November 9th, 2015

Officers’ School

by Mort Walker

Beetle Bailey daily strip, June 19, 1952.

Some of Mort Walker’s best ideas come from personal experience, as in the strip above. When Mort first joined the Army he saw a bulletin announcing that there were ten openings for Officers’ School. “I asked permission to take the test,” Mort recounted. “My sergeant thought it was humorous that a mere private should have such lofty ambitions. When his laughter subsided he gave me permission. Four hundred applicants showed up for the test. I took one look and recognized a test I had taken before. I breezed through it and was on the train for O.C.S. that night.”

Here are two more classic Beetle Bailey episodes from the same year.

Beetle Bailey daily strip, January 22, 1952.

Beetle Bailey daily strip, June 5, 1952.

– Brian Walker