Kilroy Was Here

"Kilroy was here." This phrase should be instantly familiar to anyone who lived through World War II and Korea or are students of those tumultuous years. The phrase "Kilroy was here", became famous in the pacific theatre of WWII. It was said that Kilroy was a super-GI because he was always first into the hornet's nest that were the various island atolls that were fought over by the Japanese and the Americans. The Marines landing on the atolls would find the inscription of "Kilroy was here" on trees or coral rocks, alerting all that the super-GI A.K.A. Kilroy had already landed. Of course there was never a Kilroy, though many claim fantastic stories that there was such an individual. Kilroy was an urban legend that grew among the battle weary soldiers of the American forces and was used as a symbol of hope that we could win the war with crafty GIs like Kilroy. Kilroy was every service man, and many soldiers scribbled the famous "Kilroy was here" from the sands of Iwo Jima to the Great Wall of China to the banks of the Yalu river. The phrase was also written on the moon by one of the Apollo astronauts, though no one has ever admitted to writing it. "Kilroy" is still out there making his mark except now he is marching through the dusty plains of ancient Babylon, exploring the deepest ocean trenches, or flying around the world on his own.

Imagine a day when the first human explorers reach Mars, and descending the dusty gantry way from their spacecraft and walking to small hill rock outcropping to plant the flag and finding the scratched phrase "Kilroy Was Here."