Member-only story
The Legend of Sergeant Stubby, The Greatest Military Dog In History
He fought on the Western Front and saved countless lives
Animal mascots for military units are nothing new. Since the advent of warfare, animals have fought alongside their human companions. Some of these mascots have gone down in military lore, such as Sallie, the Staffordshire Terrier, who has a statue at the Gettysburg Battlefield for her heroics, and Unsinkable Sam, the cat who survived multiple shipwrecks during World War II and became a symbol of endurance and perseverance. But there is one animal mascot that stands head and shoulders above the rest: a dog by the name of Sergeant Stubby. And Sergeant wasn’t his name. It was his official rank.
Legend says that Stubby appeared out of the blue as a stray in 1917 around the Yale campus. At the time, the American 102nd Infantry Regiment was training nearby. The dog immediately formed a bond with the Connecticuters and when it was time for the lads to deploy to Europe to fight in the Great War, they took Stubby with them. Stubby likely had no clue that he would go from the ivy and laurel covered grounds of Yale to the trenches of France but he would excel in his new position.
At first, Stubby came along as a mere companion to help boost morale, but when the bullets started to fly, Stubby…
