Stubby, was adopted by a regiment of US soldiers and saw action on 17 battlefields, was injured by crossfire, met three US presidents and was adopted by US soldier J. A painting of Stubby the war dog, on display at the West Haven Veteran's Museum West Haven, Conn. "Look at the lives he saved, and the things he did to save those lives," Frank Carrano, a Korean War veteran and history buff from West Haven, told a New Haven Register reporter.Ī film based on Stubby's life was released nationwide in 2018, in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I.Ĭarrano's eyes lit up when he got a chance to tell Stubby's amazing story to new ears.Īnd he was eager to show off a prized piece of memorabilia that is now displayed in the West Haven Veterans Museum - a portrait of Stubby painted by Charles Ayer Whipple in 1926. It was the beginning of a lifelong friendship marked by unwavering loyalty, heroism and belly rubs. Stubby came from humble beginnings, roaming the streets of New Haven, and was taken in by Pvt. Not bad for a wayward terrier plucked from life as a vagabond and thrust onto the front lines of battle. Contributed Photo / West Haven Veteran's Museum andĮven after he was injured by gas and wounded by shrapnel, Stubby persevered. She became an ambulance, hauling wounded soldiers out of danger - doing so on her own because they couldn’t spare a Marine to lead her.Stubby the World War I hero dog. Sergeant Reckless toted supplies and artillery. There was a standing order that no soldier was allowed to ride on her, not only out of respect for her rank, but because she was too valuable of an asset to risk injuring.”
“Her fellow soldiers took the rank serious enough to threaten others with court martial for disrespecting her rank. “After two years of service, the commander of the 1 st Marine Division was so impressed and grateful to the horse that he gave her an official battlefield promotion to the rank of (staff) sergeant,” Hill wrote. They nicknamed her “Sergeant Reckless,” which became prophetic. They trained her “also to lie down when under fire, avoid barbed wire and crouch in foxholes, and to run for cover when there was incoming fire,” David Hill wrote last year in a story published on America’s Best Racing website.
Petersen and several Marines in the unit trained the horse to pack the big gun and nine 24-pound shells. Staff Sergeant Reckless receiving her stripes. (The boy then used the cash to pay for a prosthetic for his sister, who lost her leg after stepping on a land mine.) The Marines had named it “reckless.”Ī racetrack stable boy in Seoul sold the animal to Marines Recoilless Rifle Platoon Commander Eric Pedersen for $250. Staff Sergeant Reckless, a chestnut Mongolian mare racehorse, became the Marines’ packhorse for a six-foot-long, 75mm rifle that weighed more than 100 pounds. Conroy gave him to the Smithsonian Institution in 1956.ĭecades later, a much bigger critter performed similar heroics in Korea. After he died at age 10 in 1926, a taxidermist preserved his body, which contains his cremains. He performed in vaudeville shows with a weekly salary of $62.50 – more than double that of the average American at the time. He met three US presidents, starred in movies, in animated features, school materials, posters, and other media. Sergeant Stubby enjoyed great fame back home. The French honored him with a medal as well. in 1921, when he received an unofficial military medal for heroism and became the first Army dog accorded a rank. He was honored by General Pershing in Washington, D.C. When the war ended, Sergeant Stubby came home with Cpl.
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