Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for July 17, 2024

Had to have been tough, the PSTD, the nightmares…

War is Hell

. . . . heh heh . . . heh heh . . . he said “hard on” . . . heh heh . . . .

Every job is important, I agree, but he doesn’t seem like an Audie Murphy type anyway…

My husband got called in for the Berlin crisis. He was the only one who knew how to type. Spent the time in an air conditioned office, while the rest ofvthe guys were marching in the Texas heat. BTW our apt didn’t have air conditioning either.

I bet Radar O’Reilly could write a better memoir than that!!

He thought he wanted to know but when he did know he wished he had not found out. He wanted to find out something worse or something better or something heroic or something cowardly; what he did not want to find out was something boring.

Typewriter ribbons were easier to deal with than ink cartridges for printers.

“You’re Stepping On My Cloak And Dagger” by Roger Hall. The author volunteered to join the OSS and managed to make it through the War without ever getting within a mile of the front lines. He was parachuted into France to help the Resistance, but landed the day after D-Day. Funny book.

In his memoir “there’s a devil in the drum” John Lucy was promoted up to a sr sgt posting in his unit in WW1, He knew exactly what men in his unit were going over the top or being sent out on patrols but couldn’t say anything.

They also served who typed and filed. Everybody went where and did what they were told.

Did he get any ribbons for being a remington ranger? Was he latter assigned to the chair born rangers?

A roommate in grad school had been drafted and sent to Vietnam. He was out on patrols during that first year, and could have served his second year stateside. But if he stayed there, he could get out six months early. He became a clerk-typist. Which was a lot better than being the radioman on patrols.

He became radioman when the Lt. said, “Where’s my physicist? You’re the radioman.”

Another guy (also a physicist) I worked with had also served in Vietnam. He was assigned to repair radios. He said most of the problems were easy to fix and turnaround time was quick. So quick that they made him pick up cigarette butts and trash in the camp. He decided that the repairs were going to take a lot more time… (This did not mean that units went without radios. There were always plenty. And plenty that needed repair.)

As another example of the stupidity of planning, the trench that he was supposed to take shelter in during shelling was between fuel tanks… He never took shelter there.

And then Bob Hope and Jerry Colonna arrived to break the monotony…

As Sherman told the folks in Atlanta, “Admin is Hell.”

My Air Force Dad made me take a typing course in high school during the Viet Nam War. He knew that, if I could type, I’d never see combat.

So he never saw the front lines. Wouldn’t have mattered anyway

Interesting they’re taking the comments section off other political cartoons. Doonesbury has always been political

There are all kinds of stories of when the HQ was over run by the enemy and the clerks, cooks, medics, mechanics and supply guys all had to fight to defend themselves.

Elite or pica models? This strip sometimes has political content. Why does it have a functioning comment section?

Huh. This is a POLITICAL CARTOON. Why is go comics not turning off comments on this one like they just did on other political cartoons?