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[[File:mauldin.jpg|thumbnail|300px400px|Bill Mauldin]]
Bill Mauldin once said that the infantryman “gives more and gets less than anybody else.”<ref>Bill Mauldin, ''Up Front'' (New York: World Publishing, 1945), 5.</ref>He knew this from his experience on the front lines with K Company, 180th Infantry Regiment, of the 45th Division. Mauldin went through basic training as an infantryman and stayed with his regiment throughout the invasion of Sicily and the Allied campaign up the boot of Italy. The talented cartoonist succeeded in ruffling the feathers of the “brass” all the way up to General George Patton. In a time when American news outlets were sanitizing World War II for the folks on the home front, Bill Mauldin depicted the grim reality of war. Through the use of meticulous detail, keen observations, and sardonic wit, this baby-faced young man spoke for the masses of ordinary soldiers who had no voice of their own within the massive military machine of the United States.
The 180th moved from Fort Sill to Camp Barkeley, near Abilene, Texas. From there they went to the war games in Louisiana then on to Fort Devens, Massachusetts. Their next stop was Pine Camp in Watertown, New York before finally stopping at Camp Pickett, Virginia. Mauldin shipped out from Newport News, Virginia on June 4, 1943 as a member of the ''45th Division News'' staff on his way to Italy.<ref>DePastino, 81-83.</ref>
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The 45th Division, including Sergeant Mauldin, landed at Scoglitti, Sicily on July 10, 1943.<ref>DePastino, 93.</ref>Bill wasted no time in establishing a printing press then hurried to catch up to K Company who were marching to the front lines. It was during this period that Bill furthered his circulation by working for ''Stars and Stripes''. Although he was not a fighting soldier, he made trips to the front and embedded himself with K Company for several days then returned to his makeshift printing press and drew what he saw. He witnessed the carnage of “Bloody Ridge” in Sicily and was wounded on the Italian mainland as German soldiers fought ferociously during their retreat north. After receiving his Purple Heart, Mauldin carried more weight with the infantrymen who were reading his feature “Star Spangled Banter,” throughout the Mediterranean Theater.
The weather and conditions on the Italian front were muddy, wet, and ill-supplied. Mauldin provided the dogfaces a sense of unity and comfort as his drawings and wry captions let these men know they were not alone. One infantry veteran said of Mauldin, “‘…to appreciate what moments of relief Bill gave us…you had to be reading a soaking wet ''Stars and Stripes'' in a water-filled foxhole and then see one of his cartoons.’”<ref>Quoted in DePastino, 3.</ref>Bill’s cartoons depicted water-filled foxholes and soggy trenches. They showed the misery suffered by infantrymen on a daily basis. The dogfaces knew that Mauldin was speaking for them because at his core, Mauldin was a dogface, too.
