Cartoonist Bill Mauldin buried at Arlington

ARLINGTON, Va. -- A cold and steady rain began 30 minutes before cartoonist Bill Mauldin's burial Wednesday at Arlington National Cemetery.

Willie and Joe, Mauldin's perpetually cold, often wet infantrymen, would not have been surprised.

"His timing was excellent," son David Mauldin said after the graveside service attended by two former wives, seven children and numerous grandchildren.

Mauldin, winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, died last week of complications from Alzheimer's disease. He was 81.

Mauldin, who enlisted in the Army in 1940, lifted the spirits of U.S. soldiers through cartoons that used edgy humor to depict the horrors of war.

Willie and Joe were fictional GIs who slogged their way through Italy and other parts of Europe, coping with mud and much worse by poking fun at officers and idealistic enlisted men who had yet to experience battle.

For the soldiers who read Mauldin's cartoons in Stars and Stripes, "his humor kept them moving even in adversity," said Maj. Douglas Fenton, the Army chaplain who presided at the funeral.

"Rest assured, through 16 books and countless cartoons, the nation shall not forget him."

Wounded in action

Mauldin, a native of New Mexico, was eligible for burial in Arlington because he received the Purple Heart for a mortar shell wound. An honor guard carried his flag-draped coffin. Mauldin's 16-year-old son, Sam, received the folded flag from Sgt. Major of the Army Jack Tilley, the Army's senior enlisted soldier.

Seven riflemen fired three volleys and a bugler played taps. They were all soaked by the rain, standing at attention for a man who disdained the pomp and ceremony of military life.

Still, David Mauldin, 52, said his father would have enjoyed the precision of the ceremony. The second son of the cartoonist used a brief interview after the funeral to thank the soldiers and veterans who wrote to his father at his nursing home in Orange County, Calif. The campaign was begun by a veteran, Jay Gruenfeld, who wanted to recognize Mauldin and, perhaps, spark his failing memory through letters filled with war stories and words of thanks.

Mauldin received more than 10,000 letters and parcels, his son said. "That really made a big difference to Dad at the end," he said.

David Mauldin said the mail in recent days contained an express-mailed pair of socks from a World War II veteran.

It evoked the Mauldin cartoon in which Willie, having sworn he would pay Joe back for saving his life, gives his buddy his last pair of dry socks.

David Mauldin said that package was the most moving tribute of all. "That moved me to tears," he said.