Beatrice Mary MacDonald returned to service after a 1917 bombing cost her an eye.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of National Purple Heart Hall of Honor

The medals: The nurses received the Distinguished Service Cross for their actions. The awards marked the first ground combat actions to merit such recognition in World War I, according to Sterner; the American Expeditionary Forces had barely arrived in France at the time, and U.S. troops didn’t join the trenches in large numbers until the fall of 1917, with most major battles occurring the following year.

MacDonald would remain in service despite her injury: “I’ve only started doing my bit,” she said, according to a Harvard University piece outlining material from her scrapbook. McClelland would serve as the director of the Pennsylvania Hospital School of Nursing for 23 years until her retirement in 1956.

Despite the surge of World War I remembrances surrounding the centennial of America’s involvement, the nurses’ actions rarely received mention.

Helen Grace McClelland worked in nursing for nearly four decades after receiving the Distinguished Service Cross.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Pennsylvania Hospital Historic Collections, Philadelphia

Key quote: “It is interesting to note that this cross is to be conferred upon a woman and a nurse,” said War Secretary Newton Baker, during the presentation of MacDonald’s award in 1919.

“This war has, of course, taken the nurses, who are the ministers of mercy, up to the very front lines of battle,” Baker added, “and because of the carrying of the war into the third dimension, the airplane has, of course, made their task more perilous.”

Not bad for a dog. Especially one that’s been dead for more than 90 years.

The story of Stubby, commonly referred to as Sgt. Stubby, is one of great service, trust and loyalty. It began in Connecticut, crossed the Atlantic into the battles of World War I, and returned home to a hero’s welcome. After a lifetime of honors at the side of his owner, James Robert Conroy, Stubby died in 1926, received a 15-paragraph obituary in the New York Times, and would eventually become part of the Smithsonian’s collection — his coat, laid over a cast, is on display at the National Museum of American History.

However, the details that make up the stuff of legend — the animated “Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero,” is set to hit theaters in April — are a bit hazy. Chief among them: The dog’s rank.

“I’m quite convinced that he was promoted by the internet,” said Ann Bausum, who has written two books about Stubby. “It sounds so good, we want it to be true … and one of these reasons I think this isn’t true is that there is not a single contemporary story from his lifetime, and I looked at hundreds of newspaper articles of Stubby, there is not a single one that calls him ‘Sgt. Stubby.'”

Part of the confusion may come from Stubby’s vest, which includes a patch with three chevrons. While they may represent a sergeant’s rank today, they were used in World War I to identify soldiers — and, apparently, dogs — with overseas service.

“He was just ‘Stubby,'” Bausum said. “And that was good enough for him.”

IVY LEAGUE BEGINNINGS

Stubby was no ordinary stray dog, but that’s how he started out: One day he happened to show up at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, where soldiers were training prior to deploying for France during World War I.

He came in with his stubby little tail and won the hearts of the men training there — he was taken along for the deployment, though the exact details on how Stubby made it to France aren’t certain. It’s said that then-Pvt. Conroy stowed him away on the soldiers’ ship, and when found, Stubby saluted the commander. That gesture earned him passage for the rest of the journey.

In France, Stubby was said to have saved the entire division by finding and detaining a German spy. His New York Times obituary breathlessly relays the tale, saying the dog “stole out of the trenches and recognized — a German.”

“Attempts by the German to deceive the dog were futile,” the obituary notes.

It’s also said Stubby learned when bombs where inbound and would warn the soldiers prior to the explosion.

So, if even some of the legend is true, was Stubby a so-called “war dog,” or a precursor to the modern military working dog, or a mascot?

“My grandfather was always clear: He was a service dog,” said Curt Deane, Conroy’s grandson. “He gave the troops comfort, he gave them support. He used to run through the trenches and warn them about gas attacks. He used to go outside of the trenches and into this sort of no-man’s land, between the U.S. and the German trenches, and stand by soldiers who had been injured until the medics could come and get them.”

‘WHERE’S STUBBY?’

