Smoky - World War II Hero Dog Monument

Cleveland, Ohio

The smallest hero of World War II stood only seven inches tall and weighed four pounds. She was "Smoky," a Yorkshire Terrier found in 1944 in New Guinea, abandoned in a foxhole. She was adopted by GI Bill Wynne, who quickly discovered that the little dog was uncommonly adventurous. Smoky's most famous feat was crawling through a tiny 70-foot-long culvert on a captured Japanese island, hauling a communication cable, sparing GIs from having to drag it above ground and be exposed to enemy sniper fire.

After the war Smoky became the world's first therapy dog, visiting wounded GIs in hospitals. She and Wynne then moved to Cleveland, where she died in 1957.

In 2005 the Smoky and Dogs of All Wars monument was unveiled on Veterans Day, sculpted by Susan Bahary. It's a life-size bronze of a smiling Smoky sitting inside a GI helmet (Wynne took many photos of her in that pose) atop a polished granite pedestal that entombs her remains. A nearby information plaque lists other famous war dogs -- Stubby, Nemo, Caesar, Chips -- all worthy, but none with the star power of Smoky.