10 Years, Fallujah, then and now

Posted on November 10, 2014November 10, 2014 by Denise Simon

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. – It has been a decade since Marines fought for their lives — and their brothers-in-arms — in Iraq’s bloodiest battles, which would spark a turning point in the eight-year war.

Nearly 100 Americans, mostly Marines, would die in the battles of Fallujah during some of the toughest fights in the campaign. Fallujah secured its place in Marine Corps heritage, alongside battles fought during the same era, like that in Sangin, Afghanistan, as well as those of past wars, like Iwo Jima and Tarawa.

WEBCAST: Commemoration of the Second Battle of Fallujah, Operation AL FAJR

On Sept. 14, 2004, Maj. Gen. Larry Nicholson, then a colonel, was medevaced from the city that had become an al-Qaida stronghold after he was wounded in a rocket attack the day after taking command of 1st Marine Regiment. Back stateside, Nicholson recovered at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland, as Operation Al-Fajr, a door-to-door fight in Fallujah, kicked off on Nov. 7.

Within months, Nicholson was back in Iraq, seeing the last moments of the operation and how the city would change for years to come.

“I think Fallujah will always be remembered as that gritty, hard fought, room by room, house-by-house battle where our Marines and soldiers prevailed,” Nicholson told Marine Corps Times. “It will always be synonymous with an urban fight where small unit leaders won the fight.”

It was Marines and soldiers fighting block-by-block, street-by-street, kicking in doors during the most intense urban warfare the Corps waged since the battle of Hue City in Vietnam in 1968.

Nicholson, now the commanding general of 1st Marine Division, planned a reunion and commemoration here for Marines who fought in the deadly battles in Fallujah. He shared his thoughts about the battles during an interview here on Nov. 5. Excerpts, edited for space and clarity:

Q. What made the battles of Fallujah important, and why will they be studied by recruits and senior officers?

A. I think it was really a turning point in the war there in the sense that no matter what we were trying to do, the largest city in Anbar province was occupied by al-Qaida, including Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. There was no Iraqi government, no police — this was a terrorist stronghold. By the time of the battle, a city of normally 400,000 people was just 10 percent of that, determined to be the elderly, the infirm and the enemy.

It was very challenging for Marines going house to house to house to identify who was left. And of course, many were abandoned, and when you hit a house where the enemy was well-entrenched and well-supplied, there were some incredible fights.

Q. What sorts of changes did you start to see?

A. After the city was cleared, it really began the awakening. Giving that city back to the Iraqi people was critically important. It facilitated elections in Fallujah, and also in Ramadi and all over Anbar province.

When we came back with the 5th Marine Regiment in 2006, we started to see a lot of dramatic change in terms of Iraqis taking responsibility for their own security. We started to see Iraqi tribal leaders turning against al-Qaida.

That really hit full throttle in late 2007. The Sons of Iraq was exploding all over Anbar, all over Iraq. By 2009, it was relatively quiet, and we left and turned Fallujah over to the armed forces of Iraq. None of that would have been possible without taking Fallujah away from the enemy.

Q. What are some of the major accomplishments that stand out when you remember Fallujah?

A. Lance Cpl. Chris Adlesperger’s Navy Cross citation is one I’m very familiar with, having known his family. He’s one of eight Navy Crosses Marines earned in Fallujah, and what that young Marine did was so far above and beyond any reasonable expectation and is what helped characterize this as an iconic battle. And I’m a beneficiary of it still today.

When I talk about Marines about Fallujah, I think about the individual actions. There weren’t great formations of battalions or companies or platoons. We were down to squads and fire teams. The amount of trust and confidence and responsibility put on young lance corporals and corporals was phenomenal. And they answered the bell every time.

When I think of Fallujah, It’s not the generals and the colonels. Our job, I think as leaders, is to man, train and equip our young Marines to make them successful in the fight. And if ever there was a validation of that, it occurred in Fallujah, where young lance corporals and corporals and sergeants were leading fire teams and squads and doing incredibly heroic things. That’s what won that battle.

