Posted on 07/06/2011 9:04:45 AM PDT by Daffynition
That is an awesome story.
Thanks for the story Bill!
CHEERS!
Reckless enjoying a beer with her fellow Jarheads.
Thanks so much for posting this. Our daughter has a friend visiting today and both these horse-crazy girls loved this story!!
Mrs. AV
*Many* types of animals served/saved our military during all of the wars.
They get precious little recognition.
It’s another ‘pet peeve’ of mine...no pun intended.
Along with veterans, MIAs and returning heroes, often forgotten are the animal heroes of all our wars.
Please scroll down to the bottom of our biz site and contribute to *their* memorials, whomever may feel moved to do so.
http://www.ustrikes.com/military_tribute.htm
How many of our boys are alive today because of ... a horse? You have to love this story.
So pleased they enjoyed it. We can learn a lot from this courageous Marine.
[Better horse crazy than boy crazy!] ;D
Don’t thank me...thank *them*....:)
Another HERO.
http://www.olive-drab.com/od_wardogs_famous_smoky.php
Smoky, the Yorkie Doodle Dandy
Smoky, a tiny Yorkshire Terrier, was found in a foxhole in the New Guinea jungle, bedraggled and starving, how she got there no one knows. As Bill Wynne tells it:
Smoky was found in the jungle foxhole by Ed Downey a friend ,who not liking dogs gave it to motor pool Sgt. Dare from whom I bought her the next day for two Australian pounds ($6.44 American) so Dare could get back in a poker game.
Smoky went with Wynne from then on and, in the course of eighteen months of combat with the 26th Photo Recon Sq., of the 6th Photo Recon Group, 91st Photo Recon Wing, 5th Air Force, Smoky was credited with twelve combat missions and awarded eight battle stars. YANK magazine named Smoky, “Champion Mascot of the Southwest Pacific Area in 1944.”
But Smoky was more than a mascot. She became a war dog on Luzon in January 1945 when a taxistrip had to be crossed by a communications cable, requiring a culvert to be dug up. That three day job would put the strip out of action, exposing planes to Japanese bombing. Smoky solved the problem by pulling a string with the wires attached through an eight inch pipe under the runway, climbing through piles of sand accumulated along the 70 foot length.
How wonderful is that?....:)
All creatures, great and small, save our soldiers, one and all.
http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/explosive-detecting-rats-save-soldiers-lives
Here's the Marine Corps War Dog Memorial, which honors the twenty-five war dogs who died during the Battle of Guam.
:D
Thanks...but you haven’t checked my profile page, have ya?
[BTW...I’m a big fan of yours]...:)
Have you ever heard of Private Woyjek (pronounced Voytek) of the Polish Army? During WW2, some Polish soldiers stationed in Iran purchased an orphaned bear cub and turned him into their unit mascot. He grew up around soldiers, walked on his hind legs, smoked cigarettes, and drank beer. When the Polish forces deployed to Italy as part of the British 8th Army, the Brits told them they couldn't take any pets or mascots along, so they inducted him into the service and assigned him to the 22nd Artillery Transport Company.
During the Battle of Monte Casino, the Poles were tasked with taking the mountain fortress, and Voytek was right there in the middle of the fight. For three days, he helped carry mortar shells up the side of the mountain.
The new unit insignia of the Polish 22nd Artillery Transport Company
After the war, Voytek and most of his army buddies refused to go home because of the communists being in charge, so they moved to Scotland. Voytek spent the rest of his life in luxury at the Edinburgh Zoo. His army buddies would come to wrestle with him every weekend and would bring him beer and cigarettes. When he finally died in 1963, he was given a full military funeral.
I remember *Stubby*:
Bull Terrier mix, WWI. The most decorated war dog in U.S. history. As a small, stray bull terrier, he was smuggled aboard a troop ship to France. There he was wounded in no-man’s land but recovered and still served in battles at Chateau Thierry, the Marne and the Meuse-Argonne with the men of the 102nd Infantry. One night in February 1918, he roused a sleeping sergeant to warn of a gas attack, giving the soldiers time to don masks and thus saving them. Gen John “Black Jack” Pershing awarded him a special Gold Medal. He was given Life Membership in the American Legion and the Red Cross. He met Presidents Wilson, Harding, and Coolidge. He died of old age in 1926. Stubby is now on display as part of American military history in the Hartford Armory in Connecticut and is called “Sergeant Stubby”.
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