A bear was an actual enlisted soldier in WWII — with a rank and serial number

In 1942, Polish soldiers travelling through Iran bought a scrawny orphaned Syrian brown bear cub from a local boy. They named him Wojtek (roughly "happy warrior") and raised him on condensed milk, fruit, honey, and — famously — beer and cigarettes, which he liked to eat whole. He wrestled the men, took showers, and slept in tents alongside them, growing to over 400 pounds.

The problem came in 1943, when the unit was ordered to Italy. British transport ships refused to carry mascots or pets. So the Poles did the only logical thing: they officially enlisted Wojtek into the 22nd Artillery Supply Company, giving him a name, rank, and serial number so he counted as a genuine soldier rather than an animal.

At the brutal 1944 Battle of Monte Cassino, witnesses say Wojtek helped carry crates of heavy artillery shells to the guns, mimicking the men and reportedly never dropping one. The image of a bear hauling ammunition became the company's official emblem. After the war he retired to Edinburgh Zoo, where old comrades occasionally hopped the fence to wrestle him until his death in 1963.