June 19, 2006

Vietnam Veterans Group to Honor ‘Doonesbury’ Cartoonist:NEW YORK Vietnam Veterans of America will give “Doonesbury” creator Garry Trudeau its President’s Award for Excellence in the Arts July 14 during a VVA conference in Tucson, Ariz.A Doonesbury.com note discussed the upcoming award and the perception of some critics that Trudeau has an “anti-military bias” in his comic: “It may interest — if not confuse — these critics to learn that if Trudeau has such a bias, the military itself has failed to notice.  During the first Gulf War, the Pentagon organized a touring exhibition of the ‘Doonesbury’ war strips, and during Trudeau’s visit to Kuwait, where he met hundreds of soldiers, he was awarded certificates of achievement by the Ready First Brigade and the 4th Battalion 67th Armor, which made him an ‘honorary Bandit for life.'”More recently, the DOD, USO, and VA have all worked closely with Trudeau on the strips depicting B.D.’s wounding in Iraq, and last December, Walter Reed Army Medical Center presented him with the Commander’s Award for Public Service, the third-highest civilian award given by the Army.