Sergeant Stubby

In 1917, a stray Boston Terrier came upon a group of soldiers training for deployment to Europe to join WWI. They were the 102nd Regiment of the 26th Yankee Division. He was given the name Stubby by one of these men, Robert Conroy, due to his little screw tail. Stubby seemed to enjoy the daily exercises and joined in every day.

When the men were deployed to France, Robert couldn’t just leave him behind so he smuggled him along. Eventually, Stubby was discovered, but allowed to stay.

In France, Stubby joined his humans in battle. Not long in, he was gassed with mustard gas so after recovering, would run up and down barking to warn his company to put on their gas masks. He was also fitted with a doggie gas mask himself. Stubby could also warn of incoming bombs due to his better hearing and found wounded men on the battlefield. He even discovered and captured an enemy combatant.
There is an apocryphal story he received a field promotion to Sargent, but this is unlikely.

At one point, Stubby was wounded and sent away from the fighting for a few months but still managed entertain and visit his fellow convalescents regularly. He returned to the active front lines until the end of the war.

In total, Stubby saw 17 battles in all and was decommissioned at the end of the war with his fellow soldiers and returned home with Robert.

He died peacefully in 1926 after many accolades, parades and cuddles.

In May 2018, the Connecticut Trees of Honor Memorial park, commissioned a statue of Stubby.

In April 2018, Sgt. Stubby, an animated movie was released.

Read more about Stubby at Sergeant Stubby Salutes or at the Smithsonian Museum website.