my life an' I swore I'd pay ya back. Here's my last pair of dry socks."

But when they are all together and they are fighting, despite their bitching and griping and goldbricking and mortal fear, they are facing cold steel and screaming lead and hard enemies, and they are advancing and beating the hell out of the opposition.


"I feel like a fugitive from th' law of averages."

They wish to hell they were someplace else, and they wish to hell they would get relief. They wish to hell the mud was dry and they wish to hell their coffee was hot. They want to go home. But they stay in their wet holes and fight, and then they climb out and crawl through minefields and fight some more.


"Them buttons wuz shot off when I took this town, sir."

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Today's Educational Sources and suggestions for further reading:
cnn.com
www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk
www.ww2.pstripes.osd.mil
www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/warletters

[snippy_about_it]

In recent years, as Mauldin battled Alzheimer's, thousands of veterans, widows and other well-wishers have sent him letters, offering thanks and stories of survival.

"You have managed to capture the irony, double standards and outright insanity of Army life," one man wrote, "in a way that allows us to laugh at ourselves and our leaders and keep moving forward in the face of adversity."


"I need a couple guys what don't owe me no money for a little routine patrol."
The campaign to recognize him was sparked by veteran Jay Gruenfeld, who spent years wondering what happened to the man who had made him laugh in a foxhole under fire. He sought out Mauldin and then wrote to veterans organizations and contacted newspaper columnists urging people to remember him.

TRIBUTES by cartoonists to cartoonist, BILL MAULDIN

[snippy_about_it]

[snippy_about_it]

.......FALL IN to the FReeper Foxhole!

.......Good Friday Morning Everyone!


If you would like added to our ping list let us know.

[E.G.C.]

Good morning, Snippy and everyone at the Freeper Foxhole.

Folks, be sure to plan accordingly regarding your computers as there is a G3 Magnetic storm forecast for tyda which could cause electricity disruptions.

[snopercod]

That post was a masterpiece. Thanks.

I've got a copy of Up Front around here someplace. I suspect it's a first edition.

[snippy_about_it]

Thanks EGC. I hear it should hit the Eastern Time Zone around 3 o'clock this afternoon.

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning and thank you for your generous compliment.

I may not have agreed with him politically speaking but there is no denying he was excellent at his cartooning and portraying Army life in a humorous manner.

We also are grateful for his service to our country as we are all veterans regardless of political opinions. :)

[Valin]

On This Day In History


Birthdates which occurred on October 24:
1632 Antony van Leeuwenhoek Hol, naturalist (Philosophical Transactions)
1788 Sarah Josepha Hale author (Mary Had a Little Lamb)
1882 Dame Sybil Thorndike England, actress (Saint Joan)
1890 Chicago Mainbocher uniform designer (Red Cross, Girl Scouts, Waves)
1904 Moss Hart Bronx NY, playwright (You can't Take it With You, Act 1)
1911 Clarence M Kelley FBI head
1923 Denise Levertov American poet/essayist (Joy Beneath the Skin)
1925 Luciano Berio Oneglia Italy, composer (Chemins)
1926 YA Tittle AAFC, NFL QB (Baltimore, SF, NY Giants, MVP 1963)
1929 George Crumb Charleston WV, composer (Pulitzer 1968-Echoes of Time)
1929 James Brosnan baseball player/writer (The Long Season)
1936 Bill Wyman England, rocker (Rolling Stones-Under My Thumb)
1936 David Nelson NYC, actor (Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet)
1938 Fred E Finn SF Calif, pianist (Mickie Finn's)
1940 F Murray Abraham actor (Amadeus, Mad Man)
1947 Kevin Kline St Louis, actor (Sophie's Choice, Big Chill)
1951 Todd Crespi Frankfurt Germany, actor (The Magician)
1953 James di Donato twin who swam the butterfly 406 miles
1953 Jonathan di Donato twin who swam the butterfly 406 miles
1972 Louis Michael Anthony Sassin Boston, rocker (4 Fun-Unbelievable Fun)

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Deaths which occurred on October 24:
0996 Hugo Capet, king of France (987-96), dies at 58
1537 Jane Seymour 3rd wife of Henry VIII, dies
1601 Tycho Brahe astronomer, dies in Prague at 54
1655 Pierre Gassendi French philosopher, dies at 63
1945 Vidkun Quisling, Norwegian Min of Defense/PM (1942-45), executed at 58
1957 Christian Dior French designer, dies at 52 in Italy
1961 Dr Milan Stoyadinovich Fascist Yugoslavia PM (1935-9), dies at 73
1963 Beverly Wills actress (Beverly-I Married Joan), dies at 29
1971 Chuck Hughes Detroit Lion collapses during game & later, dies
1972 Jackie Robinson dies at 53
1973 Allan "Rocky" Lane actor (voice of Mr Ed, Red Ryder), dies at 72
1975 Ismail Erez Turkish ambassador killed by car bomb in Paris
1981 Deborah Baltzell actress (Karen-I'm a Big Girl Now), dies at 25
1982 James Philbrook actor (Islanders, Investigators), dies at 58
1983 Jessica Savitch news anchor (NBC-TV), dies at 35
1984 Edith Massey actress, dies at 66
1984 Walter Woolf King actor/TV host (Lights Cameras Action), dies at 85
1987 Constantin Alajalov Russian artist, dies at 86
1991 Gene Roddenberry Star Trek creator, dies of a heart attack at 70
1994 Raul Julia, actor (Addams Family), dies of stroke at 54

