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Gopher a 45
April 13, 2000, 02:45 AM
Does anyone else remeber Joe and Willie of Bill Mauldin fame? Something about the old cavalry officer putting his jeep down was mentioned on another thread and it reminded me of Mr. Mauldin. I think my favorite cartoon of his was the lowly private or corporal hunched over a steaming mess-cup of hot coffee with a couple of impatient officers scowling at him from a driverless jeep. Underneath the private are dozens and dozens of burned matches and the caption, "I ain't worth a durn in the mornin' without a hot cuppa coffee."

That's how I feel most days. :D

Anyone else have any favorite Bill Mauldin strips?

4V50 Gary
April 13, 2000, 06:00 AM
Joe or Willy turning in his M1 Garand and telling the ordnance soldier, "Please try and find her a good home."

Greg L
April 13, 2000, 06:42 AM
Joe or Willie telling a general "Get down. You're not inspiring me, you're drawing fire."

fal308
April 13, 2000, 08:44 AM
The one where one comments to each other about McArthur returning to Bataan, something along the lines of "He keeps returning".."Yeah, like a bad check"

Been a while since I've seen it so it may not be exact.

Gunslinger
April 13, 2000, 08:56 AM
Ah........ummm.....ya'll are showin' yer age. :o :D

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Gunslinger

We live in a time in which attitudes and deeds once respected as courageous and honorable are now scorned as being antiquated and subversive.

slabsides
April 13, 2000, 09:01 AM
Two favorites of mine are:
Willie standing over foxhole in which Joe is about to drop rat. cans into pot: "Drop them cans in the coffee water gentle, Joe, we got a chicken stewin' in the bottom"
And: Joe, holding M1 in one hand and bayonet in the other, looking amazed: "I'll be damned, Willie, did you know this can opener fits on the end of a rifle?"
I have a reproduction of the old sarge about to give his jeep a mercy shot, pinned over my work bench where I can get a smile out of it every day. --slabsides

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If they take our guns, I intend to let my hair grow long and acquire the jawbone of an ass.

Oatka
April 13, 2000, 09:24 AM
Jesu, as I read each one, the image popped up in my memory. I guess it isn't as shot as I thought it was.

Fighting in Italy was some of the lousiest, aided and abetted by the rotten winters.
Tattered, wet and worn Willie and Joe are in a tent during a miserable rain storm. There's a woebegone, drenched dog outside looking in. "Let him in Willie, I want to see something I can feel sorry for."

After the war, Mauldin had a fairly decent role with Audie Murphy in the Civil War movie "The Red Badge of Courage". Got a kick out of seeing a guy who was almost like family as we read EVERYTHING the guy wrote and drew.

I don't know if he's still alive, but wherever he is, I wish him well.

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The New World Order has a Third Reich odor.

sundog
April 13, 2000, 09:35 AM
If I'm not mistaken, the 45th Infantry Division Museum in Oklahoma City has a big display of Mauldin's work. Good place to visit. sundog

Art Eatman
April 13, 2000, 09:56 AM
Or Mauldin's cartoon of the "Garritrooper": (Roughly) "Far enough up to look like a soldier; far enough back to not get shot." Precursor to "REMF"...

And, Joe face down in the mud, with Willie saying, "Ya ever notice how this zipper sounds just like a 88?"

Mauldin's book "Back Home" is also a good read of another part of "how it really was".

Art

LawDog
April 13, 2000, 10:04 AM
Willie and Joe staring at a tank, the caption reading: "Nah, not fer me. A moving foxhole attracts the eye."

LawDog

DblTap
April 13, 2000, 10:44 AM
Joe or Willie in a foxhole with a German tank parked on top if it... talking on the handset of the radio....

"Able Fox, this is Able Fox 5. I gotta' target but ya gotta be patient...."

DblTap

Outlaw1
April 13, 2000, 10:48 AM
Oooooppps!

