This most ubiquitous of all graffiti materialized in the middle of World War II wherever there was a US serviceman, a piece of chalk and a wall. The wide-eyed baldheaded face peering over the fence, hiding everything else except for his fingers was immediately recognizable as was his impish boast "Kilroy Was Here!" Where did he come from? The graffiti has been traced in one explanation to a Sergeant Francis J. Kilroy of the Army Air Force Transport Command. According to this story friends of the real Kilroy posted his name throughout the world as an inside joke that caught on. Another version makes Kilroy a shipyard inspector who signed his work. Both are probably untrue. Kilroy's outrageousness was not so much in what he said but in where he turned up -- the top of the torch of the Statue of Liberty, the bullet scarred Marco Polo Bridge in China and under the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. The imp and his picture were painted on Polynesian huts, chalked on the backs of coats of women strolling down Michigan Boulevard in Chicago. More than one newspaper carried a story about a pregnant woman wheeled into a delivery room and disrobed to reveal Kilroy Was Here! scrawled across her belly. His most daring appearance was during the Potsdam Conference in July 1945. The Big Three -- Truman, Attlee and Stalin had exclusive use of an opulent marble bathroom, off limits to everyone else. On the second day of the conference, an excited Stalin emerged from the bathroom sputtering in Russian to one of his aides. A translator overheard Stalin demand, "Who is Kilroy!" Back to Cry Havoc #11 Table of Contents Back to Cry Havoc List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1995 by David W. Tschanz. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com