Six Impossible Episodes: The Dickin Medal

Summary

---

Podcast Summary: Stuff You Missed in History Class

Episode: Six Impossible Episodes: The Dickin Medal
Hosts: Tracy V. Wilson & Holly Frey
Date: August 27, 2025
Podcast by: iHeartPodcasts

---

Episode Overview

This episode, part of the ongoing "Six Impossible Episodes" series, spotlights the Dickin Medal—often referred to as the animal equivalent of the Victoria Cross—awarded for animal gallantry or devotion to duty in war or conflict. Tracy and Holly weave together the stories of remarkable animals who received this honor, the motivations behind the medal's creation, and its continuing legacy. Woven throughout are questions about animal agency and the ethics of animals in war, which the hosts touch on but set aside to focus on the heroic deeds themselves.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Origins and Purpose of the Dickin Medal

[02:24 – 04:37]

• The Dickin Medal was created by Maria Dickin, founder of the People's Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA), during WWII.
• Aimed to raise the status of animals and recognize their work and bravery in wartime.
• There has been ethical debate on whether such medals anthropomorphize animals or glorify their use in conflict, but the episode primarily leaves these aside to celebrate the recipients' stories.

Tracy:

"Maria Dickin wanted to raise the status of animals in society and bring more awareness of the work that they were doing during World War II." [03:36]

---

2. Mini-Biography: Maria Dickin

[04:37 – 13:50]

• Born in 1870, London, from a modest background; eldest of 8.
• Ran a voice studio before dedicating herself to animal welfare.
• Opened the PDSA in 1917 to provide free veterinary care to the poor and their animals.
• Faced institutional resistance as her charity relied on volunteers (often women) who were not formal veterinary surgeons.
• Gradually, the PDSA and the field of veterinary medicine began to bridge divides by the late 1930s.
• Dickin was twice honored with Orders of the British Empire and died in 1951.

Tracy:

"She decided that she would try to help. A clergyman loaned Dickin some basement space in Whitechapel, and she opened the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals on November 17, 1917." [09:18]

---

3. The First Dickin Medals: Heroic Pigeons

[18:28 – 22:36]

• The initial Dickin Medals were awarded December 2, 1943, to pigeons Winky, White Vision, and Tyke (a.k.a. George).

• Pigeons were vital to the British military, especially when radio contact failed during downed flights.

  Winky’s Story:

  • Helped save a Royal Air Force crew stranded after ditching in the North Sea.
  • Her flight in treacherous weather enabled search and rescue to locate the crew.

  White Vision & Tyke:

  • Similar missions of flying long distances in poor conditions to prompt rescues.

Holly:

"Pigeons who were awarded the Dickin Medal were a tiny, tiny fraction of all of the pigeons that the British used in the war." [19:18]

---

4. Other Honored Animals

a. Rip the Search and Rescue Dog

[22:36 – 24:41]

• A stray terrier found after an air raid, adopted by an air raid warden.
• Became an unofficial search and rescue dog, credited with finding over 100 people during the Blitz.
• Inspired British authorities to formally train search and rescue dogs.

Tracy:

"Rip had no formal training in search and rescue, but he turned out to really have a knack for finding survivors after German air raids on London." [23:43]

b. Judy the POW Pointer

[24:41 – 30:16]

• Born in Shanghai, became ship's dog on the HMS Gnat, later HMS Grasshopper.
• Helped her crew survive after shipwreck; later, as a POW, she aided morale and protected men from snakes and guards.
• Survived the sinking of a prisoner transport, saving many by pulling debris and men to safety.
• Only dog to be officially registered as a POW by the Japanese.
• Awarded the Dickin Medal for "magnificent courage and endurance".

Tracy:

"She was enrolled as a member of the Returned British Prisoners of War association. And in April of 1946 she was awarded the Dickin Medal." [29:24]

c. Sergeant Reckless – The Korean War Horse

[34:39 – 39:49]

• Horse with the US Marine Corps, originally bred for racing in Korea.
• Bought by a Marine lieutenant and trained to carry heavy ammunition to the front lines—all alone.
• In the Battle for Outpost Vegas (March 1953), made 51 solo trips delivering ammo under fire, was wounded twice but continued.
• Beloved for her relatable personality (eating poker chips and soda) and valor.
• Received several US and Korean military honors.
• Awarded the Dickin Medal posthumously in 2016.

Holly:

"Her most dramatic moments were in March of 1953 during the battle for Outpost Vegas... Reckless made 51 round trips to the front lines over a single day, carrying ammunition supplies there and returning with wounded men and the bodies of men who had been killed." [37:42]

d. Simon the Cat

[40:22 – 46:54]

• Smuggled aboard the HMS Amethyst during the Chinese Civil War.
• Injured during the infamous Yangtze Incident; after recovery, resumed hunting rats, crucial for morale and food preservation during 101 days stranded.
• Credited with killing the most-hated rat (named after Mao Zedong) and lifting spirits.
• Awarded Dickin Medal and Amethyst Campaign Ribbon; died of infection in quarantine returning to the UK.

Tracy:

"Simon, quote, served on the HMS Amethyst during the Yangi Incident, disposing of many rats. Though wounded by a shell blast, throughout the incident, his behavior was of the highest order..." [40:22]

Holly:

"There was also a morale boost aspect to Simon’s rat hunting, especially when he killed an enormous rat that the crew had come to really despise. They had named that huge rat after Mao Zedong." [45:30]

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Animal Valor and the Human Connection:
  Holly, on Rip:

  “Rip was a very good boy.” [24:41]

  Tracy, on Judy:

  “Judy spent more than two years at this camp bolstering the morale of the POWs... She also developed a reputation for trying to intervene when the guards were punishing the prisoners.” [27:52]

• on Overcoming Odds and Bureaucracy:
  Tracy, on PDSA and Volunteer Veterinary Care:

  "The PDSA was not doing anything illegal. But they did face criticism from the RCVS... These two sides did not start to move toward working together until the late 1930s." [10:40]

• On Reevaluation of Animal Honors:
  Tracy:

  "It felt to me a little bit like a participation trophy... Of course, there is more to it than that and I rescind my original judgment." [40:22]

---

Notable Timestamps

• Maria Dickin’s Biography: [04:37 – 13:50]
• WWII Pigeon Stories (Winky, White Vision, Tyke): [18:28 – 22:36]
• Rip the Dog: [22:36 – 24:41]
• Judy the POW Dog: [24:41 – 30:16]
• Sergeant Reckless, the Korean War Horse: [34:39 – 39:49]
• Simon, the Cat on HMS Amethyst: [40:22 – 46:54]

---

Episode Tone & Style

Conversational, empathetic, and sometimes gently humorous. Both hosts maintain respect for the subject while using casual, relatable language—especially when lauding the animals as "very good boys" and "very good girls."

