Photo A0292: In a month that would be filled with tension and turmoil, the troops of the battalion were treated to a special event that would provide the necessary degree of humor to help them get by, the filming of a feature movie in Tokyo named Willie and Joe in “Back at the Front.” Two 720th MP Battalion MPs, CPL's Roy Pritchard of Baker Company and Sam J. Costadina of Able Company played the part of the MPs chasing Willie & Joe. For those veteran’s that were born after the World War II era, Willie and Joe were the names of two archetypical GI Joe cartoon characters developed by Bill Maudlin, who started out as an infantry grunt himself, and went on to become a two-time Pulitzer prize winning editorial cartoonist. The two, who were loved by the troops throughout the U.S. military, represented two weary and bedraggled common GI’s who endured the hardships of warfare. In the movie, World War II is over and to get home quickly, Willie and Joe join the "inactive reserve." Just firmly settled back into civilian life, they're reactivated for a new bout of basic training at a base in Japan. From then on, the two are in and out of one scrape after another while being chased by the MPs, and get involved with a glamorous Eurasian Mata Hari, and her sinister friends in the black-market. Parts of the production were filmed at Camp Drake and in the Ginza area of downtown Tokyo in May of 1952. During the filming the battalion handled crowd security and traffic control.  Official U.S. Army Photograph, courtesy of the Stars & Stripes Newspaper.