Show Mules are arc Retired From Army Service Like Uke other old soldiers the Arm Army mule doesn't die easily Out But Its It's fading awa away The United States Arm Army's plan to put It Its I last unit of combat mules to pasture in favor of ot hell heU copters copiers will wilt close an almost legendary legen dary dart chapter Northern arm armies lei alone used pack mules In Inthe Inthe inthe the Civil War Out of that went abroad broad with the American I Expeditionary Force in the first World War were casualties The unsung hero of ot man many a muddy logistics problem served welt well In Italy Tunisia Burma Durma New Guinea and other combat zones cones In World War 11 H. Dy and large largo however Ola OIs broke In jeeps rather than the lop-eared lop hoof propelled hoof slow starting slow starting conveyance known as the Army mule mute Mule Population Dropping Tho The mule has cause to kick Superannuated aa as a soldier It Isn't rang so well down on the farm I dither the National Geographic says In civilian life lire It competes against the tractor tr In 1910 1940 the mule population In Inthe Inthe inthe the United States totaled about that of horses nearly Since then their numbers num bers hers have decreased so rapidly that the Agriculture Departments Department's Estimates Division hasn't found it practicable to count them separ The combined mule-horse mule population plummeted to a low of at In 1956 The mules mule's ultimate future In fn Inthe Inthe the United States Perhaps glamorous glamorous glamorous glam glam- orous retirement as West Point mascot or or as in zoos Unhappily the Army mule hasn't much to show for tor its Ils long career Few if any have been honored hon ored lored with heroic odes memorial statue statues r or Good Conduct Medals instead it has been the butt of countless jokes and quips It supposedly sup supposedly sup sup- stimulated among generations genera lions of ot mule skinners some of the choicest vocabularies in military military mili mill tary history None denies the mules mule's habit of ot kicking kIcking and and kicking hard MIstreat Mistreat Mistreat Mis MIs- treat a mule and it never forgets forets The century humorist Josh Billings once said Ive known mules to be good for tor six months SO eo as to get a chance to kick And the the Southern field hand says Mule dont don't kick to no rule At the end of the Civil War no co less than a thousand Union qualified for tor disability ty pensions as the result of having got too close to the combat end of ot oti i mill m I Animal With No Future I Mule lovers blame the mules mule's accepted rote role as at a laughing stock on Its Ils odd place In natures nature hierarchy hier arch archy The offspring of A B male donkey donke and a female horse It Is not a dashing creature Reputation tion Obstinate And It Is almost Invariably sterile This Thia state gives rise glee to another familiar calumny A mule has neither pride of ot ancestry ancestry an an- nor r hope of ot posterity Yet Vet the mule combines the best features of both parents the parents the wit sobriety endurance and edness of the donkey the strength and und bulk ot of the horse hore It ft thrives on poor fo food d In cold colt or blistering heat Unlike the high high- strung horse the mule has an uncanny un un- uncanny canny ability to look after aCter Its own health When tired or overheated It simply stops working Ancients prized mules and bred them in prehistoric times Solomon Solomon Solo Solo- mon man rode a mule as did dynasties of royalty Fine hybrids were considered considered con con- suitable presents for the prophet Mohammed Over the centuries mules have helped win wars and build em em- pires They gave strong backs Ironically ally to the civilizations civilizations whose whoso tractors and helicopters are putting them out of business |