Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Artwork courtesy of Red Weisbecker

Red Weisbecker, a wartime acquaintance of John Baggerly's, drew this panel for one of his many cartoon series.

Picture from the Past

John S. Baggerly

The patriotic month brings to mind wartime memories

When "Red" Weisbecker packed up his artwork to leave Iran during World War II he gave this writer--then in the U.S. Army--the cartoon above plus other drawings he did not want to take home to New York City, where in peacetime he was a fill-in comic-strip artist.

Red's "V.D." (venereal disease) series for our Persian Gulf Command newspaper in the 1940s is likely to end up in Washington, D.C., where outstanding wartime artwork is preserved.

There are many interesting GIs who come to mind during May--our most patriotic month because it contains both Armed Forces Day and Memorial Day. It's also the month Germany surrendered in WWII.

While living in a 10-bed barracks at the Presidio of San Francisco, this writer met "Eggs" Boyarski, a San Jose mailman in civilian life. Boyarski got his nickname because he was up and dressed and had eaten breakfast before the sergeant opened the door and shouted "grab your socks." Upon returning from breakfast, Boyarski barked in mock complaint, "Eggs, eggs, always eggs."

A central figure in our barracks was Richard "Dick" Gleason, the top noncommissioned officer. Gleason was the son of a New York City cabbie who refused to mechanize and was the last man to provide a horse-drawn funeral. When his father went broke, Dick was sent to Boston to live with a pub-keeping uncle and enrolled in public high school. His scholarship was quickly recognized, and he qualified for Boston Latin, the prestigious public high school that produced several American presidents.

Gleason was naturally funny, with a sharp wit. If he didn't feel well and stayed in evenings, so did most of the guys.

As a typist, I found myself in headquarters typing "true copies" for the prison-record section--no erasures and no white stuff allowed.

One of Gleason's jobs was filling out orders for personnel for duty all over the world. When he put me on ship-out orders, he said, "I'll send you to Washington and Lee University for a course in information and education. You'll never get a commission but will travel well."

After Washington and Lee I did a short stint at Oakland Regional Hospital in the old Hotel Oakland. This was as plush as the Presidio, and in a short time Gleason checked in for an ulcer operation. I was then shipped out and learned later by mail from Eggs that Gleason had died.

I was soon in Miami Beach, thanks to Gleason, at the swanky Floridian Hotel (taken over by the military) and eating in a room overlooking Byscane Bay. Frank Agar, another slow eater, and I became acquainted. By chance, our air trip to Iran found us assigned to the same desert camp--Andimeshk--on the desert far south of Tehran. Agar's artwork, like that of Weisbecker, was published in the Persian Gulf Command newspaper. The purpose of the command was shipping supplies to Russia by truck and rail.

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