Caves aren’t just for bats and ancient bones anymore. Although many caves have incredible natural beauty and rich histories, some also have cool things that you’d never expect to find there.

10Mountain Biking

Mega Cavern Bike Park in Louisville, Kentucky, is home to the world’s first underground mountain biking course—and the largest indoor bike park ever built—with something for bikers at all levels. Even expert bikers will be able to maneuver through advanced trails and jumps in caverns with 30-meter-high (90 ft) ceilings. “Think about riding or skiing down a mountain,” says co-owner Jim Lowry, describing the trails. “You don’t go speeding straight down, you go back and forth, over bumps and smooth sections. You are moving fast at some points and more slowly at others.”

Designed by Joe Prisel, a bike park creator for the ESPN X Games, Mega Cavern Bike Park is built in a modular fashion. That way, a lot of the trails can be modified during the year to create new challenges for riders. With a consistent temperature of 16 degrees Celsius (60 °F) underground, bikers no longer have to worry about weather that makes riding dangerous outdoors. There will be a riding school, too.

The 92-acre cavern also sports a business park and entertainment attractions like the Lights Under Louisville, a drive-through display of over two million Christmas lights. The cavern runs under the Louisville Zoo and some commercial buildings. But the way the texture of the high limestone walls and dirt varies, it feels like you’re outside instead of enclosed beneath the ground.

There’s so much solid limestone above the ceilings that the cavern was considered safe enough to use as a fallout shelter for up to 50,000 people during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Initially excavated in the 1930s, this man-made cavern, the largest in Kentucky, was mined as a limestone quarry for over 40 years. Under new ownership in 1989, the cavern eventually housed a recycling center and over 11 acres of office buildings. It became a huge complex almost completely hidden within massive limestone cliffs.

9A Nightclub

A part of Hotel Las Cuevas in Trinidad, Cuba, Disco Ayala lets you experience a rave in a cave. With three bars and five dance floors, the club blasts disco-salsa music from a DJ booth while colored lights play off the stalactites on the walls. Although some of disco’s intense heat is released through a big hole in the roof, the opening really serves to prevent the sound waves from causing a cave-in. Up to 5,000 people can fit inside. The disco also features live acts that include acrobatics, glass-eating, fire-walking, and snakes.

Legend has it that the cave was once home to a notorious Cuban serial killer, psychopath Carlos “Coco” Ayala, who kidnapped children and killed them in the cave. When Cuban children misbehave, their mothers often warn them: “Be good or Carlos Ayala will come looking!” Supposedly, Carlos deserted during the 19th-century Cuban War of Independence and hid for safety in the cave. “I always heard that this man [abducted] children, leading [them] to a cave to rape and kill them as part of a ritual to the saints,” recalled an old resident of Trinidad as quoted by Cuban newspaper Escambray. “His misdeeds ended when the people captured and beheaded him.” Exactly how much truth exists in the legend is unknown. But there is historical evidence to confirm that Ayala did kill several people in the cave in the late 1800s.

Strangely, the owners of the nightclub kept the Ayala name. However, the disco was constructed for entertainment only, not to remember the evil deeds of a murderer.

8A Church

Although we don’t know its date of origin, the spacious Spassky Cave Church is located in Kostomarovo, a Russian village in the Voronezh region of the country. It’s the larger of two churches in the ancient cave monastery called the Svyato–Spassky Convent. Although the Spassky Church is carved into a chalky cliff, it’s big enough to accommodate 2,000 people. There’s even a large “Cave of Repentance” for sinners to make their confessions. Much of the surrounding area is named after the Holy Land, including a Calvary, a Gethsemane Garden, a hill of Golgotha, and a Mount Tabor.

Before the rise of Christianity in Russia, monks hid in ascetic cave cells in the region to avoid religious persecution until the first monastery was constructed in the 12th century. One of the purposes of the monastery was to shield parishioners from enemy attack, even if the siege continued for a long time. Monks and hermits lived in small cells cut into the shrine walls. They were completely isolated from the outside world except for a tiny window carved out of the rock.