All those heroics didn’t necessarily make Stubby a model soldier. One of the most frequent questions asked by Conroy and his fellow soldiers with 102nd Infantry Regiment, 26th Infantry Division, was, “Where’s Stubby?”

“Stubby would disappear for weeks at a time,” Deane said, “and the guys would kind of have no idea where he was, and there was this whole fear that he had been killed or whatever. And my grandfather would say, ‘He always came back with his head held high and his stubby tail up in the air’ and knew right where my grandfather was.

“It was amazing. And these troops wouldn’t stay still — they were moving around, but he always came right back and knew exactly where my grandfather was.” 

The dog even, somehow, returned to Conroy’s unit after he’d been “adopted” by French soldiers, Bausum said. Like many Stubby tales, details are thin, but he was back with the 102nd in time to return to the U.S., where he continued his service to the troops.

“There were these massive conventions at various cities, annual conventions around the country, and Stubby would go to those and he would be revered,” Bausum said. “He would march in the parades, he would make newspaper headlines.”

He was “known to three presidents,” according to his New York Times obituary. He had his picture taken with Gen. John “Blackjack” Pershing, the highest-ranking service member since George Washington. He was an official mascot for Georgetown University (where Conroy studied law) and an honorary member of the American Red Cross, the American Legion and the YMCA — which gave him a place to sleep and up to three bones a day.

A BREED APART

Why did his story catch on? Bausum said she sees Stubby as a product of his time.

“The backdrop for it was this horrendous, horrendous war, just the volume of destruction was just so unfathomable, just sending people out in cloth uniforms against machine gun fire, just the waste, makes it a very dark war,” she said. “And yet there was this story that ran through it that had so much hope in it.”

Stubby didn’t escape unscathed. He was wounded and gassed, according to the New York Times obituary.

(His coat sits alongside Cher Ami, a decorated carrier pigeon known for its service during World War I.)

Army Gen. John J. Pershing decorates Stubby during an award ceremony.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, Division of Armed Forces History

Stubby died in Conroy’s arms March 16, 1926. The dog’s loyalty and tenacity have earned praise for more than a century, and have also led to some disagreement among dog lovers about Stubby’s breed, which has never been known.

“I’ve come to view him as sort of like a Rorschach blot, where people look at these blots of ink and individuals can see all different manners of things in the shape, and they sort of see what they want to see,” Bausum said.

“If you love boxers, he’s a boxer. Or if you’re a pit bull fan, he’s a pit bull. … When you say that he’s a Boston terrier, people say, ‘Well he sure doesn’t look like a Boston Terrier,’ but he did look like what was then a Boston terrier.”

STUBBY ON SCREEN 

“Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero,” is set for an April 13 release. Among those lending their voices to the Hollywood-ized tale of Conroy and his dog are Helena Bonham Carter, who’ll play Conroy’s sister, and Gérard Depardieu, set to portray Gaston Baptiste, “a battle-tested mentor to Sgt. Stubby,” according to a news release from Fun Academy Motion Pictures Studio.

As the film approaches, Deane said plans are underway to commemorate Stubby’s life, and the bond he shared with his owner, in other ways. Talks are underway with the American Red Cross to allow sales of a plush Stubby doll to benefit the nonprofit’s program that sends dogs to visit soldiers at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center Bethesda, Maryland.

“Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero” is set to debut in theaters in the spring of 2018.

Photo Credit: Jordan Beck/Fun Academy Motion Pictures

“Stubby, originally after he died, spent a lot of time in the lobby of the American Red Cross in Washington,” Deane said, “so the thought is to have a statue of Stubby at the American Red Cross because he was a permanent member.”

As his grandfather told stories about Stubby, it became clear to Deane that Conroy never quite let go of his heroic dog. Deane promised his grandfather that he “would do everything possible to keep Stubby’s memory alive.”

“I used to always ask him why he never got another dog,” Deane said of his grandfather, “and he made it very clear to me that Stubby was so special and so unique that he just couldn’t imagine another dog being able to fill that role.”

Many of us do not appreciate the significance of World War I and the immeasurable impact it had on the 20th century and our lives. The period of U.S. involvement not only brought social and economic growth and innovation, but also the intellectual foundation for our current understanding of the psychological wounds of war.

