Voytek, bear soldier. ...seriously

[x88x]

I stumbled across this while reading, of all things, Ars Technica comments.

Apparently in WWII, a Polish infantry company found a Brown Bear cub and raised it as part of the company, naming him Voytek (ok, actually Wojtek, but I'll stick with the anglicanized spelling). He slept in the tents with the men, ate with the men, drank with the men (drunk 500lb Brown Bear...not something I would want to run across at night :P ), he even developed a fondness for hot showers and apparently caught a spy in the shower house once....sucks to be that guy. :D He went on to become an actual enlisted soldier (when the British wouldn't let them bring a pet on base) and a full-fledged war hero after carrying fresh ammo to his company steadily throughout the Battle of Monte Cassino (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Monte_Cassino).

After reading through these articles, I have two things to say:
1) Poles are friggin insane!
2) That is one of the most awesome things I have read in a long, long time. :D

http://www.badassoftheweek.com/voytek.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voytek

[Konrad]

People do that all the time with dogs. Police dogs are considered "officers" and probably get better pay and benefits than I do. Bears evolved to sometimes compete against wolves, and wolves are probably smarter than most dog breeds. Feral, less trainable, but still smarter.

A war bear doesn't seem strange in light of war dogs, war horses, even war elephants.

[x88x]

A war bear doesn't seem strange in light of war dogs, war horses, even war elephants.

Yeah, but somehow it's just so much more awesome. :D I mean seriously, you're sitting there in a trench, looking across the field of battle at the enemy, and you see a friggin bear bring them a load of ammo, sit down, and grab a beer. ...that's gotta have some crazy psychological impact. Also, I imagine a bear would be better in close combat if it came to it than a dog, horse, or even, arguably, an elephant.

Heheheheheheh...I just had an awesome idea... We have K-9 police units with each officer paired with a dog, yes? We should have bear units. :twisted: Maybe it wouldn't have the same tracking ability as some dogs, but again, imagine the psychological impact...you're robbing a store when you look outside and see a bear in body armor coming to take you down. :D

[Luke122]

imagine the psychological impact...you're robbing a store when you look outside and see a bear in body armor coming to take you down. :D

Win.