#sergeant stubby

I wanted to draw them all together since forever - they all have a special place in my heart ❤️

From top left to bottom right

- Sergeant Stubby

- Laika

- Belka and Strelka

- Hachikō

- Balto and Togo (I drew them together but they didn't run in the same team)

Les Mis:

Gavroche

His brothers

Éponine

Grantaire

Jehan

Petit Gervais

Navet

Everyone else:

Goose (Top Gun)

Rooster (Top Gun Maverick)

Eddie (9-1-1)

Bobby (9-1-1)

Lightning (Red Tails)

The ginger guy from Sergeant Stubby

Honeyfern (Warriors)

Yellowfang (Warriors)

Benvolio (Romeo and Juliet)

Orpheus & Eurydice (Hadestown)

Sergeant Stubby was a bull terrier mixed breed dog who adopted an infantry unit long before the military added a K-9 Corps. He started following the men of the 102nd Infantry (part of the Army’s 26th Division).

It was Corporal Robert Conroy who came upon a stray pup who kept showing up at the men’s drill practices. The unit was to ship overseas from Newport News, Virginia, and Conroy hid Stubby in some of the equipment to get him to Virginia and then on to France.

Stubby spent the next year and a half on the front line. He participated in 17 battles, including those at Chateau-Thierry, the Marne, and Saint-Mihiel. His acute sense of hearing and smell were invaluable to the men. He could hear the high-pitched whine of the shells before the soldiers did, so the men took to watching Stubby to see if he had noted anything. His sense of smell alerted him to gas attacks before the men realized one was coming. Stubby would run through the trenches to alert the men.

Stubby was never trained for the battlefield, but his great hearing, strong sense of smell, and most importantly, his loyalty to the men made him a valuable asset to the troops. He came home a war hero, the mascot of World War I and the most decorated dog in history. He earned 11 medals during his service including three service stripes, a Purple Heart, and eight other service medals

The New York Times OTD July 6 1921 reports on American General John ( "Black Jack") Pershing giving a gold medal to the famous #WWI dog Sergeant Stubby. It was not an official military medal but a Humane Education Society. In the photo is General Pershing holding Sergeant Stubby as Robert Conroy, Stubbys owner, wearing a suit, stands behind them. "In presenting the medal the General made a little impromptu speech, but Stubby made no reply," The New York Times reports. "He merely licked his chops and wagged his diminutive tail." Sergeant Stubby was a dog and the official mascot of the United States, 102nd Infantry Regiment. He was smuggled to Europe and served for 18 months and participated in 17 battles on the Western Front. He was loved by the men of his unit as he could warn his unit of poison gas attacks, locate wounded soldiers in no man's land, and giving his unit a few seconds to find cover as he could hear incoming artillery. After Stubby died the April 4, 1926 "New York Times" printed an obituary that in part read: "Stubby is dead. He was only a dog and unpedigreed at that, but he was the most famous mascot in the A.E.F. Stubby took part in four major offensives, was wounded and gassed. He captured a German Spy and won more medals than any other soldier dog. " Colourized by combatpix

Sergeant Stubby (1916 – March 16th, 1926) was the most-decorated dog of WW1, the only dog to be promoted to sergeant through combat, and the first dog to be given a rank in the US army.