Garfield salutes Indy Crewmembers

Garfield, often known as a fat, lazy, wise-cracking, lasagna-eating cat cartoon showed his respects to the crew of Independence by saluting them.

The 8X10 cartoon was received by Boiler Technician 2nd Class Todd Williams of Muncie, Ind. whose family is friends with Jim Davis--Garfield’s cartoonist.

"I saw the Declaration print his work and since we are family friends, I thought I could do something special for the ship," Williams said.

The poster shows Garfield saluting the crew and a message of best wishes to the Sailors and Marines on board.

Garfield began syndication with only 41 papers in June of 1978. Now the tubby tabby appears in more than 2,500 newspapers worldwide.

According to JO2 Donald Rule, Cruisebook editor, this salute to Independence crew will be in this year’s cruisebook.

You can catch a glimpse of Davis’ Garfield cartoon in the Declaration every other day on page four.

Caption: Davis with the scetch he sent to USS Independence (CV 62).