Animals have been used in a variety of roles during times of war. This display commemorates their involvement.

Some of the bloodiest fighting of the Korean War occurred during the 5-day battle for America’s Outpost Vegas in March 1953. This battle is also remembered for the ‘bravery and devotion’  of Sergeant Reckless, a Korean racehorse bought by an American Commander to carry the units 100 pound recoilless rifle. In one day she made 51 trips, often unaccompanied, hauling ammunition to Vegas and evacuating wounded soldiers. For this she received multiple medals.

Reckless’s appetite was also famous, loving candy, beer, eggs, and coffee. She even ate the cake, flowers and her blanket at event honouring her return to San Francisco.

The light horse field ambulance employed several methods to transport wounded soldiers. In sandy terrain teams of two to six horses would pull sledges, or wagons were pulled by four horse teams. Wagons were also used to transport medical supplies. In some situations, horse teams pulled wagons along narrow gauge railways to casualty clearing stations.
 

Pigeons remained valuable during WWII. In Operation Columbia (Columbia being the pigeon genus), the British dropped 16,554 pigeons into mainland Europe. Locals then returned questionnaires with information about German facilities, troop movements and resistance networks.

Gustav, a grizzle-coloured cock pigeon, was one of 66 pigeons on ships during D-Day. Gustav was released during the landings with a message: 

We are just 20 miles or so off the beaches. First assault troops landed 0750. 

Gustav took 5 hours and 16 minutes to fly the 240km distance to his handler to deliver this message. Due the Allied Fleet being under radio silence, it was the very first communication of the invasion.