Who was Kilroy

A piece of American history that should be shared with the younger generations![I][B][COLOR=red]KILROY WAS HERE![/COLOR][/B][/I]

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[B]He is engraved in stone in the National War Memorial in Washington, DC,[/B]
[B]Back in a small alcove where very few people have seen it.[/B]
[B]For the WWII generation, this will bring back memories.[/B]
[B]For you younger folks, it's a bit of trivia that is a part of our American history.

[/B][B]
[B]Anyone born in 1913 to about 1950, is familiar with Kilroy. [/B]
[B]No one knew why he was so well known, but everybody seemed to get into it.

[/B] [/B]
[I][B][COLOR=red]So who was Kilroy?[/COLOR][/B][/I]

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[B]In 1946 the American Transit Association, through its radio program, [/B]
[B]"Speak to America," sponsored a nationwide contest to[/B]
[B]Find the real Kilroy, offering a prize of a real trolley car to the person[/B]
[B]Who could prove himself to be the genuine article.[/B]
[B]Almost 40 men stepped forward to make that claim,[/B]
[B]But only James Kilroy from Halifax, Massachusetts, [/B][B]
[B]Had evidence of his identity.[/B] [/B]

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[B]'Kilroy' was a 46-year old shipyard worker during the [/B]
[B]War who worked as a checker at the Fore River Shipyard[/B]
[B]In Quincy.

His job was to go around and check on the[/B]
[B]Number of rivets completed. Riveters were on piecework and[/B]
[B]Got paid by the rivet. He would count a block of rivets and[/B]
[B]Put a check mark in semi-waxed lumber chalk, [/B][B]
[B]So the rivets wouldn't be counted twice. [/B]
[B]When Kilroy went off duty, the riveters would erase the mark.[/B] [/B]
[B]Later on, an off-shift inspector would come through[/B]
[B]And count the rivets a second time,[/B]
[B]Resulting in double pay for the riveters.[/B]

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[B]One day Kilroy's boss called him into his office.[/B]
[B]The foreman was upset about all the wages being paid[/B]
[B]To riveters, and asked him to investigate. It was then[/B]
[B]He realized what had been going on. The tight spaces he[/B]
[B]Had to crawl in to check the rivets didn't lend themselves to[/B]
[B]Lugging around a paint can and brush, so Kilroy decided to[/B]
[B]Stick with the waxy chalk. He continued to put his check[/B]
[B]Mark on each job he inspected, but added[/B]
[B]'KILROY WAS HERE'[/B]
[B]In king-sized letters next to the check, and eventually[/B]
[B]Added the sketch of the chap with the long nose peering[/B]
[B]Over the fence and that became part of the Kilroy message. [/B]

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[B]Once he did that, the riveters stopped trying to wipe [/B]
[B]Away his marks. Ordinarily the rivets and chalk marks[/B]
[B]Would have been covered up with paint. With the war on,[/B]
[B]However, ships were leaving the Quincy Yard so fast[/B]
[B]That there wasn't time to paint them.

As a result,[/B]
[B]Kilroy's inspection "trademark" was seen by thousands of[/B]
[B]Servicemen who boarded the troopships the yard produced.[/B]

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[B]His message apparently rang a bell with the servicemen, [/B]
[B]Because they picked it up and spread it all over[/B]
[B]Europe and the South Pacific.[/B]

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[B]Before war's end, "Kilroy" had been here, there,[/B]
[B]And everywhere on the long hauls to Berlin and Tokyo.[/B]
[B]To the troops outbound in those ships, however,[/B]
[B]He was a complete mystery; all they knew for sure was[/B]
[B]That someone named Kilroy had "been there first." [/B]
[B]As a joke, U.S.

Servicemen began placing the graffiti[/B]
[B]Wherever they landed, claiming it was[/B]
[B]Already there when they arrived.[/B]

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[B]Kilroy became the U.S. Super-GI who had always[/B]
[B]"already been" wherever GIs went. It became a challenge[/B]
[B]To place the logo in the most unlikely places imaginable[/B]
[B]It is said to be atop Mt. Everest, the Statue of Liberty, [/B]
[B]The underside of the Arc de Triomphe,[/B]
[B]And even scrawled in the dust on the moon.[/B]

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[B]As the war went on, the legend grew. Underwater demolition[/B]
[B]Teams routinely sneaked ashore on Japanese-held Islands in the[/B]
[B]Pacific to map the terrain for coming invasions by[/B]
[B]U.S.

Troops (and thus, presumably, were the first GI's there).[/B]
[B]On one occasion, however, they reported seeing[/B]
[B]Enemy troops painting over the Kilroy logo![/B]

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[B]In 1945, an outhouse was built for the exclusive use of Roosevelt, [/B]
[B]Stalin, and Churchill at the Potsdam conference.[/B]
[B]Its' first occupant was Stalin, who emerged and [/B]
[B]Asked his aide (in Russian), "Who is Kilroy?"[/B]

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[B]To help prove his authenticity in 1946, James Kilroy[/B]
[B]Brought along officials from the shipyard and some[/B]
[B]Of the riveters.

He won the trolley car, which he gave to[/B]
[B]his nine children as a Christmas gift and set it up as a[/B]
[B]playhouse in the Kilroy yard in Halifax, Massachusetts.[/B]

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[B]And The Tradition Continues... [/B]

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[B]EVEN Outside Osama Bin Laden's House!!![/B]

[B]Share This Bit Of Historic Humor[/B]
[B]With All Your Friends! :)[/B]

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[I][B][COLOR=blue]God Bless you World War II Veterans[/COLOR][/B][/I]

I left a few Kilroy's along some trails in the central highlands [1966 RTO] I used a grease pencil, The same one i used to mark positions on the plastic covering my Typographic map... doubt if anyone else ever seen them' Except for maybe Charley.. Or that there still there...

