European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 18, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Drawing from experience done to look now but there s old Coos Hay adv eco Back in town a Wingert at work London 1942. Mauldin gets the legion of Merit 1945. A i heard mama and papa talking last night. Be bling what s a burp gun wedding a Sheppard at his Altdorf desk 1946. A my sir a what an enthusiastic Welcome a dozens of artists have helped brighten the pages of the stars and stripes Over the years but three earned International reputations from their work on the paper Dick Wingert Bill Mauldin and Don Sheppard. Wingert a retiring pipe smoking Hoosier started drawing for stripes while assigned As an admin clerk in Northern Ireland. After getting an assignment to the papers London offices he developed Hubert a rotund and perpetually dishevelled character with a fondness for calling British officers  modelled after stripes staff writer Charlie White Hubert fumbled his Way through the War from England to France and finally Home to the United states where Wingert quickly signed a syndication Deal and Hubert donned civilian duds. At last Check they re still doing Fine. Bill Mauldin the pulitzer prize winning artist from the Mediterranean stars and stripes staff had a Knack for spotting the inequities of army life a and then quickly turning inequity into Ink. That Talent got him into trouble with the brass a time or two including his famed encounter with Gen. George s. Patton but he got plenty of backing from stars and stripes editors. In the end the army finally recognized his accomplishments and gave him the legion of Merit. Mauldin whose Best Selling Book a up front was published even before the War ended also left the army for a syndication Deal. That work took him to Korea and Vietnam on assorted reformer exercises in Germany and most recently to sketch the troops during the persian Gulf War. He a currently working on another Book his 15th, at his Home in Santa be . Don Sheppard a cartoons for the stripes Altdorf edition poked fun at the social problems of life in Post War Germany specifically i fraternization with German women. Sheppard a most famous character was Veronica Danke Schon a buxom if Bovine German girl with swastikas embroidered on her dress and her initials v.d., emblazoned on her purse. In this rare instance the brass agreed with the stripes cartoonist and the army a information and education division encouraged Sheppard a vision of Fraulein As disease riddled tarts. Although his cartoons won him a spread in life Magazine Sheps critics objected to his degradation of teutonic womanhood and the drawings were stopped in december 1946. After discharge he went on to a successful career in animated cartoons with Disney studios and Hanna Barbera the creators of Yogi Bear Huckleberry hound and other characters. He died in the Early 1970s. Page 32 50th anniversary special edition saturday Panl 18. 1992 50th anniversary special edition Page 33 by Mauldin. 1945