Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for June 16, 2014

Somebody put a shirt on that girl before she catches a cold.-Yes, that is the future Mrs. Kim Doonesbury.

I’ve always remembered her first English words: “Big Mac!”

I really appreciate these old strips cuz I didn’t start reading the strip until the mid ’80s. Also appreciate comments from other readers which explain characters and relationships.

I didn’t remember this one, showing Kim as a baby in a diaper. I was about 10 years old myself. I enjoyed reading these but I don’t always remember all of them.

I remember a line from this era: “I thought it was shrapnel.”

My older brother was a civilian in Vietnam from ’68 until ’75 and he helped with the airlift.

Abigail Doonesbury? Nuh uh…

My sister is an adopted war baby from Vietnam. But from a few years earlier than when this strip ran although she has the middle name of Kim.

Is Abby the nurse?

It was an interesting wrap-around for Mr. Trudeau. I don’t remember seeing much of Kim growing up until she marries Mike.

@mightaswellbe: There was a C-5 with orphans on board that went down, but it was an aircraft failure; it wasn’t shot down. Fuller details here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Babylift

..or Google the Doonesbury archives.

To quote her future self “Geek love is strong.”

And so, Mike Doonesbury’s future wife appears in the strip. Mike would, of course, have to wait quite awhile for that to happen.

All men like them young.

-Yes. And a whole lot more that’s been pretty much forgotten.

It was April, 1975. Check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Babylift for a synopsis. I had graduated from USAF Aeromedical Training (for aeromedical technicians and flight nurses) in March 1975, and was packing up in preparation for reporting to Germany in May to do inflight patient care in Europe. My flight school roommate went the other direction — he reported to 9th AES, Clark AB in the Philippines, two weeks after flight school. That C-5 mission was his third and final. He survived, but almost 140 did not.

April, 1975, was a very sad month for those who cared about the people of Vietnam. Still feel like crying!and I wish that we in the USA had remembered the lessons supposedly learned by being in Vietnam.

Are there other stips that show how Phred lost Kim in the fist place ?

We are all cousins at the very least.i saw some first cousins twice removed last Saturday, ages 5, 3 and 2.And that’s just first cousins.

@nailerKim and Phred never met.

@DHGTrue, cold temperature doesn’t cause illnesses but it does compromise the immune by diverting the body’s energy to keep it warm.One thing my father taught me was to always wear an undershirt. In cold weather it provides you with an extra layer of warmth. In hot weather it soaks up the sweat — actually cooling you down — and keeps a dress shirt from getting wet and sloppy.I remembered that when I was taking care of my nephew when he was a one-year old. His nose was constantly running even though he was wearing a full sleeve shirt. I checked and found he wasn’t wearing an undershirt. I put an extra layer on him and nose stopped running in 5 minutes.

Spoiler: Guess who grows up and marries Mike Doonesbury?