November.

The 11th month. The 11th day. The 11th hour. A moment to remember and to honour the millions of courageous service men and women who fought and died to protect our freedom. A moment to remember the millions of horses, ponies, donkeys and mules that served in the wars alongside them, paying the ultimate sacrifice.

2005 is the Year of the Veteran, a dedication to recognize and pay tribute to all Canadian war veterans who participated on the home front and overseas during times of conflict.

Wartime, so alien, dark, and distant to many of us who never knew it, was a time of intense emotion to those who lived through it. Friendships made in an instant lasted a lifetime. The bonds made with animals recruited for service were just as strong, if perhaps more poignant for so many of them died from injury or disease.

Beyond the battleground, though, was a forgotten group of men. They were the mule men, the mule handlers. As 1st Lt. Don Thrapp wrote in The Quartermaster Review May-June 1946, "...The Quartermaster officers and men in the pack troops, or those who handle jackasses for Infantry or other branches of service, occasionally reach the fighting areas. Each arm and service ordinarily trains its own packers, but a man who has a specialist rating as a mule packer usually is received joyously by combat donkey organizations."

Because of their sure-footedness and dependability, mules were highly valued. "A mule can carry about one third of his weight,"wrote Lt. Thrapp. "The Army cargo pack saddle, with trappings, weighs in the neighbourhood of one hundred pounds, and the average mule we worked would weigh from 1,000 to 1,200 pounds. Stouter mules are kept for the artillery, which has the heaviest, most awkward loads."

Those war records of Lt. Thrapp at Fort Lee, Virginia, made fascinating reading especially considering the degree to which the mulemen cared for their animals in the most hostile of conditions. "...Their most important task is to take care of their animals and to graze them. Just as man cannot live on bread alone, so a mule won’t go far on just grain. Or very far without it, either. The animals (need to) get their two hours or more grazing, and be properly rubbed down and picketed for the night.”

Mules were assigned permanent tasks and the success of a military mission often depended on how accurately each animal was classified and how well it measured up to the task whether it be as a riding animal or as one that would pack artillery, heavy weapons, or be used in
communications, intelligence, reconnaissance or by medical teams for
casualty evacuation.

The intelligence of mules was never underestimated by Lt. Thrapp. "The
average mule is one of the most intelligent, and certainly one of the
most sure-footed, animals in the world. He can see a trail where a man can see nothing but rock. If left to his own devices, he will never stumble, rarely slip or bog himself down, and almost never hurt himself."

Among the legendary horses that served in battle one of the great stories was Comanche. The gelding was ridden by Captain Koegh, one of George Armstrong Custer’s officers at the disastrous Battle of the Little Big Horn. Custer, Commander of the 7th Cavalry at Fort Riley, Kansas, tried unwisely to move a band of Sioux natives. He completely underestimated their fighting strength. No one survived except one horse, Comanche. He was found in a thicket of brush with seven arrows in his body. He was treated, loaded onto a riverboat and sent to Fort
Lincoln where he received not only medical care but a place of honour
in the fort's grounds. He was never ridden again and became a national
celebrity.

Comanche's story symbolizes so many millions of horses in war that have
been to the edge of hell and back. Over eight million horses died on all sides fighting in World War 1. Two and a half million were treated in veterinary hospitals and about a million healed sufficiently that they could return to service.

Maybe this year, when you buy your poppy in memory of the service men
and women, buy another to put in the barn in honour of their equine
comrades in arms.