---

Listener Mail & Closing

[47:28 – 51:25]

• Listener Shay shares military ballpoint pen lore and photos of a beloved dog named Asia.
• Tracy and Holly express affection for both stationery and pets, fitting the episode’s themes.

---

Final Thoughts

This episode masterfully weaves history, heroism, and humanity, spotlighting not only the Dickin Medal’s most notable animal recipients but also the enduring connection between people and their animal companions in times of crisis. The hosts’ warmth and curiosity infuse the stories with heart, making the tales of Winky, Rip, Judy, Reckless, and Simon as moving as they are informative.

Transcript

[Tracy V. Wilson]

This is an I heart podcast.

[Holly Frey]

Listen to your elders, honey. You might know them from their viral videos, but now the old gays are pulling back the curtain with their new podcast, Silver Linings with the Old Gays, brought to you in partnership with iHeart's Ruby Studio and Veeve Healthcare. Hosts Robert, Mick, Bill and Jesse serve their lifetime of wisdom when it comes to love, sex, community and whatever else they've got on the gay agenda. So check out Silver Linings with the old gays on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Will Luke]

How serious is youth vaping? Irreversible lung damage serious. 1 in 10 kids vape serious, which warrants a serious conversation from a serious parental figure like yourself. Not the seriously know it all sports dad or the seriously smart podcaster. It requires a serious conversation that is best had by you. No, seriously, the best person to talk to your child about vaping is you. To start the conversation, visit talkaboutvaping.org, brought to you by the American Lung association and the Ad Council.

[Matt and Stack]

Tune in to all the Smoke Podcast where Matt and Stack sit down with former First Lady Michelle Obama.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Folks find it hard to hate up close. And when you get to know people and you're sitting in their kitchen tables.

[Holly Frey]

And they're talking like we're talking, you.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Know, you hear our story, how we grew up, how Barack grew up, and you get a chance for people to unpack and get beyond race.

[Matt and Stack]

All the Smoke featuring Michelle Obama. To hear this podcast and more, open your free iHeartRadio app, search all the Smoke and listen now.

[Noah de Barrasso]

I was diagnosed with cancer on Friday and cancer free the next Friday. No chemo, no radiation, none of that.

[Culture Raises Us Host]

On a recent episode of Culture Raises Us podcast, I sat down with Warren Campbell, Grammy winning producer, pastor and music executive to talk about the beats, the business and the legacy behind some of the biggest names in gospel, R and B and hip hop professionally.

[Noah de Barrasso]

I started at Death Row Records.

[Culture Raises Us Host]

From Mary Mary to Jennifer Hudson, we get into the soul of the music and the purpose that drives it. Listen to Culture Raises us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Holly Frey]

Welcome to Stuff youf Missed in History Class, a production of iHeartRadio.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson.

[Holly Frey]

And I'm Holly Fry.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

While I was working on our episode on Buck versus Belle that came out recently, and I was feeling kind of just progressively angrier with every sentence of that, I caught up with Rosemary Moscow who asked me if I had ever heard about a pigeon named Winky. If you don't know who Rosemary is, she's a science writer and a naturalist, and she wrote A Pocket Guide to Pigeon Watching and the Birding Dictionary and a number of other books. Several of our bird centric episodes ultimately trace back to Rosemary in one way or another. Anyway, Winky was awarded the People's Dispensary for Sick Animals Dickin Medal for helping to save the crew of a ditched aircraft during World War II. And so her question about Winky led to a whole conversation about the Dickin Medal and its founder, Maria Dickin. And I thought, man, this sounds like what I really should be working on after this infinite infuriating upsetness that is Buck versus Bell. It's also been a while since we have had an installment of Six Impossible Episodes, so something that would lend itself to that felt kind of like perfect timing. There is some controversy around the Dickin Medal and other honors that are awarded to military working animals. Maria Dickin wanted to raise the status of animals in society and to bring more awareness of the work that they were doing during World War II. But there are also discussions of whether awards like these anthropomorphize animals or glorify war and whether it's ethical to have military working animals at all. That is really not what this episode is about, but I did want to just acknowledge it. All of these animals were in some kind of peril, but I tried to keep the animal harm to a minimum in this episode. None of these animals were killed while they were earning these medals. There will be some mentions of animal deaths in this episode though, but I tried to keep it pretty basic. Not a ton of detail on deaths or injuries.

[Holly Frey]

Six Impossible Episodes is where Tracy rounds up six topics that, for one reason or another, aren't workable as individual episodes. And the first one we're going to do today is actually Maria Dickin herself, because while her life sounds fascinating and she did a lot, we just don't have the kind of detail about her that would make a full length episode. She did publish a memoir called the Cry of the animal in 1950, but according to WorldCat, there are only three copies of it in libraries anywhere in the world today. And it was only about 90 pages long. So not comprehensive. Impossible to get a hold of.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah, I did not even try to put in an interlibrary loan request because number one, something that rare might not be circulating at all. And number two, at only 90 pages long, I did not think it was going to yield information that would make that time delay worth it.

