Occasionally, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s librarians come across some truly unusual photo files and are kind enough to share them with The Digs.
This installment just happens to be the result of such a collaboration.
Listed under “mascots,” a trove of photos, some by staff but many others from wire services, was stashed in the PG’s library and included people dressed up in all their faux fur and papier mache glory.
But the manila envelope also contained photos of real animals paired with U.S. servicemen — soldiers and sailors — and law enforcement officers.
Some of these unofficial mascots represented a regiment, company, or platoon. Others were probably just pets, their owners saying goodbye, perhaps even for the last time. Yet others seem to be souvenirs — drooling, tail-wagging and bad-breathed spoils of war.
In one such photo, a U.S. sailor stares at his pet coatimundi. (If you just said aloud, “A what-a-mundi?,” it’s a member of the raccoon family.)
The original 1945 caption says the sailor, Robert E. Wright of Margate City, N.J., purchased “Joco” for a single dollar in Corinto, Nicaragua, and that the two slept nestled together on their Navy patrol boat. After Wright returned to the U.S., the caption says he was later redeployed, with Joco being sent off to the Philadelphia Zoo.
Another animal that got a ride to the States was “Vic.” Vic, a dog from France, was photographed in 1945 riding proudly atop Pfc. Robert Ford’s duffel bag after their repair ship, the Griswald, returned to Philadelphia from Europe. Vic went on to live with Ford in Denver — from Parisian lights to Rocky Mountain heights.
The mascot for a military company stationed in Berlin was a no-brainer.
Bear Company, which was attached to the 6th Infantry Regiment, had its very own Teddy Bear. While neither stuffy nor holdable, “Teddy” was a month-old bear cub when he was made mascot of the unit in 1958. In one photo, he’s leashed and sitting at attention as orders are announced. A post at the time said, “Nine months later, he was not a cute, cuddly cub, but as rough and tough as any first sergeant.”
While the origins and procurement of Teddy are unknown, we do know that he was given a Jeep tour of Berlin’s Russian zone before his retirement to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington, D.C.
One of the more curious images was one of a mutt named Stinky, an unofficial mascot of the transportation corps who was photographed in 1945, surrounded by guns and bullets.
The caption says Stinky “cut her teeth on spent bullets instead of bones and has spent most of her short life on the pistol range for the New York Port of Embarkation. The cute pup loves the sound of gunfire.” The obvious question is whether Stinky’s love of gunfire contributed to her “short life” in the quickest game of fetch ever recorded.
Sometimes it’s the animals themselves that are packin’ the heat.
In one photo, a dog named Lassie (not the TV star) is photographed wearing a badge and holster and what appears to be a real pistol. Her owner, Capt. Louis Capparelli of the Maxwell Police Station in Chicago, said Lassie seemed comfortable with the atmosphere inside the lockup, so, you know, why not?
In addition to Lassie and Stinky, there are other questionable calls regarding our four-legged friends, whose names sound like a who’s-who of rejected G.I. Joe characters:
■ “Ammo,” a puppy whose 1951 photo op was taken atop a pile of Howitzer shells in Korea, courtesy of the 7th Infantry.
■ “Seminole,” an alligator that was tied down to a reviewing stand to watch the 6th Infantry parade by in Berlin, also in 1951.
■ “Freddie,” a dog aboard an Army transport in 1943 who looks extremely unhappy after a makeshift helmet — in this case, a soup can — was duct-taped to its head.
■ And, of course, “Ripcord,” a dog with the Air Force’s 2nd Air Rescue Squadron who was sent parachuting from an airplane — solo — into Okinawa in 1954.
While dogs dominate, other animals pictured include “Bilgewater,” a Coast Guard cat that fell asleep while playing with a cadet’s cap in 1943 in New London, Conn., and “Waldo,” a young, wild jaguar that is photographed while being held by Cpl. John W. Walker of Caseyville, Ill., who was with the 6th Air Force in Panama in 1945.