That was a great history lesson. I've been drawing Kilroy pics for years and make that look peering over cubicle walls in my office. Nobody gets it anymore. I knew it was from WWII, but had no clue of the reality.:cxtv:

Nice history trivia/lesson. Never knew the real story. I know of quite a few places that lil bugger got to during the 70's, 80's and 90's courtesy of a certain soldier. Hmmm, I see a possible reappearance here at beautiful Harmony Church.:D

Never knew the story behind it but he was alive and well during my 21 years in the Air Force. I even left a Kilroy here and there a time or two. My favorite was when I was tasked to make a floorplan for a Nato headquarters bldg. in Bosnia. I had to teach myself an autocad type program then make office furniture symbols etc to populate the rooms showing layout and flow etc. On the CINC Nato's desk I left behind a tiny Kilroy that without blowing up the drawing you would think it was a just a blip of excess ink. :cxtv: Often wondered if the plan was ever used and if anyone ever noticed it was there. :D

[QUOTE=79Spitfire;341747]Never knew the story behind it but he was alive and well during my 21 years in the Air Force. I even left a Kilroy here and there a time or two. My favorite was when I was tasked to make a floorplan for a Nato headquarters bldg. in Bosnia. I had to teach myself an autocad type program then make office furniture symbols etc to populate the rooms showing layout and flow etc. On the CINC Nato's desk I left behind a tiny Kilroy that without blowing up the drawing you would think it was a just a blip of excess ink. :cxtv: Often wondered if the plan was ever used and if anyone ever noticed it was there. :D[/QUOTE]

I hear that kilroy is on many printed circuit board as well as many other symbol that only mean something for those who put them there when they designed the boards- can only be viewed through high magnification??? left their tag/avatar??/who knows someone started it:xzqxz:

Great post Sully, Thank you!

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My dad was a B29 bombardier in the Army Air Corp, told me the story years ago but had forgotten most of it. While he was stationed Tinian and Sipan they use to put "Kilroy was here" on a lot of the ordinance they dropped but changed it most of the time to "Here comes Kilroy"....

Thanks for the great memories.....

8~\o

Thanks Sully. I thought Kilroy was a career Marine. Everywhere I went during my tour, he'd already been there.

Sorry for dragging up an older post, it gave me flashbacks to my childhood. 1983, I was 12...Styx put out "Mr Roboto", and my fellow older crowd (or Styx fans) remember at the end of the song DeYoung is saying "I'm Kilroy"...being the bookworm I was, I found the "Kilroy was here" and the face peeking over the wall and, thinking it was related, started putting it on ALL of my schoolbooks (back when we made covers out of the shopping bags...I didnt damage any books :) )

Fast forward several months, Grandfather was over for Xmas...as I was prepping table for dinner, he saw my science book with Kilroy, and asked "where the hell did you see that?"....that conversation (me telling him about Mr Roboto, he telling me of some experiences he had during the war), was probably one of the best conversations we had, and was probably the nugget that had me enlist at 18.

Incredible what a post on a trike forum can bring up....I hadn't thought about that in at least a decade

As a retired Navy pilot, I have seen several "Kilroy was here" sketches in various places when I was in the service. I never knew who he actually was until this post, thanks! In fact, I have drawn a few on hotel bathroom steamed mirrors. If the maid didn't wipe the mirror, the next patron would be surprised with the sketch after showering. I've always wondered what they thought.
As a bit of humor, if you turn the image upside down, it then becomes "Senator Craig was here". This is a result of his "toe tapping" incident with a plain clothes police officer in the Minneapolis airport bathroom stall. Needless to say, it cost him his senate seat!

[QUOTE=Texan;342724]My dad was a B29 bombardier in the Army Air Corp, told me the story years ago but had forgotten most of it. While he was stationed Tinian and Saipan they use to put "Kilroy was here" on a lot of the ordinance they dropped but changed it most of the time to "Here comes Kilroy"....

Thanks for the great memories.....

8~\o
[/QUOTE]

My dad told me the story,also. He was in the Army Air Corp too,with the 509th Composite Group,on Tinian. I bet Texan's dad and mine knew each other as Tinian Island was not a very big place.

I was fortunate to be a Guardian on the 2nd Honor Flight. I was assigned a WW2 vet who was in the first wave at Normandy. (Honor Flight's mission is to get all WW2 vets to Washington to see their memorial at no cost to them.) Incredible experience! Anyway, after lunch a 3 star General asked if we saw Kilroy in the memorial. We hadn't, so he actually took us back there himself and showed where the designers snuck Kilroy in...quite inconspicuous. My wheelchair-bound vet laughed out loud for the 1st time that day. Changed his whole demeanor! Laughter and tears ensued. Remarkable!

3 of my Uncles were in WW2... There all gone now, One is forever nineteen in Anzio....
They told me when they would see a Kilroy ' It would give them a laugh, And the knowledge that there were American units in front so they better step it up a little to catch up...
They would also joke that Patton would leave Kilroy's behind for Montgomery to see...:laugh:

I had a little plastic emblem of Kilroy on the bug shield of my Dodge D50 pickup truck. I used to tow the truck behind my motorhome as we travel throughout United States on vacations. There were a few people who recognized the Kilroy emblem but, most did not. Army veteran 1972-1975.