SERGEANT STUBBY

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MarionPellicano Ambrose
Whilevisiting a friend today, she told me about a TV show she had seen, whichdocumented  the life  of a very unusual dog named Stubby. Afterhearing a little a bit about the show, I felt I wanted to learn the whole storyfor myself. I read several articles, watched some  videos and checked the web for everything Icould find. So here is the story of  Stubby,WWI Veteran and Hero!
 Stubby was a stray Pit Bull Terrier who wasabandoned in New Haven, Connecticut during the time of World War I.He was a homeless, stray living out of garbage cans. One fateful day, hewandered on to the parade ground of the Yale Universitycampus. At that exact time, the 102^nd Regiment, 26^thInfantry Division happened to be training to be deployed. A soldier named JohnRobert Conroy, took pity on the pathetic little dog and named him “Stubby”because of his stubby little tail. Conroy started leaving food and water forthe dog and let him sleep in the barracks on occasion. Stubby’s winning personalityand great intelligence soon endeared him to all the other soldiers. This dogwas so smart that he learned the bugle calls, learned to march in formationwith the men and believe it or not, learned to salute superior officers byraising his forepaw to his brow.
Stubby truly became “one of the men” andwhen it came time for the 102^nd to ship out, Stubby was convenientlystuffed in Conroy’s coat and smuggled onto the ship headed for France and theWar. Once at sea, Stubby was allowed on deck and the sailors also fell in lovewith him. The machinists’ mate made him asset of his own dog tags.
Eventually, Conroy’s commanding officercaught wind of the dog aboard. When confronted, Conroy gave the command:“Present Arms!”  Stubby saluted theofficer who immediately gave his blessing for Stubby to stay with the 26^th,even into battle.  Stubby became theofficial mascot of the American Expeditionary Force and gave support andencouragement to each of the homesick soldiers on the front lines.
During his tour of duty, Stubbyparticipated in 17 battles and 4 major offensives. In 1918 he was wounded inaction and almost died, in a chemical weapons attack where the Germans launchedmustard gas. But Stubby was too tough to let a little gas get him, and becauseof his experience, he became a “mustard gas detection dog”, letting the menknow there was gas before it got to a lethal level. He would warn the men toput on their gas masks by running up and down the line, barking and nippinguntil they put on their masks. His actions saved countless lives this way.
Stubby was also able to detect artilleryfire before the shells started exploding. This also saved many lives, as Stubbycould sense German ground attacks before the men. They said he could sniffbratwurst coming from miles away and would warn the sentry by barking or evenbiting him until he would sound the alarm.
  Stubby spent much of his free time looking forwounded and dying Allied soldiers to rescue. According to first-hand accounts,this dog could hear English being spoken and he'd immediately run over andcheck out the wounded man. If the wounded man was able to walk, Stubby wouldlead him back to friendly lines. If the soldier was too wounded to move, Stubbywould stand there and bark until a medic arrived.
Stubby the War Dog was wounded again incombat in April 1918, when he was hit with a German hand grenade whileparticipating in the assault on the German town of Schieprey. Despite receiving shrapnel woundsto his forelimbs and chest, Stubby survived the grenade blast, lived throughsome emergency surgery, and spent his convalescence time cheering up thewounded men in the field hospital. He returned to action a few months later andhelped participate in the liberation of Chateau Thierry, a deed that impressedthe  French ladies living in the city somuch that they made him a chamois blanked decorated with the flags of theAllied countries to thank him. The men of the 102nd, for their part, madeStubby a jacket designed to look like an American military uniform, and thenthey decorated it with Stubby's name, rank, and medals – medals that includedthe Purple Heart, the Republic of France Grande War Medal,the Medal of Verdun, and medals for every campaign in which he'd served.
But this thing wasn't done yet. Whileserving in the Argonne Forest during theMeuse-Argonne campaign of September 1918, Stubby was patrolling the trencheswhen he discovered a camouflaged German spy hiding out mapping the Alliedtrenches. Stubby must have smelled the bratwurst on this man or something,becaude he started barking and circling the soldier,  the spy made a run for it but Stubby chasedand took him down. Stubby bit the spy in the rear causing him to cursespontaneously, and in German. He held the spy down until the Americans couldtake him into custody. For his bravery and diligence, Stubby was promoted tothe rank of Sergeant, which meant that the dog now outranked his owner, who wasonly a Corporal at this time. Stubby became the first dog to be promoted to arank the army. When the Americans brought the German spy back to camp theystripped the prisoner of his Iron Cross and pinned the German military medal onthe dog's jacket instead.

After the war, Sergeant Stubby was smuggled back to the states, where he was aninstant celebrity. He was inducted into the American Legion, offered free foodfor life from the YMCA, and whenever he went out of war bonds promotion toursfive-star hotels would relax their "no dogs allowed" policy for thecanine war hero. He went to the White House twice, met three presidents, and in1921 the American overall commander "Black Jack" Pershing personallypinned a one-of-a-kind "Dog Hero Gold Medal" on Stubby's militaryjacket.
When Robert Conroy ended up attending Georgetown University for law school after the war,Sergeant Stubby went with him. The dog immediately became the official mascotof the football team – and to this day the University sports mascot is still adog . In addition to hanging out with the players, it eventually became traditionto bring Sergeant Stubby out on the field during Halftime of football games andhe'd pump the crowd up by running around the field pushing the ball around withhis nose. Nobody had really done anything like this before, meaning that,Sergeant Stubby might have possibly invented the Halftime Show.
Sergeant Stubby, American war hero dog,died in 1926, at the (approximate) age of ten. Stubby was preserved and isdisplayed in his own exhibit at the Smithsonian's Museum of American History.
And that’s the story of a true AmericanWorld War I Hero – Sergeant Stubby.