| Private Robert L. Bowman (February 22, 1922 – June 9, 1980), left, of Hogansville, Georgia, poses for Stars and Stripes artist Sergeant Bill Mauldin October 29, 1921 – January 22, 2003), K Company, 180th Infantry Regiment, 45th Division, on assignment to Stars and Stripes newspaper as an artist correspondent. Many sources, including the Associated Press in the caption for this photo, claim Bowman was the inspiration for “Joe,” 1 of 2 recurring characters in Mauldin’s “Willie and Joe” comics in Stars and Stripes about the average infantry foot soldier. At Camp Berkeley, Abilene, Texas in 1940, Mauldin met reporter Technician 4th Grade John C. “Johnny” Waddell (August 29, 1921 – November 22, 2000), who served as the initial model for “Joe” in the Camp’s 45th Infantry Division News. Waddell would stand patiently while Mauldin drew the folds of his clothes for practice. Willie was based on an unidentified Choctaw Native American that Mauldin named “Medicine Man” in his 1971 memoir, The Brass Ring: “They were a rugged bunch of small-town and rural boys, at home with weapons and outdoor living. We had a lot of Indians. By and large, these were our best-educated soldiers. In fact, I learned that the only two men in the outfit who lacked high-school diplomas were the first sergeant and me, both white. A number of our Indians had been to college. One of my tent mates, a big private first class known as ‘the Medicine Man’ because, it was rumored, that was his father’s tribal rank, had the eyes of a turkey buzzard, a broken beak, a slit mouth, a lantern jaw, a deadpan sense of humor, a degree from the University of Oklahoma, a talent for memorizing and reciting epic poems, and a conviction that there would never be peace with the white man until it was legal for Indians to buy whiskey.” “Medicine Man” was killed in action on Sicily in October 1943. “Although I mostly hung around the infantry when out in the field, I developed a complex about going back to K Company. It probably started one day when I arrived at my old outfit a few hours after the Medicine Man had been killed. He had flushed a German rifleman out of a foxhole with his bayonet (apparently he had fixed the bayonet to his rifle just for this particular purpose, since infantrymen seldom used the things in combat) and had chased his victim across a clearing between some German and American positions. The pair had run back and forth for a while, the frantic German scurrying like a mouse and the big Indian cat loping behind, jabbing lightly at the enemy’s rump as a goad, laughing his fool head off. Both sides stopped firing and stared in astonishment at the weird chase until the Medicine Man tired of it and skewered the German, whereupon the other side blew him apart. Since he could have safely shot the German in the first place, maybe he was just displaying an Indian’s macabre sense of humor. Personally, I suspect it wad the ‘Medicine Man’s‘ way of having a fit of combat fatigue.” Freshly transferred from the 45th Division News to the Stars and Stripes in February 1944, Mauldin landed with a brand-new jeep from 5th Army Headquarters that he had modified with steel plates to protect from mines and custom seats from a wrecked Lancia. He debarked from a Landing Ship Tank (LST) onto Anzio Beach in March 1944. Mauldin was enamored with the 1st Special Service force (FSSF) a mixed Canadian American special operations unit, but Mauldin drove around the perimeter, interviewing soldiers and drawing them, including Bowman. In August 1944, Mauldin joined the invasion of Southern France. He snuck his jeep aboard an LST. With “Medicine Man’s” death and a mortar fragment wound in Venafro in December 1943 gave a darker edge to Mauldin’s work. The death of Staff Sergeant Gregor K. Duncan (February 12, 1910 – May 28, 1944) a close friend, hit him especially hard. Mauldin considered killing off “Willie and Joe” at the end of the European War, but his editors prevented him from doing that. Bowman enlisted on October 28, 1942, at Fort McPherson in Atlanta, Georgia. Sent to Salerno in September 1943, he was wounded in October by a shell fragment lacerating his left cheek. He returned to duty in November. He was discharged on November 9, 1945. This photo is often used to illustrate Mauldin’s wartime career. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0653.jpg |
| Image Size | 627.17 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 1302 x 1064 |
| Photographer | |
| Photographer Title | |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | March 1, 1944 |
| Location | |
| City | Anzio |
| State or Province | Lazio |
| Country | Italy |
| Archive | |
| Record Number | |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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