G. B. Trudeau

For many readers, Doonesbury has long been something of a Rorschach test—they see in it what they are predisposed to see. Case in point, those who detect an antimilitary bias in the strip. It may interest—if not confuse—these critics to learn that if GBT 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 Walter Reed Army Medical Center presented him with the Commander's Award for Public Service, the third-highest civilian award given by the Army.