KILL ROY WAS HERE

[Walt's Daughter]

"KILROY WAS HERE" (sent to me by John McAuliffe)

 

James Kilroy was a ship inspector at the Fore River Shipyard, Quincy, Massachusetts. His job was counting a riveter's filled holes on each day's shift. James marked "Kilroy was here", in yellow crayon for visibility, inside hulls of Liberty ships after his count. They were everywhere on ships. This proved he was doing his job, prevented dishonest riveters from being paid for more than they actually did by getting a second inspector to repeat the count, and ensured that riveters got their fair pay for work they had done.

 

When the ship went to sea carrying military troops to the war, the troops were mystified that this guy got around so much and in such out of the way places. They knew Kilroy had been there first. So, as a joke, troops began placing the graffiti wherever the US forces landed and claimed it had already been there when they'd arrived.

 

Kilroy quickly became the GI who had always already been just about everywhere our military went. This game quickly became a challenge for G.I.s to put the slogan in the least likely places before anyone else could. The result was that it also confounded the enemy. How could this G.I. be so many places so quickly?

 

The phrase 'Kilroy was here' appeared all along the front, wherever US troops were. Often, it was scrawled beside the simply drawn image of a face peeking over a line with a long nose hanging over the line. It had two wide round eyes with dot eyeballs looking at you over the line, which represented a wall. It also had his fingers hanging on over the top of the wall.

 

Close to the end of the war, Hitler got paranoid that this Kilroy be in places Nazis thought secure in Germany. He thought Kilroy must have been a spy and ordered his best men to search for the spy. He ordered his troops to kill Kilroy since Hitler was certain Kilroy, the spy, would kill him.

 

After WW2, James Kilroy stepped forward to claim the phrase. During WW2, there were 26 men named Kilroy in the U.S. military.

 

That's about all I can find out about that.

 

I had fun with it. Once, in California, I patrolled a school for security each night. When I'd find an open building or classroom, I'd enter and write "Kilroy was here" on blackboards and lock up after myself, securing the building. It took them quite a while to figure out who Kilroy was and how he'd gotten into the building without breaking in. They, in turn, took better care to lock up. *chuckle*

 

I also used it as a cop, in out of the way places, to dissuade gangs and bums from returning once they saw cops knew of the hidden place. I'd write, "SDPD was here" in white chalk. And I took the time to find these places. Some crooks would hide in them and I'd check them regularly after a burglary. I found stolen items and sometimes the crooks. Word got around.

 

 

 

Yes, 'Kilroy Was Here' And To Fans He Still Is Washington Times ( MAY. 02)

 

Kilroy is still here. James L. Kilroy, that is. The ship inspector credited with creating one of America's most potent military mottos remains dear to the nation's heart. On the job around 1942, he wrote just three words in presumed anonymity on the hull of a Liberty ship: "Kilroy was here." Over time, the phrase came to mean there was no place so remote that the U.S. military could not reach it. There's a campaign to put his catch phrase on a postage stamp. Others hope to persuade the U.S. Navy to christen a "USS Kilroy." There are Kilroy hats, bumper stickers and shirts. There's a photo competition, an essay contest, a fan club and a swell anniversary celebration planned for mid May. To the delight of those who discover it, the Kilroy message has been engraved upon the new World War II Memorial on the Mall.