For the past 3 years or so, groups of cartoonists have been traveling overseas with the USO to visit our troops. To the best of my knowledge, Tom Richmond (MAD Magazine) has been on every single trip. I have had the good fortune now to attend two of his presentations on the experience - what it means to the troops, and what it means to the cartoonists who go.
To read more about Tom's current trip, visit his blog here.
To read stories from a previous trip which included Stephan Pastis of Pearls Before Swine, visit his archives here.
I imagine that all Tom's previous trips are also available in his archives if you care to poke around but, be forewarned, there are a lot of entries due to the number of times he's gone :-)
And, if you ever get the opportunity to attend a presentation on these trips, I strongly suggest you make it a point to go. You will see a lot of great photos and hear some funny stories - not surprising that cartoonists wind up with a lot of funny stories from their get-togethers - but you will also get a strong sense of just who our current troops are and what life is like for them right now. You will also see incredibly chilling photos of the remnants of Saddam's enormous cruelty. Whatever your politics, it is impossible to walk away with any impression of Saddam other than sadistic madman.
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