FORT SILL, Okla. (March 16, 2017) -- They may be four-legged and furry, but they are soldiers, and when an Army mascot dies he gets full military burial honors and a final resting place in Fort Sill's Mascot Cemetery.
Capt. Jesse Davis, A Battery, 2nd Battalion, 2nd Field Artillery, commander, said his unit's mascots are a special part of the unit's history and identity, and earn both rank and demotions the same as any service member.
"The mascots are symbolic to the unit," he said. "They represent our heritage where we used pack mules for carrying artillery. They get a lot of presentation time. They're part of the community and the military culture here."
Staff Sgt. Big Deuce VII is the latest in a long line of donkeys representing the mules that carried cannons on their backs in the early 1900s. His companion, sometimes referred to as a "technical adviser," is Short Round V, a Boer goat. They live at the Sanders Stables not too far from battery headquarters, near Babcock and Burrill roads.
The mascots take part in change of command and retirement ceremonies, and also make a few appearances a year with their handlers at local schools. Big Deuce and Short Round are also official "greeters" for events at the Fort Sill Patriot Club.
Big Deuce is a smaller version of the mules that were used in the early 1900s to carry the unit's cannons and ammunition carts through the mountains in the Philippines.
"We're taking Big Deuce to the Half Section so he can get broke to the harness, like the last Big Deuce" said Davis. "But he's young and still a little ornery." They want him to carry cannons and ammunition cart wheels during ceremonial events in the fashion of the original warfighting mules.
Davis said the cemetery is a place of honor for their mascots. "It's very important to send them off properly, to give them proper burial. They're not just animals, they actually represent something to us, to the Army." He said they receive the typical honors of a military funeral, including a 21-gun salute. "It's a pretty big deal," he said. The last mascot burial was in 1995.
Fort Sill and the United States Military Academy at West Point are the only two Army installations that still have mascots.
Big Deuce VI retired in August 2015, after 20 years of service and went to live on land owned by a former handler near Elgin. However, the 2-2 Big Deuce Battalion officials know some day he will need space in the Mascot Cemetery, and they initiated an expansion and a sprucing up of the well-tended plots several months ago. The Fort Sill Boy Scouts helped spread the white decorative rocks after they were delivered, said Davis, and battalion Soldiers periodically tidy the area.
The Mascot Cemetery is a bit off the beaten path, but there are signs on Randolph Road at the 902nd Military Working Dog Detachment kennels directing visitors there. The gravel road is sometimes gated, but the dirt road past it is drivable. It meanders through an oak forest and some old ruins left from the days when an engineer unit occupied the area. It was also the picnic area for the 214th Field Artillery Group.
The graves for Big Deuce I, II, III and V are covered in concrete, and the markers are made out of 105mm artillery shells, topped with engraved round plaques. They are edged by rocks painted red, the artillery unit color. The smaller graves of the Short Rounds are topped with the distinctive acorn caps of the bur oaks that shade the cemetery.
Davis doesn't know why Big Deuce IV, or two of the Short Rounds aren't in the cemetery, but he wants to be sure that when the next mascots cross over to Fiddler's Green that they will rest next to their namesakes who crossed before them.
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