Bill Mauldin had a Willie and Joe cartoon that showed the two relaxing, unkempt as usual, by a building with a sign that said "Rest Camp." Standing over them was a burly spitshined MP with a holstered .45 who was wearing jump boots. The caption was, "We call 'em Garritroopers." In appreciation some Airborne guys sent Mauldin a pair of jump boots but he never wore them because he felt he hadn't earned the right to.
Last edited by Pete; 05-12-2011 at 05:21 PM.
There were actually a series of Garritrooper cartoons, and he talks about them a bit in "Up Front" as well.Originally Posted by Pete
"On the plains and mountains of the American West, the United States Army had once learned everything there was to learn about hit-and-run tactics and guerrilla warfare."
T.R. Fehrenbach This Kind of War
In around 1985 the Beetle Baily comic had Old Sarge saying, "I'll be darned. The 97th Infantry Division is having a reunion." My Dad, then a Washington Post local news columnist, was a 97th ID combat vet. He phoned the cartoonist, Mort Walker, and asked him about the reference to the 97th. Walker said had been an enlisted guy in the 97th until he entered OCS. After being commissioned he commanded a POW compound in Italy in '45. Dad wrote a warm column about it at a time when DoD and the Reagan administration regarded the Post as an arch-enemy. Political allegiances and loyalties are not always as simple as they seem. As a career newspaperman Dad may have met Mauldin; he introduced me to the Post's Herblock on two occasions when I was a kid.
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