Fort George G. Meade: The First 100 Years

Tank Corps Joe
Mascots are a longstanding tradition in military units.
They’ve ranged from birds to dogs–and even a horse or
two. One of the most unique mascots was a tank-riding
dog who wandered into the lives of soldiers at Fort Meade
in the 1920s and left a huge hole in their hearts when he
died.
Meet Tank Corps Joe.
“He was a mutt,” said Barbara Taylor, a museum
exhibits specialist at the Fort George G. Meade Museum.
The large dog probably was “a retriever mix of some
kind” who showed up on post and never left.
Before long, he had attached himself to the 66th
Infantry Regiment (Light Tanks). As soldiers in the
Army’s fledgling Tank Corps clanked around the base in
their armored vehicles, Joe came along for the ride. So
naturally enough, the dog–called “Old Joe” by many soon
became known as “Tank Corps Joe.”
A letter written to the Fort Meade Museum in the
1990s by Mrs. John Wassmer, whose husband came to the
base in 1925 and ran the post exchange, provides some
fascinating glimpses of Joe’s life. The dog would visit the
PX for candy bars and other treats, she said.
“...He would be parked by the door, to see who would
come over first and buy him candy bars,” the letter says.
“He would get all he could and bury them for later days
when there was no money (in soldiers’ pockets) for candy
bars.”
The PX wasn’t his only source for treats. Mess hall
meals were part of his life, as was occasional medical care
at the post hospital–including once for a broken leg. “No
vet for him,” the letter says.
Joe also showed up at the twice-a-week movie according
to her letter, “and he went for his treats or a nap while the
men watched the movie.” Furthermore, according to the
letter, the post commander–probably Col. Brewer–had
ordered that Tank Corps Joe was to be treated just like he
was a soldier. Fort Meade Museum records list Col. John
R. Brewer as the post commander in the mid-1930s.
A newspaper clipping–an article that ran on Aug.
14, 1937, the day after Tank Corps Joe died–said that
he became the tank unit’s official pet “by order of the
BETWEEN THE WARS
By Don Hirst
commanding officer of the fort several years ago...”
Headlined “Old Joe, Famed Tank-Riding Dog, Dies At
Fort Meade,” the article included the only known photo
of the well-known mascot.
“When the tanks clattered out of their parks and roared
across the drill fields and hills at Fort Meade, or took to
the highways on maneuvers,” the story said, “Old Joe
occupied a perch atop one of them.”
After Joe died peacefully in his sleep at the post
hospital, a memorable funeral took place, according to
the newspaper. “A procession of tanks and military trucks
escorted Joe’s body, placed in a flower-covered casket on
the back seat of an old automobile in which he rode many
miles, to a temporary grave near one of the fort’s tank
parks.”
“There, while the entire 66 th Infantry–both officers
and enlisted men–stood in military formation in a driving
rain, Joe was buried after Capt. Francis J. Gillespie spoke
briefly on his life.”
Joe is gone, but not forgotten. A marker at Fort Meade
bears his name–“Tank Corps Joe”–and says that he
“served with tanks” from 1921 to 1937.
***
(Left) Tank Corps Joe drawing courtesy of Mr. Alan
Archambault, former Director of the Fort George G. Meade
Museum.
111