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Reported: MISSING in ACTION

1964 WOODS LAWRENCE---CLARKSVILLE TN.
1967 CLARK RICHARD C.---TACOMA WA. GOOD CHUTE
1967 FRISHMANN ROBERT F.---SAN FRANCISCO CA.
[08/05/69 RELEASED]
1967 GILLESPIE CHARLES R.---MERIDIAN MS.
[03/14/73 RELEASED BY DRV, DECEASED
1967 LEWIS EARL G.---CAPE GIRARDEAU MO.
[03/14/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE IN 98]
1968 TYLER GEORGE E.---ROYAL OAK MI.
1970 HEIDEMAN THOMAS E.---CHICAGO IL.
1972 BIXEL MICHAEL SARGENT---FORT WALTON BEACH FL.

POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.

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On this day...
3963 -BC- Origin of Hevelius' Mundane Era
439 Carthage, the leading Roman city in North Africa, falls to Genseric and the Vandals.
1648 Treaty of Westphalia ended the Thirty Years' War in Europe. The war was mainly a struggle between European Protestantism and Roman Catholicism as represented by the Hapsburg monarchy and the Holy Roman Empire. France emerged from the war with the most power, and Germany was virtually devastated.
1795 3rd partition of Poland, between Austria, Prussia & Russia
1836 The match is patented
1851 William Lassell discovers Ariel & Umbriel, satellites of Uranus
1856 Constitution of South Australia adopted
1857 World's 1st soccer club, Sheffield F.C., founded in England
1861 West Virginia secedes from Virginia
1861 1st transcontinental telegram sent ending the Pony Express
1871 Mob in LA hangs 18 Chinese
1889 Softball rules adopted by Mid Winter Indoor Baseball League
1901 First Barrel Ride down Niagara Falls when Annie Edson Taylor initiates a famous stunt when she goes over Niagara Falls in a wooden barrel
1903 1st trotter to run a mile under 2 minutes (Lou Dillon 1:58.1)
1903 George Sutton becomes billiard champ
1911 Robert Scott's expedition leaves Cape Evans for South Pole
1916 Henry Ford awards equal pay to women.
1929 "Black Thursday," start of stock market crash, Dow Jones down 12.8%. Nearly 13 million shares traded hands and stock prices plummeted. Many stocks recovered late in the afternoon, but the stage had been set for the October 29th stock market crash -- and the beginning of the Great Depression.
1931 Al (Alphonse) Capone, the prohibition-era Chicago gangster, is sent to prison for tax evasion.
1931 George Washington Bridge connecting NY to NJ opens
1935 Italy invades Ethiopia
1939 Benny Goodman records "Let's Dance"
1939 Nylon stockings go on sale for 1st time (Wilmington Delaware)
1940 40 hour work week goes into effect (Fair Labor Standards of 1938)
1940 Japan eliminates US terms (strike, play ball) from baseball
1943 Anti-nazi Clandestine Radio Soldatsender Calais begins transmitting
1945 United Nations Charter becomes effective
1947 Series of forest fires burn $30 million of timber (New England States)
1948 Bernard Baruch, presidential advisor, stated, "Although the war is over, we are the midst of a cold war which is getting warmer." The term 'Cold War' was coined.
1951 United Nations publishes its 1st postage stamps
1952 Presidential candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that if elected, he will go to Korea.
1952 Arab Liberation Movement becomes the only party of Syria
1956 Soviet troops invade Hungary
1960 Disaster on USSR launch pad, kills missile expert Nedelin & team (unconfirmed); USSR claims he was killed in plane crash
1964 Zambia (N Rhodesia) gains independence from Britain (National Day)
1968 Mick Jagger & Marianne Faithful busted for pot, released on œ50 bail
1970 Nancy Walker creates Ida Morgenstein role on Mary Tyler Moore Show
1970 Salvador Allende Gossens elected president of Chile
1971 Harry Drake sets longest arrow flight by a footbow (1 mile 268 yds)
1971 Texas Stadium opens-Cowboys beat Patriots 44-21
1973 Heavy fog causes 65 car collision killing 9 on NJ Turnpike
1973 John Lennon sues US govt to admit the FBI is tapping his phone
1973 Yom Kippur War ends, Israel 65 miles from Cairo, 26 from Damascus
1974 Billy Martin named AL Manager of the Year (Texas Rangers)
1976 1st Jewish film & TV festival
1978 NHL Toronto Maple Leafs set own team record of 28 pts vs NY Islanders
1979 Billy Martin punches a marshmallow salesman, puts job in jeopardy
1979 Guinness Book of Records presents Paul McCartney with a rhodium disc
1980 John Lennon releases "(Just Like) Starting Over" in UK
1980 Polish government legalizes independent labor union Solidarity
1984 11 members of the Colombo crime family arrested
1984 Intelsat 5 re-enters Earth's atmosphere 5 months after it failed
1984 Steffi Graf plays her 1st pro tennis match
1987 Bork's supreme court nomination rejected by senate
1987 NBC technicians accept pact, end 118 day strike
1988 NY Islander's & NHL high scorer, Mike Bossy retires
1988 Traveling Wilburys Volume One is released
1988 Typhoon Ruby sinks Philippine ferry; hundreds drown
1989 After a week's delay due to earthquake, World Series game 3 is played (World Series #86)
1989 Rev Jim Bakker is sentenced to 50 years for fraud

