Yesterday, the inevitable happened. I posted Card 173 as Card 172. Not a big deal, really, it just means that some features of this website didn’t work with card 173 until a few minutes ago. Sorry for the befuddlement, I can almost promise that it will most certainly happen again if I keep doing this long enough. Ah, ambiguity…

Enough about me. Today’s card is about post office muralist George Vander Sluis. Mr.Vander Sluis painted two post office murals: Colorado Landscape (Rifle, Colorado) and an untitled mural in Riverton, Wyoming. He also designed a postage stamp — the 11 center airmail stamp of 1971.

What most interests me about Vander Sluis, however, is his membership in the Ghost Army of World War II. Have you heard of it? It was a “tactical deception unit” comprised of various types of artists. They would create fake troops, complete with inflatable tanks and other decoys, to trick axis forces into thinking there were allied troops where none really existed. I first heard about the Ghost Army in an episode of the podcast 99% Invisible. A high school classmate turned me on to the podcast. If haven’t checked it out, do it, you won’t be sorry. Sadly, no one has paid me to write that. Well, I’m not really sad about it at all.