[Holly Frey]

There is also the other thing that sometimes happens in libraries with older, rare but not noteworthy books where if you. And I don't want to slag any libraries, cause all libraries or many libraries have this problem you put in the ill and they go, oh, we don't know where that book is. Oh sure, it happens all the time.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah, I was kind of surprised not to find a scan of it anywhere, but I did not. So I just moved on. Maria Elizabeth Dickon, known as Mia, was born on September 22, 1870 in South Hackney, London. Her father was William George Dicken and her mother was Ellen Maria Xl Dicken. This family really did not have a lot of money. Mia's father was a minister and Mia was the oldest of eight children. As she entered her adult life, Mia contributed to the family's income by starting her own voice production studio and teaching singing.

[Holly Frey]

On September 1, 1899, when she was 28, Mia married her first cousin, Arnold Francis Dickon. Marriages between cousins were not unheard of in England in the late 19th century, but they were definitely becoming less common than they had been. And this marriage would have made Mia financially more comfortable since Arnold was a successful chartered accountant and it was just the two of them with no children to support. Unless there were two chartered accountants named Arnold Francis Dickin in London. According to a death notice in the Daily Telegraph, he died in 1928. And we really don't know much at all about their relationship.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah, there's a page for him on, I think findagrave.com that says that he died in, if I'm remembering correctly, 1978 at the age of more than 100. And I'm like, I think somebody might be misreading that two as a seven on a weathered two.

[Holly Frey]

Oh, yeah, entirely possible.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Mia liked music and literature. In 1905 she published suggestive Thoughts from the Temple, being striking passages from the teaching of RJ Campbell. Something else I couldn't find a scan of. Reginald John Campbell was the Congregational minister of the City Temple and he had a reputation for kind of eccentric non conformity. He was simultaneously very popular and very controversial. And it's not fully clear what Dickens relationship with him and to the church was. This book, though, was basically a collection of quotes from him.

[Holly Frey]

According to her entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Dickin also became part of the spiritualist movement. And it also says she was connected to James Moore Hickson, founder of the Society of Emmanuel, later called the Divine Healing Mission. This was a healing Ministry focused on intercessory prayer and the laying on of hands.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Dickon gave up her voice studio after she got married, and she started volunteering in some of the poorest neighborhoods of London. At first, her focus was on people, but over time, she noticed how many pets and working animals needed care in these neighborhoods, and nobody was providing that care. Then one night, her own dog became very ill and ultimately had to be euthanized. And as she was trying to comfort her dog in her last hours, Dickon realized that she was witnessing the same kind of pain and weariness that she would be seeing if she were sitting up with a dying human.

[Holly Frey]

So she decided she would try to help. A clergyman loaned Dickens some basement space in Whitechapel, and she opened the People's Dispensary for sick animals on November 17, 1917. She was 47 at this point. The sign out front read, quote, bring your sick animals. Do not let them suffer. All animals treated, all treatment free.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

The People's Dispensary for Sick Animals grew very quickly, and it became both popular and beloved in the neighborhoods that it served. But it also faced some controversy. Veterinary medicine was relatively new as a discipline. The first veterinary schools in the UK had been established at the end of the 18th century. The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons was established in 1844, and the 1881 Veterinary Surgeons act had been passed to regulate the field overall. Veterinary surgeons, which include what we in the US would just call veterinarians, were focused on large animals, especially horses. There was not much focus on small companion animals. And a lot of vets in the UK had pretty disparaging attitudes about their colleagues who did treat dogs and other small animals.

[Holly Frey]

We talked about some of that in our episode about the history of veterinary medicine.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

We sure did.

[Holly Frey]

The PDSA treated all animals, not just pets, but they treated a lot of pets. And while the PDSA had some connections to veterinary surgeons, the people providing this care overwhelmingly were not veterinary surgeons themselves. They were volunteers, and a lot of them were women. There was a stereotype of philanthropically minded middle and upper class women focusing on the plight of dogs. British law didn't ban anyone from providing care for animals, just from calling themselves veterinary surgeons or RCVS members if they were not. And the PDSA was not doing any of that. So they weren't doing anything illegal. But they did face criticism from the RCVS and other organizations for staffing their clinics with laypeople without the supervision of a veterinary surgeon. Simultaneously, the RCVS bylaws banned, quote, quack covering or veterinary surgeons providing legitimacy to phony practitioners. So there weren't many veterinary surgeons who even wanted to work with the pdsa. We're not saying that these volunteers were quacks, but the word quacks was interpreted broadly enough to include anyone who was not a trained veterinary surgeon but was providing animal care. Basically, no one wanted to risk their reputation endorsing people that didn't have training. These two sides did not start to move toward working together until the late 1930s.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

The PDSA incorporated in 1923 and it received a bequest of £50,000 from the estate of Sarah Martha Grove Hardy in 1926. This allowed Dickin to open a large treatment and training facility. So while these volunteers who worked with the PDSA were not veterinary surgeons, many of them were going through an in depth, hands on training program. And it was a program that was way more focused on companion animals than what people would typically get at a college of veterinary surgery.

[Holly Frey]

Within a decade of its 1917 establishment, the PDSA had almost 60 clinics around the UK, as well as three horse drawn caravans that worked as mobile clinics. It had also started establishing clinics internationally. Dicken had also started a magazine for the dispensary called the Animals Advocate, as well as the Busy Bees Club to teach children how to care for their pets. In 1929, Dickin was awarded the Order of the British Empire.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

When World War II started and the UK was hit with bombing raids, the PDSA established an animal rescue squad to look for and care for affected animals. And in 1948, Maria Dickin was named Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

[Holly Frey]

Maria Dickin died of bronchopneumonia caused by influenza at her home on March 1, 1951 at the age of 80. A blue historical plaque was placed at her birthplace in 2015.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

The PDSA still exists today as a charity for pets in need. There are 48 pet hospitals run by them across the UK and they treat thousands of animals every year. Thousands of people also volunteer for the organization. Today, though, it is fully interconnected with the greater world of veterinary medicine in the uk. That's a process that, like we said, started in the late 1930s, before World War II started. There was kind of a break in moving together during World War II and then after the war was over, they started kind of building some bridges there.

[Holly Frey]

Maria Dickin established the Dickin Medal for Animal Gallantry or Devotion to Duty in War or Conflict during World War II. And after we take a break, we're going to talk about some of the animals who earned that award.

