B.D. is a fictional character in Garry Trudeau

Garry Trudeau

Garretson Beekman "Garry" Trudeau is an American cartoonist, best known for the Doonesbury comic strip.-Background and education:...

's popular comic strip Doonesbury

Doonesbury

Doonesbury is a comic strip by American cartoonist Garry Trudeau, that chronicles the adventures and lives of an array of characters of various ages, professions, and backgrounds, from the President of the United States to the title character, Michael Doonesbury, who has progressed from a college...

. In the comic strip, nobody is certain what "B.D." is short for (he gives his last name as "D"), but he was based on Brian Dowling

Brian Dowling (football)

Brian John Dowling is a former college and professional football player and was the starting quarterback of the Yale University football team in the late 1960s. He set, and held for decades, a number of Yale passing records. Dowling finished 9th in vote for the 1968 Heisman Trophy, and was...

, quarterback at Yale University

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

, where Trudeau attended college. In the stage adaptation of the strip, Doonesbury: A Musical Comedy, his full name was revealed to be Brian John Dowling (that of his real life namesake).

History

B.D. was first introduced on September 30, 1968, in Trudeau's strip "Bull Tales" in the Yale Daily News

Yale Daily News

The Yale Daily News is an independent student newspaper published by Yale University students in New Haven, Connecticut since January 28, 1878...

. At the time, B.D.'s helmet was white, with a block letter "Y" for Yale.

B.D. was reintroduced in the first Doonesbury strip in 1970 in which the popular quarterback

Quarterback

Quarterback is a position in American and Canadian football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive team and line up directly behind the offensive line...

 became roommate to the nerdy, awkward Mike Doonesbury

Mike Doonesbury

Michael James "Mike" Doonesbury is the main character in Garry Trudeau's comic strip Doonesbury. He started out as a nerdish freshman from Tulsa at the fictional Walden College, and shared a dorm room with B.D. Currently he is married to Kim Rosenthal, and divorced from J.J. Caucus. Mike's...

 at Walden College. At Walden, B.D. wore a football helmet with a star on the side, replacing the Yale "Y". Mike and B.D. had many differences and initially could not stand each other.

As captain of the Walden football team, B.D. faced many tests of his short patience. His teammates could rarely keep their minds on the game, opting to have intense philosophical and political discussions during huddle. This became much worse when self-described "freak" Zonker Harris

Zonker Harris

Zonker Harris is the stereotypical hippie character in Garry Trudeau's comic strip Doonesbury. He made his first appearance as a perennial pot-smoking pest plaguing B.D.'s football team in 1971...

 joined the team.

B.D. is notable for having rather conservative

American conservatism

Conservatism in the United States has played an important role in American politics since the 1950s. Historian Gregory Schneider identifies several constants in American conservatism: respect for tradition, support of republicanism, preservation of "the rule of law and the Christian religion", and...

 views, in contrast to the more liberal beliefs of the other main characters, Mike, Mark

Mark Slackmeyer

Mark Sheldon Slackmeyer is a character in the comic strip Doonesbury. Mark starts out as a radical at Walden College, and leads several peace rallies . The character was initially modeled after Mark Rudd, then in the news as a leader of Columbia University's student protests of 1968...

 and Zonker. He deplored welfare and marijuana use, In some of the early strips he was even portrayed as slightly racist and sexist, and was a supporter of the Vietnam War

Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

. He eventually joined the army and went to Vietnam simply to get out of writing a term paper. He found military life to be a good match for him, and enjoyed his tour of duty immensely in sharp contrast to most of his colleagues. While in Vietnam, B.D. met and befriended Phred, a Viet-Cong "terrorist" who captured him, only to get them both lost. They remain friends to this day.

During the 1970s he started dating Boopsie, and they moved into Walden Commune with Mike, Mark, Zonker, and others. He graduated with the original Doonesbury characters during the strip's hiatus in 1983, and with Boopsie moved to Malibu, California, where he played as a third-string quarterback for the then Los Angeles Rams

St. Louis Rams

The St. Louis Rams are a professional American football team based in St. Louis, Missouri. They are currently members of the West Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The Rams have won three NFL Championships .The Rams began playing in 1936 in Cleveland,...