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Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

World, UN : United Nations Day/D¡a de las Naciones Unidas
Zambia : Independence Day (1964)
US : Mother-in-Law's Day (Sunday)
US some states : Veterans Day (Monday)
US : Francis E Willard Day-temperance day (Friday)

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Religious Observances
Old Catholic : Feast of St Raphael the Archangel, patron of travelers
RC : Memorial of Antony Mary Claret, bishop (opt)
Jewish : Simchat Torah-day of rejoicing

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Religious History
1260 Under Pope Alexander IV, Chartres Cathedral in France was consecrated. Completed in less than 30 years, the structure represents high Gothic architecture at its purest.
1538 French reformer John Calvin wrote in a letter: 'Among Christians there ought to be so great a dislike of schism, as that they may always avoid it so far as lies in their power.'
1790 English founder of Methodism John Wesley, 87, made the last entry in his 55-year-long journal, written after preaching a sermon: 'I hope many even then resolved to choose the better part.' (Wesley died the following March.)
1911 Missionary widow Aimee Elizabeth Kennedy Semple, 21, married Harold Stewart McPherson, also 21. Afterward, Aimee Semple McPherson went on to establish the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel in 1918. (She and Harold would divorce in 1921).
1956 In Syracuse, New York, Margaret Ellen Towner became the first woman ordained in the Presbyterian Church.

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

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Thought for the day :
"Madness takes its toll. Please have exact change."

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You might be a bad cook if...
those annoying pest control companies keep pestering you, wanting to buy and patent your recipe for candy christmas cookies.

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Murphys Law of the day...(Liebling's Law)
If you just try long enough and hard enough, you can always manage to boot yourself in the posterior

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Astounding fact #47,812...
Most Americans' car horns beep in the key of F.

[Hurtgen]

Outstanding tribute. He and Ernie Pyle best represented the Dog Face of World War II. They both put into perspective what the common soldier experienced.

To the everlasting glory of the Infantry.

Deeds, not words.

[snopercod]

Another great mystery: In any cookbook, why are all the good recipies found on pages 170 something or 270 something?

[Soaring Feather]

Good morning snippy, SAM, everyone!!!!

FR running a tad slow??

[snippy_about_it]

FR running a tad slow??

That's an understatement. Arrgghh! I don't know if my posts or FReepmail are getting through so I apologize in advance for any duplicate posts or mail to all y'all!!!

[SAMWolf]

Good morning Snippy. I read Mauldin's cartoons in the Chicago Sun-Times when I was growing up and read both "Up Front" and "The Brass Ring".

Thanks for including my favorite Mauldin Cartoon.



Mauldin got co-star billing with Audie Murphy in "The Red Badge of Courage"

[snippy_about_it]

Your welcome SAM.

So what kind of connections do you have. I struggle with FR all morning, you wake up and you manage to get right in. LOL!!

[Johnny Gage]

Good Morning. What a great thread.

Thank God it's Friday!

[snippy_about_it]

Thank you Hurtgen for the compliment on today's thread.

I also want to take this time to thank you for your 30 years of service to our country in the US Army.

And here you are still giving by authoring such excellent military history.

Thank you Command Sergeant Major (ret).

;)

(My own selfish plug for Robert S. Rush)

[HiJinx]

Absolutely fantastic tribute to a wonderful man, Ms. Snippy!
I've always known of Bill Mauldin, I'd never known as much as you brought to us this AM.

(And I think FR has finally settled down, I've tried 5 times over the last 2 hours to get this in!)

[snippy_about_it]

Thank you jinxy. What a frustrating morning here at FR.

Glad you made it in, and me too!