Kilroy was here

What better way to start the 500th Stodghill Says So blog than to find that Kilroy was here? Young people may not have heard about Kilroy, the greatest of all world travelers, but should they happen to journey to the moon they will find his face and simple message scratched in the dirt.

So who was Kilroy? The latest edition of The Ivy Leaves, the magazine of the 4th Infantry Division Association, tells us he was a checker at a Quincy, Massachusetts shipyard during World War II. It was his job to mark the rivets that had been completed, but the riveters were on piecework so they'd erase the marks and get paid twice. James Kilroy put an end to that by writing, "Kilroy was here" at every place he checked. Then he began adding the little man with big eyes, a long nose and a single hair peering over a fence so the riveters would know they were being watched.

It wasn't long before those ships were transporting sailors, soldiers and marines to the farthest corners of the globe. They were fascinated by the whimsical little figure and his message and decided to take him along on their adventures. Soon it was all but impossible for a serviceman to go anywhere without finding that Kilroy had been there ahead of him.

It sometimes reached the point of being ridiculous. An underwater demolition team sneaked ashore on a Japanese occupied island to find enemy soldiers painting over a "Kilroy was here" sign. I have been among the very first Americans to reach certain places only to discover that Kilroy had been there ahead of us. Mischievous German soldiers had to have been responsible.

So it seems only fitting that on this half-century blog, Kilroy was here. He's been everywhere else so why not?

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