Leatherneck cartoon - Roy Delgado

This drawing is in the latest issue of the Magazine of the Marines, as it is called.  It appears on page 16 in a regular feature double-page spread of cartoons titled Leatherneck Laffs. 

I sold my first cartoons to this magazine in the summer of 1956 while satationed in Okinawa.  Staff Sergeant Gordon Bess was the cartoon Editor at the time.  He later created the comic strip " REDEYE " for King Features.

Quick story -
 I went through boot camp in May 1955 at the U.S.M.C. Recruit Depot in San Diego, California.  At that time, Hollywood was filming a movie called " The D.I. ", starring Jack Webb.   The film was released in 1957.

For reality purposes, they had a lot of shots all over the base, especially sequences showing platoons marching all over the asphalt parade ground.  They used mostly actors in the film, BUT they did use a few actual recruits with small speaking parts.  It so happened, they used MY platoon 238 in many of the shots and a few guys in my platoon are in the film.  The credits at the end of the film mentions a few of my buddies names along with my platoon 238.

With my Leatherneck magazine arriving this morning and me posting this cartoon today . . . 

 And coincidentally, along with seeing the film last night on The Turner Network . . . it all came back to me and had to get it off my mind for now.

Semper Fi -