Bill Mauldin

Bill Mauldin is a national treasure. Retired for the past 10 years, Mauldin made his living as a cartoonist, which is kind of like saying that Shakespeare made his living as a writer.

Mauldin began his studies towards a career in cartooning when he completed high school in 1939. The formal studies were cut short when the 45th Infantry Division of the National Guard was mobilized for training prior to the entry of the United States into WW II. Bill had joined the National Guard a couple of years earlier, while still in high school, like many of his friends. (At that time, the National Guard provided a ‘fresh set of clothes', and a couple of meals every month, important considerations at the end of the Depression.)

In the Fall of 1940, because of the war in Europe, the National Guard was mobilized for one year of training. Bill Mauldin went with his unit, the 45th Infantry Division, as an infantyryman.

During the year of training Bill began drawing his most famous characters, Willie and Joe. They were a couple of nondescript infantrymen who were going through the same types of training that Bill and his friends were undergoing. The same frustrations, the same dreariness, the same hopes and fears. Bill didn't have to try to ‘get into the head' of the common soldier, because he WAS one. His cartoons exposed the daily lives of America's young men preparing for war.

Not too many people saw his drawings initially, though. He was drawing them for himself and his friends until he was noticed by the Divisional newspaper. Though he became a cartoonist for the paper. It was still some time before he was noticed outside of the Division.

The 45th Division arrived in North Africa as part of Operation ‘Torch' in 1942. His work was finally noticed outside the Division and he was assigned to the staff of the Stars and Stripes. Newspaper.

Mauldin's characters changed and matured as they followed the Allies through North Africa, into Sicily and North into Italy. Though Mauldin still spent quite a bit of time with the 45th, as time went on he expanded his horizons to include other Divisions, and, indeed, other branches than the Infantry. But his focus remained on the fighting man and those soldiers who were in immediate support of them.

Willie and Joe became the voice of the common soldier. They demonstrated the resolve and the courage of the American fighting man, and showed the conditions that they lived and fought in, while maintaining their sense of humor in the face of tragedy. Though they are now over sixty years old, Willie and Joe continue to be relevant. Anyone familiar with combat arms will recognize their travails, identify with them and gain encouragement from their example.

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