Baldo by Hector D. Cantú and Carlos Castellanos for November 11, 2012

Feliz Día de los Veteranos (gringos e hispanos)

While you still can, do exactly what Baldo is doing: Talk to these people. Even ordinary people often have extraordinary stories to tell, and we are richer for having heard them.

(Oh, if only I had taken my own advice and spoken with the ancient master sargeant I saw in 1963 whose decorations told me he was not only a World War One vet but also a veteran of the 1915 Mexican Border Campaign against Pancho Villa.)

This is brilliant.

ИOMЯOM, Ashburn, and Apikoros, in English, please! I notup to using the I.M.Translator today! (Maybe later).

It’s also a good time to read up on those who have served. I suggest “Semper Fidelis” an autobigraphy of Pedro Augusto Jose del Valle-Barca Munoz, and a biography of Major General Angela Salinas at http://network.nshp.org/profiles/blogs/the-tallest-marine-major

It was very hard to get any stories out of my WWll Marine father. Too painful. I had to read about his time on Iwo Jima. Veterans are some of the bravest people there are. Thanks to all of you!

cool – this should happen more often in RL – maybe a comic will show us the way!

Just for the record, it should be a Nazi Messerschmidt ME 109 fighter plane.

Wonderful strip, BTW. Thank you Mr. Cantu.

Zeros? In France?

Very nice touch.

It is nice to be able to repeat a favored story without getting sent to “evaluation”.

Very nice tribute, Hector and Carlos!

I’d like to know how he shot down Zeros over France!!!

Awesome art. Great story. Quite timely. Nothing but praise from me on this one.

It was hard to get war stories out of my father too. I do know that he was in both fronts and felt betrayed by the army when they sent him to the Phillapiens after he served in Europe.

reminded me to write about dad. so i did. he was a good man.

A good example of technical accuracy and historical error. No one in WW-II ever used the Bf (Beyereich Flugsugwerke) manufacturer’s designation, but rather Me (Messerschmitt). The Bf 110 was the last Bf, those after were Me, so all Bf (108 Taifun lightplane, 109 fighter, and 110 twin-engine fighter) were erroneously called Me regardless of their date of design.

My dad was working in a lab when WWII broke out. He went to enlist; they gave him a commission and threw him back into the lab. Almost 70 years later, I still run into people who say that what my dad did stateside is why German isn’t the American national language today. But dad was a committed pacifist; so I asked him why he bothered to sign up, especially since all the War Department did was put him right back where he was. “We were at war,” he explained, “I thought FDR knew better than I did where I needed to be.”

LOVE IT! Thank you! Happy Veterans Day!