As the communists swept into power, the monks were executed, and the Svyato-Spassky Convent was closed like so many other places of worship in the country. However, the caves once again provided refuge, this time for the country’s soldiers, when the Soviets fought the Nazis in World War II (also called the “Great Patriotic War” in the Soviet Union). Although the churches were officially reopened in 1943, Nikita Khrushchev directed local officials to close them again in the early 1960s. They flooded the cave and burned the exterior of the buildings.

In 1993, after the fall of communism, the church, convent, and caves were rebuilt. Even today, some Russians make a pilgrimage to the church every year.

7A Whole New Ecosystem

The Er Wang Dong cave in the Chongquig province of China is so big and isolated that it has a unique ecosystem, including its own weather. Scientists didn’t venture far enough into the cave to discover its secrets until 2012. Partly, that’s because they needed a lot of specialized equipment to lower themselves through the opening at the top of the cave, which requires a descent of more than 250 meters (820 ft). When the explorers got inside, they also found some openings to the outside around the floor of the cave. However, the scientists were less astounded by the almost 13-acre size of the cave than by the clouds that obscured their view of the ceiling in what is known as Cloud Ladder Hall.

Clouds get in, but they can’t get back out. Although the cave had been mined for nitrate near its entrances, there was lush vegetation, including trees, in the interior chambers. But there was also danger from rushing rivers that can carry you over one of the interior waterfalls to your death.

Explorer Robbie Shone explains that we really know very little about the mysteries of our planet’s caves. “More people have been to the Moon than to some of these caves,” he says. “Each time we go into these caves and bring photographs or video back to the surface, it’s all new stuff we’ve never seen before.”

6Modern Cavemen And Cavewomen

Over 30 million people in China still live in caves, including an entire community in Shaanxi province. There, the porous soil of the loess plateau makes it easy to dig a cave home, called a yaodong, out of the mountainside. These no-frill, one-room dwellings substitute rice paper or a quilt for a front door. If you have the money, it’s possible to buy more rooms, as well as electricity, running water, and a yard. These caves conserve energy and provide residents with more land to farm.

Some of the caves are in high demand from people looking to buy or rent. But apparently, nobody wants to leave. Most cave dwellers have lived there all their lives. Even some of the residents who’ve moved on for various reasons dream of returning to their caves. “It’s cool in the summer and warm in the winter,” says forty-something Ren Shouhua. “It’s quiet and safe. When I get old, I’d like to go back to my roots.”

Historically, that wasn’t always safe, though. On January 23, 1556, the Shaanxi magnitude 8 earthquake struck, and it was the deadliest one ever recorded. The quake killed 830,000 people, and many lost their lives when their yaodong collapsed on them.

Nevertheless, the caves have provided refuge for the Chinese during important moments in history. Mao Zedong once retreated to caves in the north of Shaanxi province when the Long March ended in the 1930s. American journalist Edgar Snow wrote about a Red Army university located in bombproof caves. During the Cultural Revolution, even Chinese President Xi Jinping spent seven years living in exile in a Shaanxi province cave.

However, not all modern caves are inexpensive or spartan. The deluxe Cave House in Bisbee, Arizona, was listed for sale for over $1 million dollars in 2012 when one of the owners died. It’s even possible to find a cave home on eBay as Curt Sleeper did in 2003 in Festus, Missouri. But he soon learned it’s difficult to get a bank to finance the purchase of a cave. The Sleepers moved in, but they fell on hard times and had to put the house up for auction.

5Medical Treatment Centers

When two middle-aged Frenchwomen became convinced that electromagnetic radiation from the modern world was making them sick, they took up residence in a cave. “I’ve been treated like a crazy woman,” said one of the pair, Bernadette Touloumond. “I’ve lost a lot of friends, and my family find [sic] it hard to understand.” However, many people trek to medical treatment centers set up in caves throughout the world to supposedly help them with their ailments. We’ve already talked about the Gastein Healing Cave in Austria that contains the world’s biggest pain management center.

Especially popular these days are salt caves, some natural and some man-made, designed to treat respiratory ailments like asthma and skin conditions like eczema. The man-made caves are often just indoor rooms that coat their ceilings and walls with salt, although some blow particles of cave salt into the air with a generator. In these halotherapy chambers, you simply relax in a chair and breathe the salt air. However, doctors caution that conditions such as asthma may be worsened by these treatments.