[Dr. Joy Harden Bradford]

I'm Dr. Joy Hardin Bradford, and in session 421 of Therapy for Black Girls, I sit down with Dr. Athia and Billy Shaka to explain explore how our hair connects to our identity, mental health and the ways we heal.

[Dr. Athia]

Because I think hair is a complex language system, right, in terms of it can tell how old you are, your marital status, where you're from, your spiritual beliefs. But I think with social media, there's like a hyper fixation and observation of our hair, right? That this is sometimes the first thing someone sees when we make a post or a reel. It's how our hair is styled.

[Dr. Joy Harden Bradford]

We talk about the important role hairstylists play in our community, the pressure to always look put together and how breaking up with perfection can actually free us. Plus, if you're someone who gets anxious about flying, don't miss session 418 with Dr. Angela Neal Barnett, where we dive into managing flight anxiety. Listen to Therapy for Black Girls on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

You get your podcast.

[Noah de Barrasso]

I'm Noah. I'm 13, and as you might have seen from the news, I got a podcast and I explain those fake headlines like your uncle would, like your cousin would, if he actually did the research. Honestly, adults don't ask the right questions. Now, you know what? Noah de Barrasso is a show about influence. Who's got it, how they use it, and what it means for the rest of you. It's not the news. It's what the news should be if someone Gen Z or Gen Alpha made it. When I'm watching everything. Sheesh. Majority of the youth 18 through 24 say they trust Republicans more than Democrats to fund the economy.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

You kidding me?

[Noah de Barrasso]

Politics is wild, and I'm definitely not here to tame it. But I'm here to make sense of it. Just what's happening, why it matters, and what it means for us. Bring your brain. Listen to now youw Know with Noah de Barrasta on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

[Erica and Mila]

The OGs of Uncensored Motherhood are back and badder than ever. I'm Erica. And I'm Mila. And we're the hosts of the Good Moms Bad Choices podcast, brought to you by the Black Effect Podcast Network every Wednesday. Historically, men talk too much and women have quietly listened. And all that stops here. If you like witty women, then this is your tribes with guests like Corinne Spring Stefans.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

I've never seen so many women protect predatory men. And then me, too happened. And then everybody Else want to get pissed off cuz the white said it was okay.

[Erica and Mila]

Problem?

[Noah de Barrasso]

My oldest daughter, her first day in ninth grade and I called to ask how I was doing. She was like, oh dad, all they were doing was talking about your thing in class. I ruined my baby's first day of high school.

[Erica and Mila]

And Slumflower.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

What turns me on is when a man sends me money. Like I feel the moisture between my legs when a man sends me money, I'm like, oh my God, it's go time. You actually sent it.

[Erica and Mila]

Listen to the Good Moms Bad Choices podcast every Wednesday on the Black Effect podcast network, the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you go to find your podcast.

[Dr. Athia]

We all know, right? Genius is evenly distributed, opportunity is not.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

It's Black Business Month and Black Tech.

[Will Luke]

Green money is tapping in. I'm Will Luke. You're spotlighting black founders, investors and innovators.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Building the future one idea at a time.

[Will Luke]

Let's talk legacy tech and generational wealth.

[Matt and Stack]

I don't think any person of any gender, race, ethnicity should alter who they are, especially on an intellectual level or a talent level, to make someone else feel comfortable just because they are the majority in this situation and they need employment. So for me, I'm always going to be honest in saying that we need to be unapologetically ourselves. If that makes me a vocal CEO and people consider that rocking the boat, so be it.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

To hear this and more on the power of black innovation and ownership, listen.

[Will Luke]

To Black Tech Green money from the.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The first Dickin Medal we're going to talk about is really three medals. They were the first three Dickin Medals ever to be awarded, and they were all awarded to pigeons on the same day, which was Dec.2nd, 1943. The pigeons were named Winky, White Vision, and Tyke. Tyke was also called George. These were not at all the only pigeons to be awarded the Dickin Medal. In the first stretch of this award's existence, which was from 1943 to 1949, it was awarded to more pigeons than any other animal.

[Holly Frey]

The pigeons who were awarded the Dickin Medal were a tiny, tiny fraction of all of the pigeons that the British used in the war. The National Pigeon Service was formed in February of 1939, and membership was open to anyone who had at least 20 trained homing pigeons. Thousands of pigeon fanciers participated in this service, and more than 200,000 pigeons were used across all branches of The British military as well as some parts of the civil service. Many of these pigeons rode aboard aircraft in watertight baskets so that if the pilot had to ditch the plane or was forced to land and didn't have radio contact, they could still send a message about where they were.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Winky was aboard a Beaufort bomber from the number 42 Squadron on February 23, 1942. This bomber was damaged by anti aircraft fire while flying over Norway and while they were trying to get back to Scotland, they had to ditch into the North Sea. The four man crew did not have time to radio their position before ditching and once they were in the water they did not have a way to write a message about where they were. So they opened Winky's basket and Winky flew home, 120 miles away through some very terrible winter weather.

[Holly Frey]

When she got there, her owner, George Ross, contacted the Royal Air Force. The RAF calculated where the plane must have gone down based on how fast a pigeon could fly, adjusted for the wind speed and direction and the fact that Winky was covered in oil from the crash. About 15 minutes after her arrival at home, the RAF dispatched a search team and they successfully found and rescued all four of the plane's crew.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Winky's Dick and metal citation read, quote, for delivering a message under exceptionally difficult conditions and so contributing to the rescue of an air crew while serving with the RAF in February 1942.

[Holly Frey]

The two other pigeons who were awarded the Dickin Medal on the same day had the same basic citation but with different dates. One was White Vision, who was one of two pigeons aboard a Catalina flying boat with a human crew of 11. They had to ditch into the ocean near the Hebrides in Scotland in October of 1942. The amphibious aircraft was able to remain afloat for a while, so the crew was able to take refuge on it and attach notes before releasing the birds.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

One of the pigeons didn't arrive back home, but White Vision did, flying for nine hours against heavy headwinds and arriving safely. Based on the note she carried, a rescue operation was mounted and the aircraft's entire crew was rescued. Just before that aircraft sank, Tyke's home.