, and worked as Boopsie's manager while she tried to develop a career in Hollywood.

B.D. remained in the army reserves and was called up for the Gulf War

Gulf War

The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...

 in 1991. There he became friends with Ray Hightower, who subsequently became a recurring character in the strip. While on leave B.D. cheated on Boopsie with a female officer. The affair ended abruptly when it turned out the other soldier was a captain while B.D. (at the time) was a corporal.

When Boopsie learned of the affair she broke up with B.D., but eventually they reconciled, married and in 1992 had a daughter, Samantha (Sam). During the early 90s, B.D. worked as a cop in the California Highway Patrol

California Highway Patrol

The California Highway Patrol is a law enforcement agency of the U.S. state of California. The CHP has patrol jurisdiction over all California highways and also acts as the state police....

, changing his military helmet for a policeman's motorcycle helmet. Eventually he was hired by his alma mater Walden College to coach the football team he was once captain of.

He was briefly called back to military duty to keep order after the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center

World Trade Center

The original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new...

, and in 2003 he was sent to fight the Iraq War.

The helmet finally came off on April 21, 2004 when, while serving in Iraq

Iraq

Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

, B.D. lost a leg; his reaction to its loss was a loud, anguished, "Son of a bitch!", which caused the strip to be pulled from some newspapers. His friend and fellow soldier Ray Hightower got him airlifted to safety in time, and he survives as an amputee

Amputation

Amputation is the removal of a body extremity by trauma, prolonged constriction, or surgery. As a surgical measure, it is used to control pain or a disease process in the affected limb, such as malignancy or gangrene. In some cases, it is carried out on individuals as a preventative surgery for...

. He has successfully gone through physical therapy and can walk with the aid of a high-tech prosthetic "C-Leg". His only reflection on losing the helmet was on July 31, 2004, when he thought to himself, "Oh yeah, my helmet. What the hell was THAT all about?"

Although he was physically in good condition, his mental state deteriorated since returning home. B.D. began drinking too much, suffered from nightmares and became highly irritable. Realizing the seriousness of his problems, he entered therapy in January 2006. B.D. shows great reluctance or even fear about discussing his Iraq service with the counselor. This is revealed to stem from guilt over an incident wherein he ordered the driver of his HMMWV to drive through a crowd in order to escape an ambush of the Iraqi insurgency

Iraqi insurgency

The Iraqi Resistance is composed of a diverse mix of militias, foreign fighters, all-Iraqi units or mixtures opposing the United States-led multinational force in Iraq and the post-2003 Iraqi government...

.

In 2008-2009, B.D. spent time and efforts on helping another wounded veteran known as Toggle, who was injured in similar circumstances.

B.D.'s helmet

One of B.D.'s odder traits was his helmet. For 34 years he was never seen without one. He wore a football helmet at college, as a coach and as a pro football player, a soldier's helmet in the army, a policeman's helmet when he was a cop and even riot gear. His only (rare) explanations for this were "My ears stick out" or "I have bad hair". In the February 21, 2006 strip he revealed that his mother used to put helmets on him, as a means of protection, when he was a child.

Chronology of major events

Date	Event
26 October 1970	First appearance, wearing a white helmet with a star (the star is later revealed to be green)
12 December 1984	Becomes a third-string quarterback for the Los Angeles Rams, now wears that team's helmet
3 August 1987	Returns to wearing his Walden College helmet
16 August 1987	Retires from professional sports
5 September 1990	Called up for the first Persian Gulf War
10 September 1990	Changes helmet to desert camouflage
1990	Field promoted to Sergeant
6 May 1991	Returns home from first Gulf War
20 April 1992	Marries Boopsie
12 May 1992	Called up again to protect Los Angeles after the start of the 1992 Los Angeles Riots 1992 Los Angeles riots The 1992 Los Angeles Riots or South Central Riots, also known as the 1992 Los Angeles Civil Unrest were sparked on April 29, 1992, when a jury acquitted three white and one hispanic Los Angeles Police Department officers accused in the videotaped beating of black motorist Rodney King following a...
9 September 1992	Joins the California Highway Patrol, changes helmet
1992	Moves back to Walden to coach the football team
2003	Called up for the second Gulf War, promoted to lieutenant
21 April 2004	Loses leg, and helmet