.
Bill Mauldin's stamp honors all those that fought so hard including
our most illustrious generals during WWII. His on the battle
field cartoon's brought the war home to Joe and Jane Doe America.
Our US Post office often gets a lot of criticism and perhaps it
always will (due to some employees which should have never been
hired...) but this stamp demonstrates thoughtfulness, patriotism,
and our United States Postal Service deserves new support for
creating the Bill Mauldin stamp last month.
Bill died in 2003 at the age of 81 and the end of his
life had been very difficult. He had developed Alzheimer's disease and
had been scaled in a bathtub, which led to infection and disability.
It must be realized that Mauldin's work meant much to the millions
of Americans who fought in World War II, and of course to their
relatives and to the public at large. He was just a youngster
and
yet as referenced above he became the cartoonist for our US military newspaper,
Stars and Stripes.
Bill, being an enlisted man had the same feelings, the same likes and
dislikes of the war environment as all the fighting men on the
battle field. And our fighting soldiers loved him for it.
One battle he fought defeated the only General the Nazi's could not
defeat. His cartoons of the military generals caught the eye
of and angered the greatest General of all time, General George S.
Patton, and Patton told Mauldin he wanted his cartoons to
commemorate the fighting men and not to depict the Generals in their
tasks.
Yet Bill by that time had created an incredible fan base because of his
outstanding work.
Five-star General Dwight D. Eisenhower, supreme commander of the
Allied Forces in Europe loved Bill's work. He made it
perfectly clear that "Mauldin draws what Mauldin wants" and must not be
interfered with by any of his Generals or fighting men.
Mauldin won when no Nazi could defeat our Greatest Battle Field
General, Patton.
By the time Bill Mauldin was 23 years old, he had won
incredible accolades from the establishment.
He was featured on the cover of Time magazine, his book "Up Front"
was the Number 1 best-seller in the United States and he won the
Pulitzer Prize at the tender age of 23.
the Little
Guy 