The most notable of those wounds is post-traumatic stress disorder, now simply referred to as PTSD. And while the naming convention is relatively new, the notion of combat-induced trauma is far from it.

Even before the U.S. entered World War I in 1917, thousands of British soldiers who participated in the fighting had been made combat ineffective by tremors, loss of balance, headaches and other symptoms. Military doctors believed the symptoms were a neurological manifestation of shock waves caused by exploding shells, resulting in the inaccurate label of “shell shock.” Others considered these soldiers weak, or labeled them as cowards or malingerers who deserved discipline.

Early treatments for shell shock utilized shock therapy, frontal lobotomies, institutionalization and at times, harsh discipline. While considered crude and inappropriate today, these were the best options the medical community had based on its understanding of the condition.

Understanding of the psychological wounds of combat improved during World War II, as the term “battle fatigue” dominated the psychiatric nomenclature. And while many military leaders like Gen. George S. Patton still viewed the condition as a byproduct of cowardice, the front-line medics knew it was not that simple. Treatments became more humane and included rest away from front lines, counseling, and medications.

Television brought the Vietnam War into our homes with images of returning veterans, angry and often struggling with PTSD. While PTSD rates were low in the early years of the war, they rose to about 30 percent toward its close: Exact reasons are unknown, but perhaps the rates were tied to the lack of support and welcome from the American public.

Today, 16 years into the longest period of war in our nation’s history, we are still fighting PTSD. The prevalence rate in Post-9/11 veterans hasn’t changed from that of their predecessors from earlier conflicts.

What also hasn’t significantly changed are the treatments we’ve provided our veterans over the past several decades – largely talk-therapy and pharmaceuticals. While we have made advances in treatments since World War I, the numbers reveal that we haven’t won this fight.

It’s estimated that between 500,000 to 700,000 post-9/11 veterans are struggling with the symptoms of PTSD, and that only half of them seek treatment from the Veterans Affairs Department. Of those, a much smaller number of veterans actually complete treatment and report improvement.

More than 100 years after “shell shock,” it’s time to turn our approach to PTSD on its head and teach our veterans how to capitalize on their struggles. Let’s get away from the medical model that reduces our combat veterans to a set of symptoms and start harnessing their inner strength and turn their struggles into new possibilities, purpose and meaning.

Bret A. Moore, left, and Ken Falke

Photo Credit: Courtesy photos

Stressing this type of approach – known as posttraumatic growth, or PTG – won’t replace talk-therapy or medication. But by leveraging veterans’ inner strength and resources, and encouraging them to explore new possibilities for psychological, relational, and spiritual growth, they can be helped to recognize what they have gained from their combat experiences versus what they have lost.

Bret A. Moore, Psy.D., is a former Army psychologist, veteran of the Iraq War and writer who lives in San Antonio. He’s the co-author of “The Posttraumatic Growth Workbook” and writes Military Times’ monthly “Kevlar for the Mind” feature.

Ken Falke is a retired Navy master chief. He’s chairman and founder of both the Boulder Crest Retreat for Military and Veteran Wellness and the EOD Warrior Foundation.

“The series explores the experiences of African-American and Latino soldiers, suffragists, Native-American “code talkers” and others whose participation in the war to ‘make the world safe for democracy,’” according to PBS’s description of the series.

The series will also examine the behind the scenes events that led America out of neutrality and into war.

“‘The Great War’ also explores how a brilliant PR man bolstered support for the war in a country hesitant to put lives on the line for a foreign conflict; how President Woodrow Wilson steered the nation through almost three years of neutrality,” writes PBS.

The series will also look at how America’s efforts to bring freedom and liberty abroad ended up bringing large scale oppression to civil liberties at home.

For a sneak peak of the documentary, PBS released this clip from the series about the start of the war for America:

‘The Great War’ premiers with part one on Monday, April 10 from 9:00-11:00 p.m. ET (check local listings) on PBS. Parts two and three will air at the same time on April 11 and 12.