Sergeant Stubby Statue

Statue of the most decorated dog of World War I, in Hubbard Park

A bronze statue in Hubbard Park honoring Sergeant Stubby, the bull terrier mix who became the most decorated war dog in American history during World War I. Stubby served with the 102nd Infantry Regiment and participated in 17 battles on the Western Front. The statue shows him in the uniform jacket decorated with his medals that he wore for the rest of his life after the war.

Hubbard Park itself is a pleasant green space with views over the city. The Stubby statue was installed as part of a broader project to recognise the military history of Middletown, which sent significant numbers of men to both world wars. The story of how a stray dog became a decorated sergeant and a media celebrity in 1918 is one of the odder footnotes to that war.

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A story
Stubby was a stray bull terrier mix found near Yale University in 1917, who was smuggled onto a troop ship by J. Robert Conroy and served with the 102nd Infantry in France. He learned to alert his unit to gas attacks by smell before the soldiers could detect them, found wounded men in no-man's-land, and once caught a German spy by the seat of his pants. He was officially made a sergeant — the only dog to be promoted through combat service in the US Army — and met three presidents after the war.

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