BRIDGEPORT, Calif. — With 75 pounds of military gear cinched on her back, Annie was stubborn. Two Marines assigned to her pushed, pulled and sweet-talked her up the steep, twisting trail in the Sierra Nevada.
“C’mon, girl, you can make it,” Lance Cpl. Chad Campbell of Pleasant Hill, Mo., whispered into her ear.
For Campbell and his partner, the day with Annie could be a preview of others to come. Soon, they might deploy to Afghanistan, where donkeys and mules have been the preferred mode of military transport for centuries.
Five donkeys, 24 mules and five trainers are at the Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center for an animal-packing course given eight times a year to U.S. and some foreign troops.
“It’s a very primitive way to carry very modern weapons,” said Sgt. Joe Neal, one of the instructors. “But it works.”
