Smoke (donkey)

Smoke, also known as Smoke the Donkey, became a mascot and therapy animal for the United States Marine Corps during the 2003 Iraq War. Marine Colonel John Folsom helped rescue the malnourished Iraqi donkey and built a corral and stable at Camp Taqaddum in Iraq from 2008 to 2009 among the Marines of the 1st Marine Logistics Group who were deployed there.[1] Folsom was able to find a Navy psychologist to designate Smoke as a therapy animal in order to address regulations against keeping the animal on the premises. The donkey became popular with the troops who would send photos to children back home.[2]

In 2011, Smoke traveled half way around the world to the United States, the only donkey to make such a journey.[1] The process to relocate Smoke from Iraq to the United States required senior level diplomatic coordination by multiple countries, and the assistance of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.[1][2]

Smoke's relatively quick visa process has been contrasted with the lengthy visa process for Iraqi humans who worked as interpreters for the US Army.[3] More than a decade after the Special Immigrant Visa program was created to facilitate the immigration of former interpreters who now face violence for their work with the US, few have been admitted, and the program has been almost totally curtailed by the Trump regime.[4]

Once in the United States, Smoke lived at Take Flight Farms in Omaha, Nebraska until his death on August 14, 2012 of natural causes.[5] In 2016, Smoke the Donkey: A Marine's Unlikely Friend, a book about his life by Cate Folsom, was published by University of Nebraska Press.[6]