Q. You were wounded right after you took over as head of 1st Marine Regiment. What was this like for you, following the battle as you recovered in Bethesda?

A. What a mix of emotions. For me, I went from being very angry I wasn’t there to feeling guilty. But you’re immensely proud as you’re watching and you’re glued to this thing. And you’re watching what’s occurring and you’re hearing from old friends and teammates and you’re incredibly proud of what your team is accomplishing, even if you can’t be a part of it.

And that’s not unique to me. Even tremendously, egregiously wounded Marines laying in a bed at hospital without a limb will say, “Sir, I want to get back in the fight.” And I’d say, “OK, OK, I get that. But let’s take care of you for awhile.”

All of us — Marines, sailors, soldiers — we build teams, we train as teams, we deploy as teams and we fight as teams. When you can no longer be part of that team, it’s tough, no question.

Q. You also have two sons who were deploying. How did your family take your return to Fallujah?

A. My oldest son was in Fallujah during my second tour, and my youngest son was in Afghanistan during my tour there. I served in combat with both of my sons.

It’s really much harder for my wife. She knew what I did for a living when she married me, but I don’t think she knew a part of that deal was that my sons would be deploying to combat as well. They’re both home now, and I know she’s very pleased. From 2004 to 2013, either I or one of my sons was deployed for seven of those nine years.

Q. When you went back, could you tell Fallujah was going to be so pivotal?

A. We knew early on. Of course, there were two battles — there was one in April that didn’t end the way we wanted. We knew that there was only one way we were going to dissolve what was happening there, and we were going to have to come in and take this city piece by piece.

Q. Just five years later, the Islamic State group is seizing portions of Anbar province. What do you say to Marines who are wondering whether the fight there was worth it?

A. We did our job and we did it well, despite what’s going on there today, or in the past or in the future — there’s not much we can do about that. While we were there, we did our job and we did it very well and at a hell of a cost.

I think this was one of those iconic and epic Corps battles; we knew exactly what we had to do. There was no ambiguity in terms of our mission. Our mission was to kill, capture and eject the enemy from Fallujah, and that was accomplished.

——

AFGHANISTAN – Every Nov. 8, Chaplain Ric Brown posts a photo and bio to his Facebook timeline of his friend, Command Sgt. Maj. Steven Faulkenburg.

This year will mark 10 years since he died.

It was during the opening hours of Operation Phantom Fury, the military name for the Second Battle of Fallujah, which commenced on November 7, 2004. Faulkenburg was at the head of a group of Iraqi soldiers, whom he led into an intense urban battle like they were his brothers. They were among the first to engage the enemy in their stronghold.

“The insurgents catch them cold. Buildings on both sides erupt with muzzle flashes… it is the first major firefight of the battle.” (From House to House: An Epic Memoir of War)

It is strange to think how quickly a decade has passed since that battle. What was once so emblematic now seems like a curious footnote.

The Islamic State has control of the city that Americans bled so mightily to secure. In a little over ten years, then, Fallujah has gone from Baathist control, to nominal coalition forces, to Iraqi security forces, to a foreign insurgency, back to Americans, to the Iraqi government, and now to a Sunni-led terrorist quasi-state.

As The United States quietly exits the war stage in Afghanistan, Soldiers and those who support them would do well to remember the ferocity and commotion in Iraq a decade ago. 2004 was the second calendar year of Iraqi Freedom. Troops were pouring into the country to quell a growing insurgency after the U.S. had toppled the government and dismantled its military.

Chaplain Brown was one of those nearly 100,000 troops.

I met him in May of this year. He was serving as the 4th Infantry Division chaplain as that unit prepared to leave Afghanistan. I was just arriving in Kandahar with my unit, and we were attached to the 4th ID. Brown was my chaplain.

At the time I was immersed House to House: An Epic Memoir of War, in an effort to acquaint myself with a chapter of American military history that was too quickly being forgotten.

Its author, Staff Sgt. David Bellavia, also knew Faulkenburg, counting him more a father figure than a friend. Bellavia was an infantryman whose prose matches the tempo and efficiency his military occupation demanded.

