Get out your history books and open them to the chapter on World War II.
Today's lesson will cover a little known but very important hero of whom
very little was ever really known. Here is another important piece of lost
US history, which is a true example of our American Spirit.
cid:7A6E81CDA27B4F848F063804095B0AD3@Studmobile
Makes ya proud to put this stamp on your envelopes........
cid:8292869496E54823AD115A17538E519B@Studmobile
Bill Mauldin stamp honors grunt's hero. The post office gets a lot of
criticism. Always has, always will. And with the renewed push to get rid
of Saturday mail delivery, expect complaints to intensify. But the United
States Postal Service deserves a standing ovation for something that
happened last month: Bill Mauldin got his own postage stamp.
Mauldin died at age 81 in the early days of 2003. The end of his life had
been rugged. He had been scalded in a bathtub, which led to terrible
injuries and infections; Alzheimer's disease was inflicting its cruelties.
Unable to care for himself after the scalding, he became a resident of a
California nursing home, his health and spirits in rapid decline
cid:0DDE7E2E581F4FB2B941FF5833DA15F9@Studmobile
He was not forgotten, though. Mauldin, and his work, meant so much to the
millions of Americans who fought in World War II, and to those who had
waited for them to come home. He was a kid cartoonist for Stars and
Stripes, the military newspaper; Mauldin's drawings of his muddy,
exhausted, whisker-stubbled infantrymen Willie and Joe were the voice of
truth about what it was like on the front lines.
cid:8F96D911A05249E9880FEE51CD02C678@Studmobile
Mauldin was an enlisted man just like the soldiers he drew for; his gripes
were their gripes, his laughs their laughs, his heartaches their
heartaches. He was one of them. They loved him.
cid:D0C9B34CB3D7454285B51F30F41DAC9F@Studmobile
He never held back. Sometimes, when his cartoons cut too close for
comfort, superior officers tried to tone him down. In one memorable
incident, he enraged Gen. George S. Patton, who informed Mauldin he wanted
the pointed cartoons celebrating the fighting men, lampooning the
high-ranking officers to stop. Now!
cid:6DD97A7B05C04E53A64D136732DC6A7D@Studmobile
"I'm beginning to feel like a fugitive from the' law of averages."
The news passed from soldier to soldier. How was Sgt. Bill Mauldin going
to stand up to Gen. Patton? It seemed impossible.
cid:37BB5532AD964E73966CE06AD97D8C1B@Studmobile
Not quite. Mauldin, it turned out, had an ardent fan: Five-star Gen.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, supreme commander of the Allied forces in Europe .
Ike put out the word: Mauldin draws what Mauldin wants. Mauldin won.
Patton lost.
cid:4BA8AD71CFB3424A80D74F4F03DCB74F@Studmobile
If, in your line of work, you've ever considered yourself a young hotshot,
or if you've ever known anyone who has felt that way about him or herself,
the story of Mauldin's young manhood will humble you. Here is what, by the
time he was 23 years old, Mauldin accomplished:
cid:EEA7E66E2AED408598BF4DDD8282243F@Studmobile
"By the way, wot wuz them changes you wuz
Gonna make when you took over last month, sir?"
He won the Pulitzer Prize, was featured on the cover of Time magazine. His
book "Up Front" was the No. 1 best-seller in the United States .
cid:25038FF3A3E745B8A45AA21052B4D211@Studmobile
All of that at 23. Yet, when he returned to civilian life and grew older,
he never lost that boyish Mauldin grin, never outgrew his excitement about
doing his job, never big-shotted or high-hatted the people with whom he
worked every day.
cid:5F26BA8A132B4134AEDA5F25DD8E72E8@Studmobile
I was lucky enough to be one of them. Mauldin roamed the hallways of the
Chicago Sun-Times in the late 1960s and early 1970s with no more
officiousness or air of haughtiness than if he was a copyboy. That impish
look on his face remained.
He had achieved so much. He won a second Pulitzer Prize, and he should
have won a third for what may be the single greatest editorial cartoon in
the history of the craft: his deadline rendering, on the day President John
F. Kennedy was assassinated, of the statue at the Lincoln Memorial slumped
in grief, its head cradled in its hands. But he never acted as if he was
better than the people he met. He was still Mauldin, the enlisted man.
cid:4F84741A0ADD4411B523038E2FBA38F0@Studmobile
During the late summer of 2002, as Mauldin lay in that California nursing
home, some of the old World War II infantry guys caught wind of it. They
didn't want Mauldin to go out that way. They thought he should know he was
still their hero.
cid:72BED0726D98467B9CF13B9AC288A810@Studmobile
"This is the' town my pappy told me about."
Gordon Dillow, a columnist for the Orange County Register, put out the call
in Southern California for people in the area to send their best wishes to
Mauldin. I joined Dillow in the effort, helping to spread the appeal
nationally, so Bill would not feel so alone. Soon, more than 10,000 cards
and letters had arrived at Mauldin's bedside.
Better than that, old soldiers began to show up just to sit with Mauldin,
to let him know that they were there for him, as he, so long ago, had been
there for them. So many volunteered to visit Bill that there was a waiting
list. Here is how Todd DePastino, in the first paragraph of his wonderful
biography of Mauldin, described it:
"Almost every day in the summer and fall of 2002 they came to Park Superior
nursing home in Newport Beach , California , to honor Army Sergeant,
Technician Third Grade, Bill Mauldin. They came bearing relics of their
youth: medals, insignia, photographs, and carefully folded newspaper
clippings. Some wore old garrison caps. Others arrived resplendent in
uniforms over a half century old. Almost all of them wept as they filed
down the corridor like pilgrims fulfilling some long-neglected obligation."
cid:BB71D77659134824BFF44B1B898641AB@Studmobile
One of the veterans explained to me why it was so important: "You would
have to be part of a combat infantry unit to appreciate what moments of
relief Bill gave us. You had to be reading a soaking wet Stars and Stripes
in a water-filled foxhole and then see one of his cartoons."
cid:159E715364284D3AAE905BE60A167ED6@Studmobile
"Th' hell this ain't th' most important hole in the world. I'm in it."
Mauldin is buried in Arlington National Cemetery . Last month, the kid
cartoonist made it onto a first-class postage stamp. It's an honor that
most generals and admirals never receive.
cid:4A9F3ABD0E474A5D966C47D47BCC5E9B@Studmobile
What Mauldin would have loved most, I believe, is the sight of the two guys
who keep him company on that stamp. Take a look at it.
There's Willie. There's Joe.
cid:846FA79477D74919BC3278541CFEC9D1@StudmobileAnd there, to the side,
drawing them and smiling that shy, quietly observant smile, is Mauldin
himself. With his buddies, right where he belongs. Forever.
cid:B2CFA73146D944298493611B76ACE784@Studmobile
What a story, and a fitting tribute to a man and to a time that few of us
can still remember. But I say to you youngsters, you must most seriously
learn of and remember with respect the sufferings and sacrifices of your
fathers, grandfathers and great grandfathers in times you cannot ever
imagine today with all you have. But the only reason you are free to have
it all is because of them.
I thought you would all enjoy reading and seeing this bit of
American history!
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
------------------------------------
--------------------------
Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list,
[email protected].
--------------------------
Brooks Isoldi, editor
[email protected]
http://www.intellnet.org
Post message: [email protected]
Subscribe: [email protected]
Unsubscribe: [email protected]
*** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has
not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of
The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT
YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the
included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of
intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods,
techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other
intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes
only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material
as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use
this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,'
you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
For more information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtmlYahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
[email protected]
[email protected]
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[email protected]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