[Holly Frey]

Was in Libya and he was raised to be part of the Middle East Pigeon Service which had been established in 1942 to serve the British military in Northern Africa. Tike had been assigned to a US air crew which had to ditch into the Mediterranean in June of 1943. He made a similar long distance flight of about 100 miles through poor visibility, leading to a successful rescue of all Four of the crew, a lot of.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

The other pigeon Dickin medals are very similar to those three. And as we said earlier, pigeons received more Dickin medals than any other Animal in the 1940s. The next most honored animals were dogs, and one of them was RIP, the 27th animal to be awarded the Dickin medal.

[Holly Frey]

Rip was not bred to be a military dog. He was a mixed breed terrier who had presumably been someone's pet or possibly, possibly even a stray. A lot of British write ups describe Rip as a mongrel, and in pictures he is both adorable and a little bit scruffy looking. If he was someone's pet, though, we do not know who that person was. In 1940, an air raid warden named Mr. E. King found him among the rubble after a strike on the Poplar district of London. King started feeding the dog, who was obviously hungry. And while King wasn't really intending to keep him, Rip just stayed around. Soon, Rip had become something of a mascot to the South Street Air Raid Patrol, which was King's civil defense squad.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Rip had no formal training in search and rescue, but he turned out to really have a knack for finding survivors after German air raids on London. King described this dog as, quote, never in the way, but always eager to do his bit. Rip is credited with finding and helping to rescue more than a hundred people during the blitz which lasted from September of 1940 to May of 1941. He was awarded the Dickin Medal in 1945, quote, for locating many air raid victims during the Blitz of 1940.

[Holly Frey]

Rip continued to accompany King until the end of the war, and his success at finding people has been credited with encouraging British authorities to formally train search and rescue dogs later on in the war. He lived until after the war was over, and after his death, which seems to have been natural and age related, he was buried at the PDSA Animal Cemetery in Ilford.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Rip was a very good boy. And our next dick and metal recipient was a very good girl named Judy, a purebred liver and white pointer born in Shanghai in February of 1936. If you're like me and you're not really up on dog color terms, a liver is a shade of deep brown. I had imagined it as kind of reddish. It's not, I guess it could maybe have a red tint, but it's more of a deep shade of brown. Her name was originally Shooty, but it was anglicized while she was still a puppy. And I don't really know what the story is around that if there is one, she was Born in a kennel to a dog that belonged to a British couple. And that kennel was primarily used by Europeans who were living in Shanghai.

[Holly Frey]

At the end of 1936, the HMS Gnat was looking for a ship's dog and they purchased Judy. They tried to train her as a gun dog so to retrieve game during hunting parties on land. This is a pretty natural thing. You would train a pointer of all dogs to do, but she kept jumping overboard. So she kind of became more of a mascot. She did however, learn to alert the crew when she heard incoming ships and aircraft. And at one point that included giving them an advance warning of pirates nearby.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Judy was transferred to the HMS Grasshopper along with some of the Gnats human crew in 1939. After Japan bombed the U.S. naval base at Pearl harbor in December of 1941, the HMS Grasshopper served in the war in the Pacific.

[Holly Frey]

The Grasshopper helped support the Allied retreat from Malaysia in 1942 and then was hit by a Japanese bomber on its way to Indonesia. The crew, including Judy, were forced to abandon ship and wound up on the apparently uninhabited island of Sinkep along with survivors of another ship, the HMS Dragonfly. They had no food or water and most of the survivors were covered with oil. Judy led them to a freshwater spring. While they awaited rescue, they were able.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

To flag down a passing Chinese ship and get onto it and leave the island. But the survivors did not make it all the way to safety. They arrived in Sumatra and made an overland trek to what they thought would be an Allied outpost. But the Allies had already evacuated from there. So the crew, including Judy, were taken prisoner by the Japanese. When they arrived at the Glogora POW camp in Sumatra, the sailors smuggled her in and then tried to keep her hidden from the guards.

[Holly Frey]

Eventually, leading aircraftsman Frank Williams of the Royal Air Force started sharing his food rations with Judy and he convinced the guards to register her as a prisoner of war. According to some accounts, at this point Judy was pregnant. And this agreement came about after the camp commandant was offered one of her puppies. She was assigned prisoner number 81, a Gloagir Medon, and was the only dog to be officially registered as a powder. During World War II.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Judy spent more than two years at this camp bolstering the morale of the POWs, helping manage the population of rodents and warning the prisoners of nearby scorpions and snakes. She also developed a reputation for trying to intervene. When the guards were punishing the prisoners. She would bark and snap at them. During this time, Williams and other prisoners also trained her to do things like hide and follow signals like low whistles so that they could keep her hidden and move her discreetly when they needed to.

[Holly Frey]

When the camp's internees were moved to Singapore in 1944, Williams smuggled Judy onto the ship, the Haru Giku Maru, in a rice sack. At the start of the voyage, Williams kept her hidden. But while they were en route, the Harigiku Maru was struck by torpedoes that were fired by the HMS Truculent and started to sink.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Williams pushed Judy out through a porthole, and once in the water, she started trying to pull the men who couldn't swim very well to safety. And she pulled pieces of floating debris for survivors to hold onto. She and Frank Williams both survived this, but at first William did not know that Judy had made it. They were reunited sometime later at another POW camp. Judy stayed with Williams and the rest of the POWs as they were forced to clear land through the Sumatran jungle to build a new railway. During this hard labor, Williams credited Judy with giving him and the other men the will to live.

[Holly Frey]

After the war ended in 1945, Williams, Judy and the other POWs were liberated from the camp, and Judy once again had to be smuggled on board a ship, this one bound for the uk. Once in the uk, she was kept in quarantine for six months. That was part of the effort to keep the United Kingdom free of rabies. And then she was reunited with Frank Williams. She was enrolled as a member of the Returned British Prisoners of War association. And In April of 1946, she was awarded the Dickin Medal, quote, for magnificent courage and endurance in Japanese prison camps, which helped to maintain morale among her fellow prisoners, and also for saving many lives through her intelligence and watchfulness. The PDSA also awarded Williams the White Cross of St Giles, its highest human honor, for the care that he gave Judy during the war.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Judy died on February 17, 1950, at the age of 14. She and Williams were living in Tanzania at the time, and she was buried there, along with an RAF jacket.