[This message has been edited by Outlaw1 (edited April 13, 2000).]

Outlaw1
April 13, 2000, 10:55 AM
I like 'em all, but one of my favorites is where they've been awakened and Willie's got his flashlight beam on a rat and Joe's fixin' to blast it with his .45, and Willie says something like "Make sure ya' get 'im right between th' eyes Joe, he might charge if he's just wounded". :)

William R. Wilburn
April 13, 2000, 01:18 PM
Shiney, new, butter-bar lieutenant admonishing a scruffy, battle-weary Bill and Joe to "Look like soldiers."

BTW. Hackworth relates and incident where a young officer attempted a display ala Willie and Joe's famous jeep euthanasia cartoon: richochete struck grandstanding officer between the eyes. The troops continued to march.

Ed Brunner
April 13, 2000, 06:25 PM
Outlaw1;

DITTO!

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Better days to be,

Ed

Jim V
April 13, 2000, 07:31 PM
Willie or Joe, can't remember which, in a Jeep fulla officers, getting shot at. Bullet holes in said Jeep and its tires. "I hate to drive on a flat, it ruins the tires."

Willie or Joe after getting shaved; "My Gawd, I'm naked."

The British "Tommy" saying to Willie and/or joe "You blokes keep a messy battle ground."

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Ne Conjuge Nobiscum
"If there be treachery, let there be jehad!"

tankertom
April 13, 2000, 08:03 PM
I think my favorite is the one with the artillery NCO with troubles with the Howitzer he is firing. He is on the field phone.

"Ordnance, Ah'm having trouble with mah shooting Ah'rn"

That and Willie and Joe ducking MG fire. "I can't get any lower, my buttons is in the way."

TT

Gopher a 45
April 14, 2000, 08:57 AM
Thanks everyone! I remember all those now. Another good one is the two in a soggy foxhole:

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

OkieGentleman
April 14, 2000, 10:25 PM
FYI The book of his cartoons -- Bill Mauldin's Army is on sale at amazon.com for about $15.00 it is about 400 pages and has just been reprinted. :D

Robert Foote
April 14, 2000, 11:05 PM
I like the cartoon of Willie and Joe, three sheets to the wind, sitting in a room cutting out paper dolls; an officer looks in and says 'I'm counting on you fellows to set a good example for the new troops.' My very small unit, all burnout cases, thought it very appropriate.

BTW, I used a copy of that 'Please find her a good home' cartoon in a wall display case with an M1.

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B24H
April 14, 2000, 11:07 PM
I remember one where Willie & Joe were about to capture a staggering, drunk German soldier who was carrying a bottle of booze..."Don't startle him Willie, he might drop it."

There was a Pulitzer Prize winner, about Willie & Joe escorting prisoners to the rear in a rainstorm, with all looking identically war-weary..."Fresh, spirited troops, flushed with victory..."

Mauldin, I believe, also drew cartoons about the Korean War.

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"Our most pressing problems...are at their core moral, not material, problems." Richard Nixon
"We should not substitute the state for the parents or the family." Lee Kwan Yew

kframe19
April 15, 2000, 02:21 AM
Willie and Joe standing behind an interrogator who is sitting at a desk, a German prisoner in front of the desk...

Interrogator says to W&J, "I'll let you know if I find the one that invented the 88."

Tamara
April 15, 2000, 06:55 AM
Willie & Joe looting the schnapps rack, prominently posted "Fur Offizieren", startled by the enlisted German guard who reassures them "Nein, nein, I would not think of interfering..."

Willie & Joe in a trench at night, playing harmonica. Willie asks Joe "The krauts ain't followin' ya too good tonight on 'Lilli Marlene'. Ya reckon sumthin' happened to their tenor?"

The odd bits of humanity that bubble to the surface and make war such a fascinating phenomenon...

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Tamara's House o' Weapons: If we can't kill it, it's immortal.
10mm: It's not the size of the Dawg in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog!