--- title: "The world’s most iconic infantry clerk is dead at 91" date: "2020-02-05" modified: "2020-10-22" authors: - name: "Blake Stilwell" job_title: "Editor-In-Chief, Air Force Veteran" link: "https://www.wearethemighty.com/authors/blake/" url: "https://www.wearethemighty.com/mighty-trending/the-worlds-most-iconic-infantry-clerk-is-dead-at-91/" categories: - "Army" - "History" --- # The world’s most iconic infantry clerk is dead at 91 ![]() Hugh Hefner, the iconic founder, Editor-in-Chief, and Chief Creative Officer of Playboy — and one time U.S. Army veteran — is dead at 91. --- His military service is a testament to the mentality of vets from the Greatest Generation. Despite [an IQ 0f 152](), he still opted to join the U.S. Army [right out of high school]() in 1944, a time when victory in Europe wasn't necessarily assured. ![]() *Basic Trainee Hugh Hefner. That sounds really weird to say aloud.* But Hef never made it to Europe. Instead, he was an infantry clerk stationed in Oregon and then Virginia. While he did learn the basics of using the M1 Garand and tossing grenades, he never had to do it on the battlefield. He spent the war drawing cartoons for Army-run newspapers. He left the military in 1946, honorably discharged and destined for greater things — notably supplying reading material for U.S. troops (and everyone else) for every American war since 1953. ![]() *Veteran, then ship's captain. Any ship.* "I came out \[of the Army\] like a lot of other fellas believing that somehow we had, we had fought in a war, the last really moral war and that we would celebrate that in some form," [Hefner once said in an interview](). "I expected something comparable \[to the Jazz Age\] after world war two and we didn't get that, all we got was a lot of conformity and conservatism." ![]() *Luckily Hef could spare Playboy bunny Jo Collins for the the 173rd Airborne in Vietnam, 1966.* Hefner left the Army to encounter the Cold War as a civilian and he didn't like what it was doing to American society. He blamed things like Senator Joseph McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee as a sign of repression in the U.S. ![]() *A soldier in Vietnam reads Playboy in the late 1960s.* "When I was in college at the university of Illinois the skirt lengths dropped instead of going up as they had during the roaring twenties and I knew that was a very bad sign," Hefner said. "It is symbolic and reflective of a very repressive time." In Hef's mind, [sexual repression and dictatorship went hand-in-hand](), and he opted to do his part. His work helped fuel the sexual revolution of the 1960s — and fight an element of feminism he sees as a "puritan," "prohibitionist," and "anti-sexual." Hefner funded challenges to state regulations that outlawed birth control and he sponsored the court case that would become Roe v. Wade. ![]() *A sailor reading Playboy in the 1950s.* "One of the great ironies in our society is that we celebrate freedom and then limit the parts of life where we should be most free," [he told Esquire in 2015](). In that same Esquire interview — at age 76 — he said of his death: "My house is pretty much in order. When it comes, it comes." But he also said, "I wake up every day and go to bed every night knowing I'm the luckiest guy on the fucking planet." ## Author Blake Stilwell is We Are The Mighty's Editor-in-Chief, covering military news, entertainment, and history, along with veteran education, employment and entrepreneurship. He is a former U.S. Air Force combat cameraman with degrees in Graphic Design, Television and Film, International Relations, Public Relations, Business Management and Middle Eastern Affairs. After leaving the military, he began working in film and television production in New York and Los Angeles, work that included ABC News, NBC Olympics, and HBO Sports. He then spent two years in Washington with White House Communications, before joining the Near East Foundation. At NEF he served as an International Development Fellow, then Communications Officer, and finally, Media Officer for the Middle East and Africa. Based in the Palestinian Territory, he coordinated strategic communications between eight country offices, international media, and government and NGO partners. He began a career focused on writing and editing in 2015 with We Are The Mighty. He left in 2019 for Military.com, but returned as Editor-in-Chief in 2025. Blake’s work has been seen on CBS News, Fox News, CBC, The Chicago Tribune, Task & Purpose, Military Times, Recoil, Skillset, American History, and was shockingly even used in a Supreme Court argument. He is an avid traveler and small business owner in Ohio, where he spends most of his energy fixing up a very old house. ### Author social links [Facebook]() [Twitter]() [Instagram]() [LinkedIn]()