Cartoonists at National Naval Medical Center
Off on another USO-sponsored trip to visit the troops in Washington, D.C.; Landstuhl, Germany; and the Persian Gulf – we have been told to keep the exact locations out of our blogs, so I’ll have to keep that information off the web for a few days. The Landstuhl portion was covered in a recent Stars and Stripes article titled, “Noted cartoonists visit wounded troops at Landstuhl.”
On the trip are some of the country’s top cartoonists: Chip Bok (syndicated editorial cartoonist); Stephan Pastis (Pearls Before Swine); Jeff Keane (Family Circus and President of the National Cartoonists Society), Garry Trudeau (Pulitzer Prize winning creator of Doonesbury), Bruce Higdon (Army cartoonist and caricaturist), Rick Kirkman (Baby Blues), Michael Ramirez (Pulitzer Prize winning editorial cartoonist for Investors Business Daily), Mike Peters (Pulitzer Prize winning creator of Mother Goose and Grimm), and Tom Richmond (MAD Magazine). I was privileged to tag along.
The National Cartoonists Society and the USO have renewed an old friendship that dates all the way back to World War II, and thanks to the support of both organizations we are able to bring a little part of home out to our wonderful Soldiers, Marines, Sailors, Airmen and Coastguardsmen who are defending our way of life every day.
Tom Richmond has been writing a fantastic blog of our journey – to read it, click on Tom’s MAD Blog (click on the link at the top right of the article to move to the following days). A USO photographer has been traveling with us, and once her photos are approved for release we’ll get them loaded up. Until then, we’ll keep marching on and keeping you up to date on our progress. This is our first trip to include a SW Asia portion, so everything from here on out is all new to us.
I can speak for the entire group when I say that the men and women we have met would make you proud to be an American. They are selfless, proud, and are spectacular examples of all that is good about our country.
More to follow as bandwidth and internet access allow.
