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April 22, 2008
Cartoonist deploys again -- this time to Guantanamo Bay
Vaughn R. Larson, a regular member of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, began a third tour of duty overseas in March.
This latest deployment is with a 20-person National Guard public affairs unit based in Madison, Wis. The unit will deploy to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba for 12 months. Larson will edit The Wire, a weekly news magazine at the U.S. Navy base, and may produce cartoons for the publication as well. Other members of the unit will escort the civilian media visiting Guantanamo Bay.
"This will be a historic mission," Larson said. "The eyes of the world are focused on Guantanamo Bay, especially with military commissions to begin. There will be a change in the White House, which may alter the course of the war on terror.
"It looks like I'll probably miss another convention, though."
This will be Larson's third deployment overall. Larson, a member of the Wisconsin Army National Guard for 19 years, returned from a year-long deployment to Kuwait, performing convoy escort duties in Iraq, in July of 2007. In 1990 he deployed to Saudi Arabia for Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm.
Larson said he is contemplating a book based on the cartoons he produced during Operation Iraqi Freedom, as well as the cartoons he may produce at Guantanamo Bay.