“The Barracks Wall in Busan” — Korea (1951, Korean War)

Corporal James McAllister served in Busan where soldiers decorated barracks walls with magazine pinup art and clipped pinup girl images of famous pinup models from back home.

One standout was a charcoal pinup illustration called “Miss Liberty,” drawn in the style of a pinup portrait by a recovering medic.

Before deployments, soldiers touched the wall for luck. When a mortar strike hit the compound, the section holding the pinup art collapsed outward, sparing much of the barracks.

The pinup illustration was later preserved and framed as a symbol of survival.