Bill Mauldin and hot coffee

G

Gopher a 45

New member
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?
 
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.
 
Ah........ummm.....ya'll are showin' yer age. :o :D

------------------
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.
 
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

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

------------------
The New World Order has a Third Reich odor.
 
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
 
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
 
Willie and Joe staring at a tank, the caption reading: "Nah, not fer me. A moving foxhole attracts the eye."

LawDog
 
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
 
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". :)
 
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.
 
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."

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

------------------
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top