MIGHTY NINETY

Joey Fubar
Apprentice Seaman, USS ASTORIA 1944-1945



Mighty Ninety plankowner Joey Fubar, brainchild of Joseph Aman.  Fubar appeared at the top of each daily Morning Press News printed aboard USS ASTORIA CL-90 during her wartime cruise.
-courtesy of James W. Peddie



Apprentice Seaman Joey Fubar was a cartoon character created by a Mighty Ninety shipmated named Joe Aman.  Fubar got his name from a popular wartime acronym (Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition is the socially acceptable version) because he was always getting into trouble and goofing off.  The cartoon was very popular aboard ship and appeared daily through the end of the war and ASTORIA's return stateside.  Fubar was even impersonated by real-life sailors during variety shows held on the ship's fantail.



Joe Aman posing at ASTORIA's railing with his Joey Fubar alter-ego in a break during operations off mainland Japan, 20 July 1945.
-U.S. Navy PR photo courtesy of Herman Schnipper




When USS ASTORIA headed home at the end of the war, Aman created a Joey Fubar cartoon compilation as a souvenir for shipmates.  Over 100 cartoons covering the ship's wartime experiences were painstakingly redrawn for the compilation.  Shown is the cover from a well-weathered copy.
-courtesy of James W. Peddie




Aman's forward from the Mighty Ninety Cavalcade of Humor.  The Fubar compendium was his send-off to the fellow shipmates who had gone through so much with him over the past year.
-courtesy of James W. Peddie




One of the 100 reproduced Fubar cartoons from the Mighty Ninety Cavalcade of Humor.  Most events depicted had some grounding in ASTORIA's wartime experiences.
-courtesy of James W. Peddie




In 1973, 28 years after his shipmates had gone their separate ways, Aman reprised the Joey Fubar character for the first Mighty Ninety reunion in Boston.
-courtesy of James W. Peddie



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