Kilroy Was Here
The Legend of Kilroy was started inadvertently by a
shipyard inspector during WWII named
James J. Kilroy
, who used the logo
to indicate his inspection of riveting in the newly constructed troop ships was complete.
To the unfortunate troops outbound in those ships,
however, he was a complete mystery ... all they knew for sure was that
he had "been there first". As a joke, they began placing the
graffiti wherever they (the US forces) landed, claiming it was already
there when they arrived.
Kilroy became the US super-GI who had always
"already been" wherever GIs went. It became a challenge to place the logo in the most
unlikely places imaginable: it is said to be atop Mt. Everest, and the Statue of Liberty, the
underside of the Arch De Triumphe, and scrawled in the dust on the moon.
An outhouse was built for the exclusive use of
Roosvelt, Stalin, and Churchill for the Potsdam conference. The first person
inside was Stalin, who emerged and asked his aide (in Russian), "Who
is Kilroy?".
WWII Recon Units sneaked ashore
on Japanese held islands in the Pacific to map the terrain for the coming
invasion by US troops (and thus, presumably, were the first GIs there):
on one occasion, they reported seeing enemy troops painting over
the logo, which had been placed there before the arrival of the US scout team.
The tradition has continued throughout every US
military operation following WWII. (Kilroy carried a Z-fold card similar to
the one shown at left from '68 - '70).
A few photographs of Kilroy have recently been
declassified, and are presented here. (Captions are from smudged notes scrawled
on the picture backs, and may not be complete).
Kilroy IS Here
E-Mail: Kilroy@kilroy.cx