Who s the Real Kilroy
Here’s a bit of history for you!
KILROY WAS HERE
Who the heck was KILROY??
In 1946 the American Transit
Association, through its radio
program “Speak to America,”
sponsored a nationwide contest
to find the real Kilroy, offering a
prize of a trolley car to the person
who could prove himself to be the
genuine article.
Almost 40 men stepped forward
to make that claim, but only James
Kilroy from Halifax, Mass. Had
evidence of his identity.
Kilroy, a 46-year-old shipyard
worker during the war, worked as a
checker at the Fore River Shipyard
in Quincy. His job was to check on
the number of rivets completed.
Riveters, on piecework, got paid by
the rivet.
Kilroy would count a block of
rivets and put a check mark in semi
waxed lumber chalk, so the rivets
wouldn’t be counted twice. When
Kilroy went off duty, the riveters
would erase the mark.
Kay Receives Bronze
Achievement Medal
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*4 i < ( : ^ *' *^,V'*'* 4 '♦ + *'*^7^7'
Cadet Major Philip Kay at left receives the Veterans of Foreign
Wars Bronze^Achievement Medal from Statesville Post 2031 Post
Commander Jimmy Aldridge and Past Post Commander Cathy
Williams.
me veterans or roreign wars
Bronze Achievement Medal for
Outstanding Achievements and
Exceptional Leadership Ability was
presented to JROTC Cadet Major
Philip Kay, who attends Statesville
Iredell High School.
The presentation was made by the
Later, an off-shift inspector would
come through and count the rivets
a second time, resulting in double
pay for the riveters.
One day Kilroy’s foreman, upset
about all the wages being paid to
riveters, asked him to investigate.
He then realized what had been
going on.
The tight spaces he had to crawl
into checking the rivets, didn’t lend
themselves to lugging around a paint
can and brush, so Kilroy decided to
use a stick with the waxy chalk. He
continued to put his checkmark on
each job he inspected, but added
KILROY WAS HERE in king
sized letters next to the check, and
eventually added the sketch of the
chap with the long nose peering
over the fence and that became part
of the Kilroy message. Once he did
that, the riveters stopped trying to
wipe away his marks.
Ordinarily the rivets and chalk
marks would have been covered up
with paint. With war on, however,
ships were leaving the Quincy Yard
so fast that there wasn’t time to
paint them.
As a result, Kilroy’s inspection
atatesvine vrw rosi zuj>i rosi
Commander, Jimmy Aldridge
of Statesville and Past Post
Commander and Past President of
The Ladies Auxiliary to the VFW,
Cathy Williams, of Mooresville.
The VFW Post 2031 presents these
medals to one Cadet from four local
high schools.
“trademark” was seen by thousands
of servicemen who boarded the
troopships the yard produced. His
message apparently rang a bell with
the servicemen because they picked
it up and spread it all over Europe
and the South Pacific. Before the
war’s end, “Kilroy” had been here,
there, and everywhere on the long
haul to Berlin and Tokyo.
To troops outbound in those ships,
however, he was a complete
mystery; all they knew for sure
was that some jerk named Kilroy
had “been there first.” As a joke,
U.S. servicemen began placing
the graffiti wherever they landed,
claiming it was already there when
they arrived.
Kilroy became the U.S. super-GI
who had always “already been”
whereever GI’s went. It became a
challenge to place the logo in the
most unlikely places imaginable (It
is said to be atop Mt. Everest, the
Statue of Liberty, the underside of
the Arch De Triumphe, and even
scrawled in the dust on the moon.)
As the war went on, the legend
grew. Underwater demolition
teams routinely sneaked ashore on
Japanese-held -islands in the Pacific
to map the terrain for the coming
invasions by U.S. troops (and thus,
presumably, were the first GI’s
there). On one occasion, however,
they reported seeing enemy troops
painting over the Kilroy logo!
In 1945, an outhouse was built
for the exclusive use of Roosvelt,
Stalin and Churchill at the Potsdam
conference.
The first person inside was Stalin,
who emerged and asked his aide( in
Russian), “Who is Kilroy?”
To help prove his authenticity in
1946, James Kilroy brought along
officials from the shipyard and
some of the riveters. He won the
trolley car, which he gave to his nine
children as a Christmas gift and set
up as a playhouse in the Kilroy front
yard in Halifax, Massachusetts.
Our thanks to Ray Benfield, 204
Worthland Court, Winston-Salem,
27103-6155 who sent this to us.
Plant Reunion Set
Beaunit/Burlington Statesville Plant
employees will have a reunion
Saturday, June 7, at 3 p.m. at the
Boxcar Grille, Taylorsville Hwy.
Statesville. RSVPto 704-878-0837,
704-872-3569, 704-883-7519 or
704-872-0554.
Pat Abell, physical therapist, led members of the Statesville
Woman’s Club in exercise at the April 3 meeting. In other business,
club members collected cell phones, eyeglasses and paper
products for My Sister’s House; and provided refreshments for the
regional Battle of Books. Upcoming events included the annual
geranium sale on April 26 and a yard sale May 31 to benefit Springs
Academy.
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