A German named Dr. Schutz is credited with dreaming up the notion of a salt cure gallery in Berchtesgaden, Germany, after noticing how the air around a Polish salt mine healed wounds faster during World War II. In Eastern Europe, salt caves are considered by many to be therapeutic. However, there are few studies on salt rooms published in the English language to either confirm or deny these claims.

4A Controversial Movie Set

Devetashka Cave is a huge cave close to the village of Devetaki in Bulgaria. In the 1950s, the cave was used as a military warehouse for oil tank storage. Devetashka was also inhabited by humans in ancient times, but the landmark is only home to a protected bat population, including some endangered species.

In 2011, the cave became most well known for a controversy over a movie set. The producers for The Expendables 2 (starring Sylvester Stallone and Bruce Willis) shot an action scene where Stallone crash-landed a plane into the cave to take out Jean Claude Van Damme’s hideout. Environmentalists complained that the movie shoot reduced the bat population by about 75 percent. “The shooting harms the bat habitat—with the placement of props, the cutting down of vegetation, as well as disturbance by the presence of large numbers of people and the noise they make,” said Bulgarian zoologist Nikolay Simov from the Center for Bat Studies and Protection. Supposedly, all the noise caused the bats to come out of hibernation too early, to the detriment of their health.

Simov also stated that local authorities had no legal right to issue a permit for filming at the cave because regulations allow only scientific research and tourism there. After an investigation, however, the Bulgarian Ministry of Environment and Waters found that most of the bats were hibernating at the proper time and the number of dead bats wasn’t excessive.

3Astronomical Knowledge & A Fertility Light Show

A cave on Gran Canaria, one of Spain’s Canary Islands, has revealed that its aboriginal inhabitants had an impressive knowledge of astronomy. It appears that the cave was originally used as a temple. But the way that equinoxes and solstices are marked inside the cave suggests an advanced knowledge of astronomy.

The temple also creates a unique fertility light show throughout the year. “It’s like a projector of images from a vanished culture,” says archaeologist Julio Cuenca. That culture is the aboriginal Guanches, who are believed to have come to the Canary Islands about 3,000 years ago. After Spain conquered them in the 1400s, their culture disappeared.

But apparently, their fertility myths are illuminated in the cave, revealing images that change according to the season. For the six months from March to September, sunlight shining onto the cave walls produces phallic images on top of engravings of female pubic areas. Over time, as fall approaches, these images transform into a pregnant woman and ultimately a seed.

2An Amusement Park

While technically not a cave, the Wieliczka Salt Mine outside of Krakow, Poland, doesn’t qualify as a mine anymore, either. No salt has been mined there for over a decade. Approximately 300 kilometers (186 mi) long, it’s a huge complex nine levels deep with chapels and important sculptures of religious and historical figures. From the 13th century on, generations of mostly Catholic miners built incredible structures beneath the ground, including a huge cathedral. Wieliczka even has an underground lake and chandeliers made of salt. Like the salt caves already mentioned, Wieliczka has a spa for people with respiratory difficulties. The complex became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978.

Thrill seekers congregate in its depths 300 meters (1,000 ft) underground to bungee jump, ride hot-air balloons, and even windsurf across the salty underground lake (although they need a giant fan to provide the wind). Wieliczka also has its own underground brass band to provide music during the festivities.

1Hidden Treasure

In March 2015, a 21-year-old member of the Israeli Caving Club discovered buried treasure in an undisclosed cave in northern Israel. Authorities don’t want to identify the location of the ancient stalactite cave for fear that poachers will rob it of other hidden treasures.

In the cave with his father and a friend, Hen Zakai was crawling along a particularly narrow area when he spotted something shining in the darkness of a nook. It was two silver coins minted during the time of Alexander the Great, who conquered Israel in the late fourth century BC. Each coin showed an image of Alexander the Great on one side and Zeus on the other. Hen also discovered a cloth pouch with silver jewelry nearby, with some earrings that were incredibly well preserved along with bracelets and rings.

