Peanuts by Charles Schulz for April 15, 2015

Now, if Lucy was a WAC….

Lucy’s wrong, they could easily put a piano player on the front lines

SIGH Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player

If you’re in a battle, you shoot the piano player, too.

In the army they have a name for piano players and other artists — cannon fodder.

Nobody’d want to take Lucy prisoner if you put her on the front lines.

The more I think about it, the less absurd Lucy’s idea seems. During WWII, a LOT of baseball players stayed stateside because some military bases like Fort Riley and the Great Lakes Naval Air Station had their own ballclubs and the base commanders wanted to win. There are enough egos in the brass that someone wanting a concert pianist playing during meals is not far-fetched.

Friend of mine’s husband had a diner, and his eldest son joined the airforce to get out from behind the counter. Wanted to be a paratrooper but when they found out he had experience in catering, they assigned him to run the officer’s club restaurant. So much for a different career!

One of the freakiest Peanuts ever and an interesting panoply of comments.

Or he could play the piano in a less dangerous environment.

A fancy restaurant.

xxx

Reagan was an unusual case. He was a US Army reservist starting in 1936 – in a cavalry unit believe it or not. When his unit was to be activated he was given a medical exam and it was discovered that his eye sight was quite poor, probably as a result of the studio lights during his movies, and he was going to be released from service. Reagan appealed to the White House for permission to stay in the Army Air Force which was granted but he was not fit for overseas duty so he spent the war in the United States, most of the time with the First Motion Picture Unit, which made training films at the old Hal Roach Studios in Hollywood, nicknamed “Fort Roach” by members of the unit. In fact he signed the discharge papers of another member of the unit, Major Clark Gable, who had been assigned to make a recruiting film about waist gunners in B-17 bombers. So service varied.

As for Reagan’s eyesight, he had no problem driving a car so I ain’t buying it. Like Big John Wayne, like GW Bush and his ilk, he was a chickenhawk quite happy to see others go off to war but declined to do so himself.