[Holly Frey]

We're going to take a little sponsor break, and then we will talk about some other types of animals to be awarded the dickin medal.

[Dr. Joy Harden Bradford]

I'm Dr. Joy Hardin Bradford, and in session 421 of therapy for black girls, I sit down with Dr. Afia and Billy Shaka to explore how our hair connects to our identity, mental health, and the ways we heal.

[Dr. Athia]

Because I think hair is a complex language system, right, in terms of it can tell how old you are, your marital status, where you're from, your spiritual beliefs. But I think with social media, there's like a hyper fixation and observation of our hair, right? That this is sometimes the first thing someone sees when we make a post or a reel or it's how our hair is styled.

[Dr. Joy Harden Bradford]

We talk about the important role hairstylists play in our communities, the pressure to always look put together, and how breaking up with perfection can actually free us. Plus, if you're someone who gets anxious about flying, don't miss session 418 with Dr. Angela Neal Barnett, where we dive into managing flight anxiety. Listen to therapy for black Girls on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

You get your podcast.

[Noah de Barrasso]

I'm Noah. I'm 13, and as you might have seen from the news, I got a podcast and I explain those fake headlines like your uncle would, like your cousin would if he actually did the research. Honestly, adults don't ask the right questions. Now you know with Noah de Barrasso is a show about influence. Who's got it, how they use it, and what it means. For the rest of you, it's not the news, it's what the news should be. If someone Gen Z or Gen Alpha when I'm watching everything. Sheesh. Majority of the youth 18 through 24 say they trust Republicans more than Democrats to fund the economy.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

You kidding me?

[Noah de Barrasso]

Politics is wild, and I'm definitely not here to tame it, but I'm here to make sense of it. Just what's happening, why it matters, and what it means for us. Bring your brain. Listen to now youw Know with Noah de Barrasta on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

[Erica and Mila]

The OGs of Uncensored Motherhood are back and badder than ever. I'm Erica. And I'm Mila, and we're the hosts of the Good Moms Bad Choices podcast, brought to you by the Black Effect Podcast Network every Wednesday. Historically, men talk too much and women have quietly listened. And all that stops here. If you like witty women, then this is your tribe with guests like correct.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

I've never seen so many women protect predatory men. And then me too happened and then.

[Holly Frey]

Everybody else want to get pissed off.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Because the white said it was okay.

[Erica and Mila]

Problem?

[Noah de Barrasso]

My oldest daughter, her first day in ninth grade and I called to ask how I was doing. She was like, oh, dad, all they were doing was talking about your thing in class. I ruined my baby's first day of high school.

[Erica and Mila]

And Slumflower, what turns me on is.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

When a man sends me money. Like, I feel the moisture between my legs and a man sends me money. I'm like, oh my God, it's go time. You actually sent it.

[Erica and Mila]

Listen to the Good Moms Bad Choices podcast every Wednesday on the Black Effect podcast network, the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you go to find your podcast.

[Janae (Cheekies)]

Hi everyone, it's Janae, AKA Cheekies from Cheekies and Chill Podcast, and I'm launching an all new mini podcast series called Sincerely Janae. Sure, I'm a singer, author, businesswoman, act and podcaster, but at the end of the day, I am human and that's why I'm sharing my ups and downs with you guys. Hi, guys. I was sitting here recording episodes of Dear Cheekies and Cheekies and Chill, and I just had to take a time out and purge my thoughts and feelings here on Sincerely Janae because I've been so emotional lately, you guys. Whether I'm in my feels, I've just had a breakthrough with my therapist, or I've just had had a really deep conversation with my siblings, or I'm in glam getting ready for an award show, I'm sharing my most intimate thoughts with you on the podcast. You guys know I always keep it real with you guys, but this time I'm taking it to the next level. Listen to Cheekies and chill on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Three horses were awarded the Dickin Medal in the 1940s. Those were Olga, Upstart and Regal. They were all police horses and they all received the award on April 11, 1947. Olga and upstart were both on duty when flying bombs struck the neighborhoods where they were working, and they helped control traffic and assist rescuers in the aftermath. One of them did kind of run off for a minute, but came back. Regal remained calm when his stable was struck by an incendiary bomb on two different occasions. Their stories are all pretty straightforward, so we are really going to focus on a horse who was awarded the Dickin Medal for her actions during the Korean War. Her name was Sergeant Reckless, and she was also an episode request from listener Chantel many, many years ago. Chantelle, if you still listen to this, we finally got to this.

[Holly Frey]

Finally. Unlike the other animals that we've talked about so far, Sergeant Reckless was working with the United States military, specifically the U. S. Marine Corps. She was a small mayor born in South Korea in 1948. Most sources describe her as a Mongolian, but According to the U.S. marine Corps Museum, she was a hala horse, which is a Korean cross between a thoroughbred and a juju, which is a South Korean breed.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

She was bred to be a racehorse, but on June 25, 1950, the North Korean People's army invaded South Korea, which marked the beginning of the Korean War. A couple of years later, Lieutenant Eric Peterson of the 5th Marine Regiment purchased her for use as a pack animal, using $250 of his own money. He bought her from a stable boy at the racetrack who reportedly was trying to raise money to buy an artificial limb for his sister. She had lost a leg after stepping on a landmine.

[Holly Frey]

At first, the Marines just called this horse reckless, possibly because she was trained to carry recoilless rifles, which sounds kind of similar to the word reckless. She would carry these rifles, along with ammunition and other supplies from a supply point to the front lines. Over time, she started doing at least part of this trip alone, and eventually she would do the entire round trip by herself. The Marines thought of her as one of their own, and they started to refer to her as Private Reckless. They were also pretty entertained by her antics because apparently she liked to make herself at home in their tents, and she was fond of eating things like pickles, eggs, and poker chips and drinking Coca Cola and beer. Obviously not a good diet for a horse.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah, please don't feed these to horses. In fact, don't feed them things if they're not your horse. You don't know what they may or may not want or need.

