We were trawling around on the ‘net and found this coolish page looking at Disney’s World War II effort, and the incongruity of cute cartoon characters being used to military purposes — a practice which continues to this day:

Just prior to America’s entry into the war, the U.S. Navy asked Disney Studios to assist in designing an emblem for one of the new American warships — the U.S.S. Wasp. Disney Studios, appropriately enough, designed an emblem of a wasp wearing boxing gloves straddling an American aircraft carrier. It proved extremely popular and further requests were made.

The link includes many examples of the emblems from the collection of the writer, Robert Neff.

We’re especially enamored of semaphore Mickey, because semaphore makes us think of two things which always make us smile: Semaphore Wuthering Heights from Monty Python, and the ending of CINDERELLA LIBERTY. “Bravo Yankee, Bravo…good-bye.”