“The valuables might have been hidden in the cave by local residents who fled there during the period of governmental unrest stemming from the death of Alexander, a time when the Wars of the Diadochi broke out in Israel between Alexander’s heirs following his death,” said Dr. Eitan Klein of the Antiquities Authority. “Presumably, the cache was hidden in the hope of better days, but today we know that whoever buried the treasure never returned to collect it.”

Further exploration of the cave revealed ancient pottery hanging on stalagmites. Some of the pottery had fused with the limestone and couldn’t be removed. The newly discovered artifacts date from the Hellenistic period about 2,300 years ago all the way back to the Chalcolithic period about 6,000 years ago.

Humans share the Earth with a plethora of different bacteria, distant relatives of ours who inhabit a variety of different environments and perform countless functions—some of which we welcome, and some of which we fight against. It could be said, however, that it is the bacteria who are nice enough to share the Earth with us, considering there are roughly 5×10^30 bacteria on the planet—forming a total mass greater than that of all plants and animals combined.

We tend to think of them existing only in places where other life forms can be found, such as in our gut, the kitchen, forests, and ponds. However, plenty of bacteria require no such environment and can be found in some truly obscure and surprising places on this planet and beyond.

10Inside Solid Rock

It was long believed that one of the requirements for life to exist was sunlight. Even organisms not directly exposed to the Sun (such as those residing in your gut) would consume organic matter that at one point was synthesized with the help of sunlight.

Recently, however, this dogma has been called into question. A team of scientists investigating a South African gold mine has discovered bacteria over 1.5 miles below the ground that seem to subsist purely off of radioactive waste.

The uranium, thorium, and potassium in the surrounding rock formation seem to have just the right amount of energy to break down water molecules, which leads to the production of hydrogen peroxide and sulfates. The radiation breaks down the water molecules into two atoms of hydrogen and a single atom of oxygen, which combine with other water molecules to form hydrogen peroxide. The hydrogen peroxide then reacts with pyrite (fool’s gold) to produce sulfate ions, which the bacteria feast upon with great relish.

And these lonely microbes seem to be in no rush to leave their rocky fortress. Whereas much of the bacteria we encounter on a daily basis—such as E. coli—divides almost daily, this rock-dwelling bacteria is estimated to divide between once a year and once every 300 years.

9The Cleanest Place On Earth: Nasa ‘Clean Rooms’

If you have ever given your kitchen or bathroom a thorough cleaning, you doubtless have walked away with a feeling of satisfaction, knowing that any living microbes that once were there have been eviscerated. Now imagine you work for NASA, and your job is to make the “clean rooms” (where everyone is required to walk around in triple-layer, sterilized body suits) as clean as possible. And NASA wants them really clean.

These rooms are what “hospital operating rooms are to patients,” says Mike Weiss, Hubble’s technical deputy program manager at Goddard. “Surgeons wear sterile gowns, gloves and masks during surgery, and operating rooms must be kept free of germs to keep patients healthy. In our case, [the spacecraft] is the patient.”

Anyone who enters must pass through a series of “lobbies,” the first of which contains special adhesive to remove dirt particles from shoes, the second of which provides a high-pressure air shower, and the third of which forces you to cover yourself from head to toe in protective clothing.

This painstaking procedure made it all the more upsetting when an entirely new genus of bacteria was discovered in not one, but two NASA clean rooms. Named Tersicoccus phoenicis (“Tersi” is Latin for clean), this bacterium has earned a reputation for outwitting the most intense industrial cleaners and sterilization techniques.

Scientists at NASA make sure to keep samples of this resilient creature on hand to compare it to any potential bacteria brought back from space.

8Sheets Of Ice

When we think of ice, we inevitably think of cold, which brings with it very little movement and therefore very little life. The freezer is where we put food for long-term storage not because we necessarily want to make more room in the refrigerator but because we want to slow down the various chemical processes that will cause the food to spoil.

This is why it is all the more surprising that large populations of bacteria have found a long-term home in some of the world’s largest glaciers—with some bacterial strains lasting for millions of years.

