Lieutenant Colonel Chester E. Bear is a highly decorated military officer who has seen active duty in wars from the Korean conflict to the Persian Gulf. He has so many metals that his family says they have lost count. He’s also a teddy bear.
Chester’s career started when 3-year-old Katy Toole gave him to her father, an Air Force pilot, to take with him on a humanitarian mission in 1950. ”I had to fly an iron lung to a little girl and Katy said, ‘Give the little girl my teddy bear.’ After the girl got better she sent Chester back,” retired Lieutenant Larry Toole told the San Jose Mercury News.
One of Toole’s neighbors, who was also in the reserves, gave Katy the idea that the bear could serve as a mascot for her father’s unit. The bear was enlisted and the soldiers made him a uniform of his very own. Since then, Chester has learned to parachute, been MIA (an infantry unit in Korea found him after a jump and wouldn’t give him back for a few weeks), travel with his name sake, General Chester E. McCarty and earned more metals than his family knew what to do with.
Chester stayed on active duty as long as Toole did, retiring after Dessert Storm. With all that traveling about and jumping out of airplanes, Chester has had his war wounds. “He’s been restuffed five or six times,” Toole said. Chester has also been “treated” for a torn ear. Chester was in a museum for a while, but he’s since returned to Toole and his family.
Happy Veteran’s Day Chester!
