#corporal wojtek

Interesting thing about the Pines Family of the JFAU; Filbrick and Caryn are both 2nd gen immigrants, which means they were born in the U.S to immigrant parents. The Pines side (Filbrick) being Polish, and the Romanoff side (Caryn) being Russian.

This hasnt been outright stated before, but it is hinted at in Jerk Ford and Stan's profiles with their favourite foods; Jerk Fords favourite dish being beef borsht (Russian), and Stan's favourite dessert being kremówka (Polish).

Jerk Ford stands out from other Fords for a lot of reasons, the primary reason being that he's a huge jerk, but another reason is that he takes his heritage quite seriously as a part of his identity.

This is usually seen with him referencing / practicing things from Jewish religion and culture. The biggest and most noticable thing he does in the name of his heritage is that instead of celebrating Jewish Holidays the normal way during his portal years, he instead would go into Nazi or WWII era timelines/dimensions to kill Nazis.

When he visits dimensions that take place in the WWII era (or any of the years between 1942 and 1963), he makes sure to visit Private/Corporal Wojtek, a Polish soldier.

A Polish soldier who also happens to be a Syrian Brown Bear.

Jerk Ford visits him so he can give him all the pets he deserves. Also, to have a smoke with him, out of respect and reverence.

Dogs are very prevalent in pop-culture in regards to military than any other animals (and those animals still play a major role in such institutions), however I saw lots of photos of cats on ships/navy vessels, also I’ve read about how rats help sappers clear minefields [LINK] - so I guess it depends on a possible primary job of an animal within the military (secondary is, always, boosting morale).

I mentioned corporal Wojtek in one of my earlier posts [LINK], however it was in passing as he wasn’t a focus of the story, so I’m not surprised it went unnoticed.

I have in my plans to draw Wojtek-inspired artwork with either Hardcase (he is a madman - he would totally wrestle a BEAR), Rex or Anakin wrestling such a creature. However, I think Wrecker would not only wrestle with the space!bear every chance he got, he would be the only clone trooper close enough to actually win such a play-fight!

I can see CF99 adopting such an animal (surprisingly... Crosshair became it’s primary handler and yes, he was feeding the cub milk out of the booze bottle like Wojtek was) but upon seeing how fast and how big it was growing they decided they all won’t fit in such a small vessel like Havoc Marauder. They considered giving the creature away to a space!ZOO (Tech’s idea). They didn’t even had a chance to do so, as 501st, upon seeing such a magnificent creature (and trained to do certain tasks!) just took the space!bear - it’s theirs now.

Me: "I hope you know, I hope you know. That this has nothing to do with you"