Army & Navy: Joe & Joe

Joe Palooka shot a Nazi in the back. Several of his civilian admirers felt terrible and wrote in, saying so.

Before he went into the Army in 1940 Joe was the comic-strip symbol of a clean, fighting American. He never fouled an opponent. Now Joe, like any other U.S. soldier, is up against unsporting enemies, and he must learn to kill or be killed. Says Palooka’s creator, jovial Cartoonist Ham Fisher: “No good soldier is going to be polite in real war. Why should Joe?”*

Generals sometimes confer with Fisher on policy, sometimes get him to insert an announcement that might be missed on camp bulletin boards. Now there is a difference of opinion in the Army about Joe—but not because he shot a German in the back. Some Army chiefs think Joe should go to Officers Candidate School. The War Department’s public-relations chief. Major General Alexander Surles, holds that as an officer Joe would cease to represent the average soldier who follows his doings. Probable compromise: the Army and Ham Fisher may make Joe a noncom.

*War Secretary Stimson last month advised soldiers against learning Axis “cruelty and brutality.”