The Transantarctic Mountains in Antarctica contain the oldest known ice on Earth and are home to microbes that have lived there for millions of years. It is estimated that the entire microbial cell population encased in the ice sheets of Antarctica outnumber the human population of Earth more than 10,000 times over.

And now that the Earth is warming and the ice is melting, these little guys may soon be liberated into the ocean, where they will have to adapt to an unfamiliar but perhaps more hospitable environment.

7Boiling Water

Every boy scout knows that if you come across a natural source of water, the water must be boiled before consumption to remove any harmful bacteria. Be careful, however, the next time you take solace in this technique, since some bacteria, such as Clostridium botulinum, can survive in boiling water.

Clostridium botulinum, which is responsible for botulism (a serious paralytic condition caused by a nerve toxin that can enter the body either through food intake or an open wound), prefers environments with relatively little oxygen, which is why it can grow and live in the most unnerving places, such as in your camp kettle or along the inside of a sealed can.

Since a botulism diagnosis often comes with aggressive antibody treatment and a trip to the hospital, it is best to use bleach, sodium hydroxide, and extreme temperatures (around 120 degrees Celsius) when trying to eradicate this pesky beast.

6The Lowest Place On Earth

Any ocean enthusiast knows that the Mariana Trench is the most mysterious place in the ocean and perhaps the planet. Located to the east of the Philippines and north of New Guinea, the Mariana Trench is the deepest part of any ocean on Earth, with a maximum depth of roughly 11,000 meters. The search for new forms of life at the bottom of this black, mostly inaccessible cavern has been a major goal for oceanographers for years, and now, in the Challenger Deep (the lowest point of the Mariana Trench), researchers have found heterotrophic bacteria, which can sustain themselves in part from tiny bits of organic compounds found in particles that fall from high above.

Bacteria found in the ocean past the reach of sunlight (beginning around 100 meters below the surface) must break down compounds such as sulfur and ammonia for sustenance, which makes the presence of these heterotrophic bacteria all the more mysterious.

5The Upper Atmosphere

Usually, when we think of bacteria, we think of them living somewhere in the animal kingdom, coexisting with and in some cases feasting off of organic matter. This is not the case, however, when it comes to a large microbe population that was recently discovered in the Earth’s atmosphere.

Although there are no life forms in our atmosphere on which to feast, there is plenty of carbon, which provides these gravity-defying bacteria with sustenance, even at altitudes of six miles or more above sea level. In fact, bacteria may make up roughly 20 percent of the small particles in the upper atmosphere at any given time.

Although it is not entirely clear how these bacteria made the unlikely journey into the atmosphere, scientists believe that high winds and alternating atmospheric pressures drove the little critters into the heavens, much like the process by which salt and dirt arrive in the same place.

4Your Eyeball

Although it is common knowledge that the human body contains multitudes of bacteria (in fact, a human body contains more bacterial cells than human cells), we like to think of these friendly bacteria as residing peacefully in our gut—carrying out their end of a symbiotic relationship by aiding in the digestion of food, as well as producing chemicals that help us squeeze every last drop of energy out of what we consume.

What we do not like to think about, however, is that a more sinister type of bacterium resides on our eyeball, specifically the conjunctiva—a mucus membrane covering the sclera of the eyeball. The bacteria Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeaehas seem to have an affinity for the human eyeball, and although our tears do their best to keep these little critters at bay by dispatching enzymes such as lysozyme, these defenses are not enough to rid the eyeball of them completely.

And yes, these bacteria are the same ones responsible for the chlamydia and gonorrhea infections, respectively. Best to keep those eyes clean.

3Antarctica

If you are a seafood lover, you have inevitably fielded warnings about eating too much fish, due to a widespread fear that you may be ingesting too much mercury. A major culprit when it comes to mercury in fish may be a recently discovered strain of Antarctic bacteria. The bacterium, named Nitrospinia, seems to have an affinity for converting mercury to methylmercury, which is far more dangerous than mercury and has been known to cause developmental problems in children. After ingesting and converting the mercury into methylmercury, these pesky bacteria are consumed by a variety of different fish, which then end up on your dinner plate.