“A bullet strikes Faulkenburg just above his right eyebrow, a millimeter below the rim of his Kevlar helmet. He falls. The fight rages. Inspired by his examples, the Iraqis charge on and drive the enemy back. Others risk their lives as they dash to Faulkenburg’s aid. Our sergeant major lies unmoving in the street.” (From House to House: An Epic Memoir of War)

It is a harrowing account of what was probably the most ferocious battle in over a generation of Americans fighting. A character in his tale is his chaplain-the same one I had just met in Kandahar.

“Sergeant Bellavia,” said Brown one evening before the battle, “would you like to pray with me?”

Bellavia, a squad leader with Alpha Co., 2nd Bn, 2nd Infantry Reg., “Ramrods,” participated in some of the most hellish combat of the battle. He writes reverentially of Brown, whose calm and earnestness underscored the violence and chaos about to be unleashed on the men of 2-2.

“Lord, give this young man the strength and wisdom to protect his soldiers. Give him the courage and conviction to deliver them from the unknown. Give him the faith and guidance to know your path, Lord. Give him the perseverance to stay on it.” (From House to House: An Epic Memoir of War)

As I passed by the chaplain one day in southern Afghanistan a decade later, I asked him, “Did you serve in Iraq in 2004?”

“Yes,” he said with a smile. (Chaplain Brown almost always wears a smile).

“Were you featured in a book about your service in Iraq in 2004?”

“Come talk to me about it sometime,” he replied, knowingly, his smile growing.

So I did.

We sat for about an hour and chatted. It was not long enough for me to satisfy my curiosity about the Battle of Fallujah, and not long enough for him to do his experiences-or his fallen friends-justice.

He described, in spiritual terms, what Bellavia wrote about in House to House.

The story needed an inject of something good. According to Bellavia, Fallujah was hell. Empirically, it was the bloodiest urban battle since Vietnam. But you wouldn’t know that from talking with Brown, who seemed as comfortable as a little old lady in one of his stateside church services.

Brown was on the front as the task force prepared to breach the outer berms guarding the city. He took indirect fire in his soft-side Humvee, but made sure, according to his own recollection and that of Bellavia, to check on Soldiers under his pastorship.

“I went from vehicle to vehicle so I did the same thing when we got staged that day. Talking, praying, heading in one direction and then the mortars started coming in in like they were targeting me. My assistant yells, ‘mortars!’ ‘I know! but we gotta go check on these people,’ I reply. Besides, the safest place to be is where the mortar just hit, so we checked on one side and head to the other side of the perimeter. By this time the company commander says he wants everyone in the vehicles. But I’ve got a canvas top. Just then, a mortar round did hit close to one of my guys, so we had to go check on him.”

What motivates a Soldier like Brown to walk around in defiance of the enemy’s indiscriminate firepower?

“I like what Stonewall Jackson said,” he told me. “My religious beliefs teach me to feel as safe in battle as in bed.” Essentially, that’s the way I live my life. I try not to take unnecessary risks, but there are some risks that are worth taking. Being where your boys are, being in the thick of it… there is no way I was going to miss being in Fallujah. I was not fearful.”

Bellavia can’t make the same claim; he readily admits to the fear that taunted him in fits throughout the operation. His account of the battle is gritty and honest. But he was there to kill, while Brown was there to help young men like Bellavia find strength to complete their awful task, and to help remember those whose missions were cut short.

Today marks exactly ten years since Brown, Bellavia, Faulkenburg, the Ramrods, Task Force 2-2, and the rest of the Marines-led warriors that were part of Phantom Fury began amassing themselves on the outskirts of a city that would soon be awash in blood and brass.

And Chaplain Ric Brown will be posting more memorial photos to his Facebook timeline of some of those Soldiers who gave their lives a decade ago.

