Meet Jackie, the baboon war hero who became a corporal

Originally published at: Meet Jackie, the baboon war hero who became a corporal | Boing Boing

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Why the long face?

Seriously, though, subjecting an animal to the horrors war is not doing it a favour. Poor, maimed thing.

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Gus the donkey has got nothing on ol’ Jackie! Hello new Disney direct-to-DVD film!

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Have to agree. Horses, dogs, dolphins, you name it.

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Gross. Monkeys…

Wojtek is real animal hero!

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not to mention war elephants. fucking butchery.

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I don’t think subjecting human soldiers to the Great War was doing them much of a favor either.

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Another combat hero, from Wikipedia: Sergeant Stubby (1916 – March 16, 1926) was a dog and the unofficial mascot of the 102nd Infantry Regiment (United States) and was assigned to the 26th (Yankee) Division in World War I. He served for 18 months and participated in 17 battles on the Western Front. He saved his regiment from surprise mustard gas attacks, found and comforted the wounded, and allegedly once caught a German soldier by the seat of his pants, holding him there until American soldiers found him.[2] His actions were well-documented in contemporary American newspapers.[3][4][5]

Stubby has been called the most decorated war dog of the Great War and the only dog to be nominated and promoted to sergeant through combat.[6] Stubby’s remains are in the Smithsonian Institution.[3][4][6]

Stubby is the subject of a 2018 animated film.

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Why’d I click on that Willie Nelson song?!

image

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Imagine being a soldier in France who is forced to cross no-man’s-land, and assault a trench full of enemy combatants. It’s already pretty bad and then you’re confronted with an angry baboon, wearing full kit, and trying to shred your face with those huge canines.

And then you somehow survive and have to spend the rest of your life trying to explain to your grandchildren that you fought baboons at the Battle of Delvile Wood, only to have them mutter, “Poor gramps, who knows what he really saw…”

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There were a lot of apes in uniform in 'Nam. Some of them were eventually given commissions.

I heard this tale recently on the Italian vlog Bizarro Bazaar, a nice YouTube wunderkammer for aficionados of the weird. (English subtitles with closed caption)

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