And since many of our most beloved fish dishes come from the Southern Ocean, this could be a major problem for seafood lovers, especially since more commercial fishermen are heading south to chase after depleting fish supplies.

2Your Glabela

The glabela, more commonly known as the smooth section of skin between your eyebrows and above the nose, may seem like an unlikely home for bacteria since it lacks significant protection from the environment. However, being exposed for all the world to see is no deterrent for an especially monstrous-looking bacteria named Demodex folliculorum (also known as eyelash mites), which spend their days roaming around your forehead in search of carbon-containing matter. While these and the more commonly known Propionibacteria bacteria are generally harmless, they can occasionally cause an infection that leads to acne vulgaris. So the next time you discover a pimple between your eyes, you can blame these little guys.

1The Dead Sea

Given its name, the Dead Sea is understandably one of the last places one would go in search of life. This would be misguided, however, since although the extraordinarily salty water of the Dead Sea is inhospitable to most forms of life, some bacteria have discovered a loophole: freshwater springs.

Just within the last decade, several new forms of life have been discovered at the bottom of the Dead Sea—bacterial life that has become accustomed to both extreme salinity and fresh water (a necessary prerequisite for living in the Dead Sea, since the salinity of the water fluctuates so rapidly).

These prokaryote bacteria cling to the rocks at the bottom of the Dead Sea, as giant underwater craters shoot fresh water and sulfides into the surrounding water—forming a thin white film and proving wrong the notion that bacteria can only either survive in fresh or salt water environments, not both.

If you ever want to waste a few hours of your day on a frustrating task, try to find the last time in history during which no wars were being fought anywhere in the world.  It’s extremely hard to do and some folks suggest there actually hasn’t been a time when there was no war. Depressing!

With so much fighting afoot in our history it stands to reason many people have been involved in that fighting. In modern times, there’s an official process for this in most countries which require citizens to enlist so they can be formally recognized as soldiers. But not every formally enlisted soldier is exactly who you think they are.

10. Wojtek Was a Soldier in the Polish Army… and Also a Bear

Animals and war have a long history. Horses were used well before we have motorized vehicles, elephants had their day, and dogs still show up in fields of war all around the world. But most of those animals are not officially recognized as actual soldiers with rank. Some, however, rise above.

A Syrian brown bear named Wojtek was given the rank of private in the Polish army during WWII. It was a group of POWs that first discovered the baby bear in Iran as they traveled through the mountains from Siberia to Egypt. They carried the bear with them, feeding and caring for it, even as their release was negotiated and they were sent to Italy to fight with Allied Forces.

Wojtek grew up with the soldiers, even learning to smoke and drink beer, which are obviously not the best habits for a bear to have. It also learned to carry ammo boxes during battles on the front line though soldiers later stated it was only carrying spent shells, not live ammo.

The bear also learned how to salute and march. He wrestled and boxed and played soccer, too. He became the company’s morale officer, after a fashion. They even took on a bear holding an artillery shell as their insignia. He was eventually promoted to corporal.

After the war, the company went to Scotland, and Wojtek joined them. He helped around a farm and continued to play with his comrades until the company disbanded. Wojtek spent the rest of his life playing and chilling in Scotland, including enjoying the occasional cigarette and beer.

9. A Six-Year-Old Girl Was Enlisted in the Royal Navy in Australia

The armed forces of any country are subject to a seemingly endless chain of rules and edicts and procedures. There are codes of conduct, formal definitions and regulations and all kinds of red tape and bureaucracy around even the simplest of things. Some of it is remarkable nonsense, too. But at least the same nonsense can be manipulated in a pinch.

In 1920 there were strict rules for the Australian Navy regarding who could and could not be on board a military ship. For instance, under no circumstances was a woman allowed on board, although the Navy itself simply says “civilians” could not board. This would not have been a problem until the day Nancy Bentley was bit by a snake.

We all know Australian snakes are not to be trifled with. Nancy was just six-years-old and a snake bite could easily have been lethal for her. Worse, she and her father were nowhere near a hospital. But they were close to HMAS Sydney, an Australian warship.

