Fort Bragg unit welcomes new mini-mule mascot

Pfc. Jack "Huck" Blackjack reported for duty with 1st Theater Sustainment Command Wednesday, and he'll have some big shoes to fill.

Four of them.

The new recruit, an 11-year-old miniature mule, took over unit mascot duties for Staff Sgt. John Blackjack, a fellow miniature mule who served 32 years before dying last month from a respiratory illness.

The command honored its former mascot and welcomed its new one in a Wednesday ceremony with special guests: Retired Air Force Col. Robert Wray and his wife, Roseanne. The Wrays donated both blackjacks, more than three decades apart.

"We are just pleased as punch to find out that Blackjack has been such an important part of this unit," Robert Wray said in a news release on the ceremony, "and the kind of life that Blackjack had lived, which we never could have anticipated."

The incident earned the mule a "no-running profile," Williams said, according to the release.

Retired Air Force Col. Robert and Rosanne Wray donated both Blackjack mascots, more than three decades apart.

Photo Credit: Elizabeth Gerhart/Army

Pfc. Blackjack's middle name honors Robert Wray's brother, a soldier who died during World War II's Battle of the Bulge, the release states. The mini-mule hails from western North Carolina.

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