She could fit in a helmet — but her impact couldn’t be measured that way. Smoky wasn’t bred for war. She wasn’t even trained for it. She was found in an abandoned foxhole in New Guinea, no bigger than a loaf of bread, her coat tangled and eyes wide. No one knew where she came from. But from that moment on, she belonged to the soldiers. She didn’t look like much — four pounds, seven inches tall — but Smoky flew in combat planes. She parachuted with her handler. She comforted wounded men in field hospitals and entertained troops with tricks, bringing laughter into places where there was none. But her greatest moment came in silence. An airstrip was being built under fire, and communications cable had to be run through a narrow underground pipe — too small and dangerous for a person to enter.

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