Testimony Confirms Obamacare Lies

Posted on November 10, 2014November 10, 2014 by Denise Simon

As Jonathan Gruber will tell you, the MIT economist helped to write ObamaCare and remains one of its fiercest defenders. So it’s no surprise that on Friday the Web was full of chatter that Mr. Gruber had at least twice made public assertions that support the latest legal challenge to the health law.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week in Halbig v. Burwell that the plain language of ObamaCare says that subsidies for health insurance can only be delivered through state, not federal, exchanges. The Administration claims this ignores the clear intent of the law, but someone didn’t tell Mr. Gruber.

Now this case takes us to present day Congressional testimony where the esteemed MIT professor tells us they were able to sell Obamacare because of lack of transparency and mostly because America is stupid. Wait until the Supreme Court receives this testimony….or not.

We are stupid, we have been played and punked by the Obama administration on Obamacare and is thousands of cases it was a deadly position to be in.

Obamacare Architect: “Lack of Transparency” Helped Law Pass

The esteemed college professor who served as one of Obamacare’s key architects has admitted that a “lack of transparency” helped the administration pass the disastrous healthcare law, which is facing a number of legal challenges.

It’s a scandalous confession for an administration that has repeatedly vowed to be the most transparent in history. The information comes straight from Jonathan Gruber, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) economist who served as a technical consultant to the Obama administration during the Affordable Care Act’s (Obamacare) design. Gruber was recorded during a panel and the video recently surfaced and has been making the rounds on the internet.

“This bill was written in a tortured way to make sure CBO did not score the mandate as taxes,” Gruber says. “If CBO scored the mandate as taxes, the bill dies. Okay, so it’s written to do that. In terms of risk rated subsidies, if you had a law which said that healthy people are going to pay in – you made explicit healthy people pay in and sick people get money, it would not have passed… Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage. And basically, call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever, but basically that was really really critical for the thing to pass…”

Gruber also makes clear that the individual mandate, upheld by the Supreme Court only because it’s considered a tax, was not actually a tax in the original law because it never would have passed. The Obamacare designer is essentially saying that the administration intentionally deceived the public to push its hostile takeover of the nation’s healthcare system. “Look, I wish Mark was right that we could make it all transparent, but I’d rather have this law than not,” Gruber says in the recorded presentation.

The Gruber tape marks the latest of many scandals involving Obamacare. Judicial Watch has been a frontrunner in exposing the healthcare law’s multiple boondoggles and has sued the administration on behalf of a South Florida orthodontist over the unlawful, one-year delay of the employer mandate. The mandate, which subjects certain large employers to tax penalties if they don’t offer “affordable, minimum essential” health insurance coverage to their employees, was postponed without the approval of Congress. It marked one of more than a dozen times that the administration unilaterally rewrote the healthcare law by executive fiat.

JW also sued the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to obtain records about controversial Obamacare navigators and their qualifications and background checks. Earlier this year JW obtained records from HHS illustrating the scope of the Obamacare rollout disaster, including the fact that on its first full day of operation the government site—Healthcare.gov—received only one enrollment. On the second day of Healthcare.gov operation, 48% of registrations failed, according to the records obtained by JW as a result of a lawsuit.

No Place Safe from CyberTerror

Posted on November 10, 2014November 10, 2014 by Denise Simon

Cant shop at Target. Cant use your plastic at restaurants. Cant use hotspots for internet access. Cant buy medical coverage from Obamacare. Now if you are an employee at many companies your information is compromised. Now, the United States Post Office has been hacked and signs continue to point to China while Russia is just as aggressive.

Postal Service reveals cyber breach

By Colby Hochmuth
Nov 10, 2014

The Postal Service suffered a cybersecurity breach of its information systems and has launched an investigation into the attack that potentially compromised employee and customer personal information, including addresses, Social Security numbers and emails.

The Nov. 10 announcement of the attack, which was discovered in September, comes little more than a week after the White House reported it too had been the victim of hacking.

As in the White House breach, suspicion immediately fell on China, where President Barack Obama is now attending an economic summit and visiting with President Xi Jinping.

