Honoring Bill Maudlin today, a World War II soldier who created a cartoon series about two typical American infantry soldiers, Willie & Joe, on his birthday. Maudlin received two Pulitzer Prizes over his lifetime of work.

Maudlin came from a military family. His father was an artilleryman in Wolrd War I and his grandfather had been a scout in the Apache Wars. Later, Maudlin’s son served in Vietnam.

Maudlin volunteered for the 45th Infantry Division in 1940, and he worked on the division newspaper drawing cartoons about regular soldiers. He created two iconic soldiers, Willie, a Choctaw Indian, and Joe, a southerner.

Maudlin landed in Sicily in 1943 with the 45th Division and was transferred to Star & Stripes in February 1944. He earned the Legion of Merit and the Purple Heart, after getting hit in the shoulder by a German mortar at Monte Cassino. Maudlin had his own jeep, which he used to roam the battlefields for material.

Maudlin published six cartoons a week. George Patton was not a fan. The General called Mauldin an “unpatriotic anarchist” and threatened to “throw his ass in jail.” Eisenhower, however, told Patton to leave Maudlin alone.

The troops loved Maudlin’s work. It was infantry humor.

Maudlin received the Pulitzer Prize in 1945 for his body of work in the War.

After the war, Maudlin became a political cartoonist and writer. He had a civil libertarian sensibility. He received his second Pulitzer for a cartoon about the Russian novelist Boris Pasternak in a gulag, after the Soviets would not allow him to travel to Sweden to accept the Nobel Prize.

Maudlin’s most famous cartoon was one printed after JFK’s assassination.

Maudlin died in 2003 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Honor and remember this great American!