Introduction

When World War II broke out in Europe in 1939, the combined forces of the US Army, Navy, and Marines were over 334,000 individuals. Although the United States did not formally enter the war until December 1941, recruitment efforts intensified already in 1940. In 1941, the number of military personnel in those three branches of armed forces increased to over 1.8 million. In 1945, the year when the war ended, the combined number of personnel representing the Army, Navy, Marines, and Coast Guards was over 12.3 million. Throughout the duration of the war, over 16 million men and women served in the US armed forces. Around 39% of all US servicemen and servicewomen were volunteers. But the majority, nearly 61%, were drafted.  The servicemen and servicewomen represented all economic and social backgrounds. Most of them were ordinary civilians who prior to the war had no or very limited military training.

In this activity, you will explore the challenges that the process of creating massive armed forces out of ordinary Americans posed. You will examine a cartoon authored by Jon Kennedy. Kennedy was a cartoonist for the Arkansas Democrat from 1941 to 1943 and again from 1946 to 1988. His cartoons covered current political, social, and economic topics and commented on local, national, and global events.