[Holly Frey]

And really, no one should eat a poker chip.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah, yeah. Apparently it was a significant number of poker chips, and I don't know if she had any ill effects afterward. Reckless's most dramatic moments were in March of 1953 during the battle for Outpost Vegas. This took place during the peace talks that ultimately led to an armistice in the war, and Chinese forces were trying to secure more territory for North Korea by attacking multiple outposts in this area. During this battle, Rekkles made 51 round trips to the front lines over a single day, carrying ammunition supplies there and returning with wounded men and the bodies of men who had been killed. She received two different shrapnel wounds, but she carried on. She delivered an estimated £9,000 of ammunition supplies. Her other duties during the Korean War included helping to string telephone wire, and she also became the first horse known to participate in an amphibious landing with the Marine Corps.

[Holly Frey]

An armistice ended the fighting in the Korean War in July of 1953, and Reckless was retired from the Marine Corps in 1960. By that point, she had been promoted to staff sergeant. She gave birth to three surviving foals after arriving in the US after the war. Named Fearless, Dauntless and Chesty, after her retirement, she continued to live with the Marine Corps until her death after a fall in May of 1968.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

According to the U.S. marine Corps, during her lifetime, Reckless was awarded two Purple Hearts, a Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal, a Presidential Unit Citation with Bronze Star, the National Defense Service Medal, a Korean Service Medal, the United Nations Korea Medal, a Navy Unit Commendation, and a Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation. There are multiple statues of her, including at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in California and the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Virginia.

[Holly Frey]

The PDSA stopped awarding the Dickin Medal in 1949, but revived it in 2000. Sergeant Reckless was posthumously awarded the Dickin Medal on July 27, 2016, quote, for attention to duty, devotion and loyalty to the United States Marine Corps. She was the 68th animal to be awarded the Dickin Medal, and in 2019, she also became the first animal to be awarded the Animals in War and Peace Medal of Bravery, which was established as an American equivalent of the Dickin.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Medal and our last Impossible episode and Dick and Medal recipient is the only cat ever to be awarded this medal. And I have to admit, when Rosemary and I were talking about this and we read Simon the cat's award citation, it felt to me a little bit like a participation trophy. Simon, quote, served on the HMS Amethyst during the Yangi Incident, disposing of many rats. Though wounded by a shell blast blast throughout the incident, his behavior was of the highest order, although the blast was capable of making a hole over a foot in diameter in steel plate. So with just that pair of sentences to go on, this sounded to me just kind of like a cat doing cat stuff on a damaged ship. Of course, there is more to it than that and I rescind my original judgment.

[Holly Frey]

The Yangtze Incident, also called the Amethyst Incident, took place during the Chinese Civil War. This was between the Nationalists or Kuomintang under Chiang Kai Shek and the Communists or People's Liberation army under Mao Zedong. The conflict stretched back into the 1920s and the two sides had United to try to fight Japan during the Second Sino Japanese War, which is marked as the beginning of World War II in Asia. But as World War II ended, this alliance broke down and the resulting war became interconnected with the Cold War between the United States and the ussr. The US supported the Nationalists and the USSR supported the Communists. The US also made repeated attempts to negotiate between the two sides.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

While the UK was not directly involved in this civil war, it did have a very long history of involvement in China, including the Opium wars of the 19th century and a series of unequal treaties that that favored British and other Western interests over those of China. At this point, British presence in China included an embassy at Nanjing. And In April of 1949, the HMS Amethyst was ordered up the Yangtze river to relieve the ship that was guarding that embassy.

[Holly Frey]

On April 20, about 60 miles, or 96 kilometers from its destination, the amethyst came under fire from the People's Liberation army, the crew having apparently misinterpreted warning shots as the sounds of combat. The amethyst was badly damaged, including having an enormous hole blown into one side, and it ran aground while trying to evade the attack. At least 19 men were killed, including the captain, Lieutenant Commander Bernard M. Skinner. More than 20 others were wounded, some of whom later died.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

The Amethyst's officers tried to evacuate as many people as possible to the Nationalist side of the river, but that left about 60 people still on board and some of them were too badly injured to be moved. Attempts to refloat the ship were unsuccessful, and while they were able to move it a little bit, the amethyst wound up trapped in the crossfire. The People's Liberation army also fired on the ship anytime sailors were visible on deck, and there were additional injuries and deaths among the crew.

[Holly Frey]

Several other ships tried to come to Amethyst's aid, but had to turn back after also coming under fire with injuries and deaths on some of those other ships as well. So the Amethyst was essentially trapped. It sat there in the river for about three months with the crew facing hot weather, continual danger and dwindling supplies.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

That brings us to Simon, who was a tuxedo cat who had been smuggled aboard the ship in 1948 by a 17 year old sailor, Ordinary Seaman George Hickinbottom, who had found this cat hungry on the docks. While some of the crew did not really like Simon's habits of leaving them dead rodents or sleeping in their hats, he did become a favorite of many of the men on board. He was injured in the initial shelling of the ship and like a lot of cats would do when he got hurt, he hid. Once he was found, one of the ship's medics treated his injuries and afterward, while he was still recovering, he went back to something he was already known for doing, which was hunting rats.

[Holly Frey]

Rat control was one of the reasons that ships often had cats on board, and it was particularly important. While the amethyst was stuck on the Yangtze river. While the Amethyst had occasional contact with other British ships, their opportunities for resupply were almost non existent. The weather was very hot, the generators had been damaged and the boilers often had to be shut down to conserve fuel, which meant that the ship often had to go without ventilation or refrigeration. Perishable food spoiled quickly and anything that was eaten or destroyed by rodents just compounded this problem.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

There was also a morale boost aspect to Simon's rat hunting, especially when he killed an enormous rat that the crew had come to really despise. They had named that huge rat after Mao Zedong. Afterward, after he killed this rat, they promoted Simon to Able Seaman, or in some accounts, Able Seacat. Simon also started accompanying the ship's maintenance officer on daily rounds and was credited with lifting the crew's spirits when they saw him. The ship's dog, who was a terrier named Peggy, helped with this too.