“This intrusion was similar to attacks being reported by many other federal government entities and U.S. corporations,” David Partenheimer, manager of media relations at USPS, said in a statement. “We are not aware of any evidence that any of the potentially compromised customer or employee information has been used to engage in any malicious activity.”

12 other key federal breaches

But a private sector analyst suggested employees should be on the lookout, nonetheless.

“Unfortunately, this breach is just the latest in a series of incidents that have targeted the U.S. government,” said Dan Waddell, director of government affairs at (ISC)2. “It seems this particular incident revealed information on individuals that could lead to targeted spear-phishing attacks towards USPS employees.”

“All of us need to be aware of potential phishing schemes,” Waddell added, “but in this particular case, USPS employees should be on the lookout for any suspicious email that would serve as a mechanism to extract additional information such as USPS intellectual property, credit card information and other types of sensitive data.”

Call center data submitted to the Postal Service Customer Care Center by customers via email or phone between Jan. 1 and Aug. 16, 2014, is thought to be compromised; that includes names, addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses and other information customers provided to the center. However, USPS officials said they do not believe customers who contacted the call center during that period need to take any action as a result of the incident.

USPS is working with the FBI, Justice Department and the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team to investigate the breach.

USPS is also tapping the private sector and bringing in specialists in forensic investigations and data systems “to assist with the investigation and remediation to ensure that we are approaching this event in a comprehensive way, understanding the full implications of the cyber intrusion and putting in place safeguards designed to strengthen our systems,” according to an agency statement.

According to an April 2014 USPS Inspector General audit on the security of USPS’s wireless networks, “the Postal Service has effective security policies and controls that detect unauthorized access to its wireless network.”

The audit also found that USPS has continuous monitoring technology and procedures to ensure security of the wireless network in place, and that larger USPS facilities have dedicated access points configured for wireless intrusion detection.

As for the security of USPS’s stored data, the OIG found several weak spots in a March 2014 report.

“The Data Management Services group did not manage the storage environment in accordance with Postal Service security requirements because its managers did not provide adequate oversight of the storage teams,” the report said.

In the first half of 2014, more than 500 million commercial records have been compromised by hackers, and “this represents another example of the aggressive nature of nation-state adversaries looking for personally identifiable information for potential phishing attacks and other types of fraud — an area where information can be easily monetized,” said Edward Ferrara, principal analyst at Forrester. “This could also be an attempt to further probe aspects of the United States government’s cyber defenses in the unclassified areas of government operations.”

USPS has implemented additional security measures to improve the security of its information systems, which attracted attention this weekend, as some of USPS’s systems went offline. According to USPS, these additional security measures include equipment and system upgrades, as well as changes in employee procedures and policies to be rolled out in the coming days and weeks.

“It is an unfortunate fact of life these days that every organization connected to the Internet is a constant target for cyber intrusion activity,” Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said in a statement. “The United States Postal Service is no different. Fortunately, we have seen no evidence of malicious use of the compromised data and we are taking steps to help our employees protect against any potential misuse of their data.”

About the Author:

Colby Hochmuth is a staff writer covering big data, cloud computing and the federal workforce. Connect with her on Twitter: @ColbyAnn.

Asia Pivot, Made in China

Posted on November 10, 2014November 10, 2014 by Denise Simon

The last visit Barack Obama made to China did not go well such that relations have soured on the diplomatic scale. The visit to China this week consumed huge resources to lay the groundwork in advance of the trip for the 2014 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation. Susan Rice spent the last weeks challenging the fact that China was so slighted during the 2009 extended trip that China has refused since to extend visas and temporary housing permits of Americans in China on business and with media.

First out of the gate, Obama delivered a most generous gift to China and that was to open a new front on visas for Chinese, from one year renewals to 5-10 years effective immediately claiming it will add to American jobs as it is touted that China infuses $80 billion yearly into the U.S economy. $80 billion is hardly a great sum or epic deal when in fact the Chinese hacking world costs the U.S. corporate industry billions and is a top concern of James Comey, Director of the FBI.

