My Pal Sergeant Mike: How a War Dog Turned Movie Star Helped Salute Real Life War Dogs

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Abstract

Mike embodied the ideal image of a war dog. A former police dog, the 60lb German Shepherd was donated to Dogs for Defense by his owner Hal Holverson in 1942. Mike was sent to Fort Robinson, Nebraska where he trained to become a sentry dog. One highlight of Mike’s wartime service was a movie. Sergeant Mike debuted in 1944 and stared the real-life war dog. Prior to the film’s debut, other films about war dogs had appeared in theaters but Sgt. Mike was the first to utilize a real-life war dog instead of canine actor. Mike’s fictional adventures in the Pacific theater highlighted his real-life war experiences, but also those of thousands of dogs enlisted into military service by the time of the film’s release. The release of war dog films continued to encourage the donation of dogs into armed combat and allowed moviegoers to imagine their own dogs achieving glory on the battlefield like those on the movie screen. I argue that the release of Sergeant Mike and other war dog films mirrored and promoted the real struggles and achievements of war dogs, in addition to encouraging the donation dogs, while serving under the fictional guise of Hollywood. Emphasizing the experience of war dogs during World War II allows us to gain a broader understanding of the terrors and continued hardships of the battlefield and the ways in which they impacted non-human agents. while highlighting how the relationship between working dog and human has helped shape history.

Author

• Hannah Palsa, Northern Illinois University