Rocky (bear)
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Rocky (b. 1953) was a parachuting Asian black bear. She was purchased from a Kumamoto zoo to serve as a mascot for the U.S. 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team during the Korean War. She completed five parachute jumps, earning her parachutist badge. After sustaining injuries during an artillery attack, she was awarded a Purple Heart. After she was discharged, Rocky was shipped to the United States where she was a guest on the television program Zoo Parade. She lived out the remainder of her life at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.
Rocky was born on 1 April 1953 in Hokkaido.[1] She lived briefly at a zoo in Kumamoto, Japan. Members of the U.S. 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team's AAA Battery were stationed in Kumamoto during the Korean War. They decided they needed a mascot for the regiment and purchased the 4-pound (1.8 kg) cub from the zoo for ¥40,000 (approximately $111).[2] She was originally named Rakkasan, or "Rocky-San", which was a nickname for the regiment and the Japanese word for parachute (Japanese: 落下傘).[3]
Rocky served as the mascot for the battalion and was taken along on parachute jumps. She was "encouraged" to jump five times, including one assisted jump, meeting the qualifications for designation as a paratrooper and earning her parachutist badge.[4] Rocky had a special parachute harness,[1] but was a reluctant paratrooper. For her first jump, just two months after leaving the zoo,[5] she was placed in the kit bag of Gene Castle.[6] On her next jump, out of a C-119,[5] she bit three soldiers before the jumpmaster eventually pushed her out.[3] On her fourth jump, she chewed the toe off of the boot of a paratrooper who was forcing her out of the plane.[2]
The 187th was stationed in Korea for four months in the summer of 1953. Rocky was outside of the mess hall when the AAA Battery came under artillery fire, Rocky was hit underneath the chin by shell fragments.[1] She received a Purple Heart.[3] She also received a Korean Service Medal. Despite her accolades, she bit several soldiers, shredded chairs, stole food, and uprooted trees.[4] According to a 1954 article in Stars And Stripes, she was "destined to be a permanent Pvt. E-2" due to her "somewhat unsoldierly" conduct, including biting Castle, going AWOL, and missing a bed check.[1]