"I don't like to do posters," Norman Rockwell said, "They're all propaganda... I don't like to do pictures which glorify killing in a good way."(Gillis, 97) Rockwell began painting soldiers with Willie Gillis, a quiet guy who was caught in the first draft and eventually turned up on the cover of the Washington Post. Before Willie had a chance to battle his way through hospitality, Rockwell's war got serious: Let's give him enough and on time (as seen in the picture on page one). (Illustrtor, 56) A friend of his, Colonel Fairfax Ayers, made arrangements to have a machine gun and crew driven to Rockwell's studio. This painting was to be an action picture with guns blazing, and at first Rockwell thought this a little distracting because everything was clean. The gunners were more than willing to have their uniforms torn and soiled by the artist. (Gillis, 97) In the original sketch, the gunner was smiling, to encourage the people back home to keep the ammo coming. Faced with the real machine-gun crew, Rockwell decided that his idea "was a bit silly"(Gillis, 96). He therefore positioned the gunner instead to be ready to the task of wiping out the enemy. There were empty cartridges on the ground and heaps of cartridge tape to show that his ammunition was gone. The poster was a success (Gillis, 97).
             He also helped the war effort through war bonds. With the nation thick on World War II, he was thinking about how to paint FDR's ideals for the postwar peace. (Sixty, 57) FDR had called these postwar peace ideals, "the Four Freedoms". Rockwell was inspired by Franklin D. Roosevelt's speech, that he wanted to paint them. He wanted to illustrate the freedoms in a way that they would be understandable and meaningful to all Americans. The freedoms that the paintings describe are:
             Freedom of Speech-A New England town meeting. In this painting he illustrated the green-roots of democracy at work in a small New England community. H...