"Kilroy" at the World War II National Monument in Washington, D. C.

This cartoon and phrase was drawn by countless American servicemen to document their passage through an area. Kilroy was the GI who always got there first. Kilroy brought freedom and hope.

One story involving Kilroy goes like this: An outhouse was built at the Potsdam conference meeting of Truman, Stalin, and Churchill exclusively for their use. Stalin, the first person to make use of the facility, came out and asked his aide (in Russian), "Who is Kilroy?".

A Few WW II facts:

The only nation that Germany declared was on was the USA.

When allied armies reached the Rhine, the first thing men did was pee in it. This was pretty universal from the lowest private to Winston Churchill (who made a big show of it) and Gen. Patton (who had himself photographed in the act).

When the US Army landed in North Africa, among the equipment brought ashore were 3 complete Coca Cola bottling plants.

From 1940-1945, female employment in defense industries grew by 462%.

The Navajo “Code-Talkers” were a selected group of Navajos who sent and received errorless messages that were virtually indecipherable to Japan. The code-talkers skill, speed, and accuracy gave U.S. troops the decisive advantage at Guadacanal, Tarawa, Saipan, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa.

The term "The whole 9 yards" came from WWII fighter pilots in the Pacific.When arming their airplanes on the ground, the .50 caliber machine gun ammo belts measured exactly 27 feet, before being loaded into the fuselage. If the pilots fired all their ammo at a target, it got "the whole 9 yards."

Audie Murphy, the actor from Texas who played cowboy parts in movies, is the most decorated serviceman of WWII.