Enlisting Joe Buschmann (1946)
"The army wants men, but in this atomic age it doesn't believe its recruits must be so ferocious looking they'll scare the foe to death. Cpl. Donald Barnes (left), Batavia, Ill., received a telegram Sunday that 'Joe Buschmann' would be 18 Monday, so Barnes was on hand early to enlist Joe for the Chicago army recruiting station. When he got to the address he found himself at the Lincoln park zoo, and Joe turned out to be Bushman, 550 pound gorilla, who celebrates his eighteenth birthday on April Fool's day." [Associated Press]