It should also be noted that Russia has been quite effective at cultivating a sustained relationship with China while China’s own economy has almost zero growth and their debt ratio to revenue ratio is stagnant cancelling out each other.

China has presented many issues that must be addressed prior to all the enhanced trade talks and global policy cooperation. China has been most aggressive towards yet other U.S. allies in Asia causing outrage and conflict in the S. China sea with regard to island and territory disputes. There is also censorship within the internet industry and continued human rights issues, both of which the White House and the State Department overlook for the sake of placing a happy face on Obama’s foreign policy strategy.

China does have issues when it comes to its own infrastructure including transportation, medical advancements, factories, power and use of energy sources like oil and gas. Each of those conditions facing China are being addressed in partnership with Russia.

Obama will also use his time in China to push for more attention and resources when it comes to Climate Change, an exclusively assigned mission given to John Podesta and investment treaties.

A topic that will likely not receive any time and attention is the Chinese relationship with North Korea and the associated human rights violations on the heels to two Americans being released from a DPRK prison allegedly managed by ODNI Director James Clapper this past weekend.

In summary, what is really behind Obama’s policy platform in China? Well with the beating he took in the midterms, his policy team has decided to focus on the economy. Obama wants Chinese money and he offered a visa pass to get their money. Going visa free in exchange for money is the common ‘go-to’ agenda of the Obama Administration. Question is, exactly who DOES benefit from the $80 billion of Chinese investment where winners and losers are predetermined by the White House.

Rich Chinese overwhelm U.S. visa program

Any foreigner willing to commit at least $500,000 and create 10 jobs in America can apply for an investor immigrant visa — also known as an EB-5.

The demand from mainland Chinese eager to move abroad has already led the U.S. government to warn the program could hit a wall as early as this summer.

Chinese nationals account for more than 80% of visas issued, compared to just 13% a decade ago, according to government data compiled by CNNMoney. That translates to nearly 6,900 visas for Chinese nationals last year, a massive bump up from 2004, when only 16 visas were granted to Chinese.

“The program has literally taken off to the point [that] in China, the minute anybody hears I’m an immigration lawyer, the first thing they say is, ‘Can we get an EB-5 visa?’ ” said Bernard Wolfsdorf, founder of the Wolfsdorf Immigration Law Group.

“There is a panic being created in China about the demand [getting] so big that there is going to be a visa waiting line,” he said.

Mauldin’s Cartoons for Veteran’s Day

Posted on November 10, 2014November 10, 2014 by Denise Simon

He 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-stubble infantrymen Willie and Joe were the voice of truth about what it was like on the front lines.

Mauldin was an enlisted man just like the soldiers for whom he drew; his gripes were their gripes, his laughs their laughs, his heartaches their heartaches. He was one of them. They loved him. 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! “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. Not quite. Mauldin, it turned out, had an ardent fan: Five-star Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, SCAFE, Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe. Ike put out the word: “Mauldin draws what Mauldin wants.” Mauldin won. Patton lost. 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 had accomplished:+ “By the way, wot wuz them changes you wuz gonna make when you took over last month, sir?” He won the Pulitzer Prize & was on the cover of Time magazine. His book “Up Front” was the No. 1 best-seller in the United States. 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. 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. 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. “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.” 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.” “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. 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. And there, to the side, drawing them and smiling that shy, quietly observant smile, is Mauldin himself. With his buddies, right where he belongs. Forever.

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.

With this stamp, the U.S. Postal Service honors Bill Mauldin, one of America’s favorite cartoonists. During World War II, military readers got a knowing laugh from Mauldin’s characters Willie and Joe, who gave their civilian audience an idea of what life was like for soldiers. After the war, Mauldin became a popular and influential editorial cartoonist.

U.S. Postal Service art director Terry McCaffrey chose to honor Mauldin through a combination of photography and an example of Mauldin’s art. The photo of Bill Mauldin is by John Phillips, a photographer for Life magazine; it was taken in Italy on December 31, 1943. Mauldin’s cartoon, showing his characters Willie and Joe, is used courtesy of the 45th Infantry Division Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Military People