[Holly Frey]

With its rations nearly exhausted, the Amethyst managed to make an escape on July 30, 1949. Slipping its anchor chain and heading downstream towards Shanghai. Under cover of night, they successfully made it to the open sea 101 days after becoming stranded on the river.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

In addition to being awarded the dickin medal in 1949, in August of that year Simon was awarded an Amethyst Campaign Ribbon for distinguished and meritorious service. The citation noted Simon's killing of the rat known as mao Zedong on April 26 and that between April 22 and August 4, he quote, did rid the HMS Amethyst of pestilence and vermin with unrelenting faithfulness.

[Holly Frey]

While Simon survived his initial injuries and the time the Amethyst was trapped on the river, he sadly died of an infection on November 28, 1949, while in quarantine to enter the United Kingdom. About a thousand people, including the crew of the Amethyst, attended his funeral. Like Rip the dog, he was buried at the PDSA's animal cemetery. In addition to Rip and Simon, there are 10 other Dick and Medal winners buried there.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

And that is a number of brave and resourceful animals.

[Holly Frey]

Do you have a listener mail? Brave and resourceful?

[Tracy V. Wilson]

I do have listener mail. This listener mail is from Shay and it is about ballpoint pens. Shay wrote. Howdy, Tracy and Holly. I've enjoyed listening to your podcast over the years and have always wanted to add my 2 cents to one of your episodes and now I can. Because of ballpoint pen. I've been in the military for over 21 years and will be retiring next year. In the Navy, the most known Ballpoint Pen is the standard Skillcraft Ballpoint pen Personally, I'm not a fan of how they feel when writing, so I always wondered why Skillcraft So away I went. Skillcraft is a brand under the National Industries for the Blind through a program administered by the U.S. ability One Commission. The program came about due to the 1938 Wagner O' Day act requiring the federal government to buy products made by blind workers and later amended in 1971 to expand to nonprofits employing persons with other disabilities. This bill was championed by Senator Jacob Javits, who was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease, also known as als. While the Armed Forces has used a number of companies for ballpoint pens in the past past just as the Australian pilots you spoke of did to include the Ballerina pen company during Vietnam, Skillcraft became a staple in the Navy. I can't speak for the other branches with certainty due to pen requirements and Navy policy. The GSA policy requiring federal specifications was written and released in 1965 after they GSA received a shipment of 13 million ballpoint pins that were defective. The standard included being able to write over 5,000ft at a pressure of 125 grams, must be able to write in temperatures between minus 40 degrees and 160 degrees dry within 5 seconds, can't smear and ink must still remain even after two chemical bleaching applications to name a few. Additionally, the OPNAV instruction 3107C state states that we must quote make all manual entries in ship's deck log with a black ballpoint pen or typewritten printed on letter quality printer processed by electronic means which is why they're commonly seen with someone standing what we call a deck watch. I hope that was interesting or new information for someone. It was new and interesting information for me. I've attached an old photo of a dog I used to own. Sadly he had to be rehomed because I was advised she wasn't allowed in the country of one of my dudes stations and I later learned my son has an allergy to dogs although he always wanted another dog regardless of the allergic reaction. Her name was asia, born in 2005. She was a very loving, playful, sweet American pit bull terrier and I know her new family loved and took care of her very well and our family missed her very much. Thanks for listening Shay. What a cute dog.

[Holly Frey]

Oh I love a goofy pity. They're so sweet.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah I did not know any of this pen information about the Navy and I did find it interesting. There are honestly multiple various tidbits in there that I all found interesting. So thank you so much Shay for this email. That was a good companion to an episode that was about both animals and the military. If you would like to send us a note, we're at history [e-mail] and you can subscribe to the show on the iheartradio app or anywhere else you like to get your podcasts. Stuff youf Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite show.

[Matt and Stack]

Tune in to all the Smoke podcast where Matt and Stack sit down with former First Lady Michelle Obama.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Folks find it hard to hate up close and when you get to know people and you're sitting in their kitchen tables and they're talking like we're talking, you know, you hear our story, how we grew up, how Barack grew up, and you get a chance for people to unpack and get beyond race.

[Matt and Stack]

All the Smoke featuring Michelle Obama. To hear this podcast and more, open your free iHeartRadio app, search all the Smoke and listen now.

[Will Luke]

How serious is youth vaping Irreversible lung damage serious. 1 in 10 kids vape serious. Which warrants a serious conversation from a serious parental figure like yourself. Not the seriously know it all sports dad or the seriously smart podcaster. It requires a serious conversation that is best had by you. No, seriously, the best person to talk to your child about vaping is you. To start the conversation, visit talkaboutvaping.org, brought to you by the American Lung association and the AD Council.

[Noah de Barrasso]

I was diagnosed with cancer on Friday and cancer free the next Friday. No chemo, no radiation, none of that.

[Culture Raises Us Host]

On a recent episode of Culture Raises Us podcast, I sat down with Warren Campbell, Grammy winning producer, pastor and music executive, to talk about the beats, the business and the legacy behind some of the the biggest names in gospel, R and B and hip hop.

[Noah de Barrasso]

Professionally, I started at Death Row Records.

[Culture Raises Us Host]

From Mary Mary to Jennifer Hudson, we get into the soul of the music and the purpose that drives it. Listen to Culture Raises us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

The U.S. open is here. And on my podcast Good Game with Sarah Spain, I'm breaking down the players, the predictions, the pressure, and of course the Honey Deuces, the signature cocktail of the U.S. open.

[Dr. Athia]

The U.S. open has gotten to be.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

A very wonderfully experiential sporting event. To hear this and more Listen to Good Game with Sarah Spain, an iHeart women's sports production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Brought to you by Novartis, founding partner of iHeart Women's Sports Network. This is an iHeart podcast.