Nancy’s father rowed her to where the ship was docked and begged for help. Captain Hayley knew regulations would not permit the girl’s treatment on board. But it would allow for a sailor to be treated. The captain ordered the girl to be formally enlisted into the Navy and she was brought on board.

The girl was given the rank of “mascot” and received first aid treatment before arrangements were made to get her to a proper hospital. Nancy made it to Hobart and survived her ordeal. Eight days after being enlisted she was officially discharged.

8. Just Nuisance Was an Official Sailor in the Royal Navy

Several dogs have saved lives during wartime and performed heroic acts that were later officially recognized. But the Great Dane called Just Nuisance seems to be the only one to officially make it into the British Royal Navy.

The dog was raised in Simon’s Town, South Africa, near a British naval base. The sailors were fond of the dog and would often walk him and feed him treats. He would often sleep on the gangplank of the HMS Neptune. Because he was so large, almost 6.6 feet when standing on his hind legs, this made him a nuisance to get around, hence the name.

So how did Nuisance become enlisted? Because he was a nuisance. The dog wanted to go on shore leave with the soldiers when they traveled to Cape Town. But train officials hated having the dog on board and started sending threatening letters to his official owner. Some included threats to put Nuisance down.

The sailors, who loved the dog, took this up the chain of command. They didn’t want to lose the dog either and their commanding officer, intent on keeping up morale, found a solution. The Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Navy enlisted Nuisance. This meant he was entitled to free travel on trains so the rail company couldn’t complain about unpaid fares for the massive beast.

His enlistment included full paperwork where his first name was listed as “Just” because it couldn’t be blank. He was given a medical exam and signed it with his own paw print. His official rank was Ordinary Seaman and though he never saw combat, he proved an valued member of the Navy on land. So much so, in fact, he was later promoted to Able Seaman. 

Nuisance had an accident when he was seven and the Navy was forced to put him to sleep. He was given full military honors including a Royal Marine firing party. 

7. William Windsor Was a Goat in the British Army

While some animals do well and get promoted through the ranks, that’s not always the case. A goat named William Windsor actually got demoted for his behavior as a soldier in the British Army. 

William, also called Billy, was a Lance Corporal with the First Battalion Royal Welsh, could not keep in step during a parade in honor of the Queen back in 2006. He was demoted to Fusilier.

Billy was not the only regimental goat, of course, as monarchs have been presenting them since Victoria’s time in honor of a goat that is said to have led Welsh soldiers from the Battle of Bunker Hill. In 2022, Lance Corporal Shenkin was on hand for the Proclamation of King Charles. 

6. Donald Duck Was an Army Sergeant

We can safely agree now that animals serving in the military is not super unusual. That means we need to kick it up a notch with an animal that isn’t even real. We need to talk about Sergeant Donald Duck.

As you may have noticed, Donald Duck has always been dressed as a sailor. This dates all the way back to 1934. By 1941 he was officially drafted into the US Army, as opposed to the Navy where he seemed like he would have fit in, though he found a place there later. In 1942 he appeared in military cartoons as part of the US propaganda machine during WWII. Disney had been losing money and a government contract to make films promoting their war efforts paid the bills. 

Disney produced several military and patriotic cartoons featuring Donald as an example of a solid American, even paying his taxes in what sounds like just a fascinating and exciting premise for a cartoon.

Donald also became an honorary member of the Navy and the Marines. Though he may not have been in the Air Force, his face appeared on the side of many planes. In 1984, 50 years after being enlisted, the director of Army staff officially gave Donald his discharge papers and released him from service. This was after his final promotion to the rank of sergeant.

5. Calvin Graham Joined the US Navy at Age Twelve

The youngest veteran in US history, Calvin Graham was only 12 when he joined the Navy. Graham had left home at age 11 back in 1941. He sold papers to support himself and so regularly read news of the war. The attack on Pearl Harbor convinced him to enlist.

To sell the lie, Graham began shaving, trying to get stubble. He faked a deeper voice and then forged papers signed by his mother and stamped with a stolen notary’s stamp. Things almost worked until the medical when the dentist saw his baby teeth and tried to give him the boot. Graham countered they had already let in 14-year-olds and he’d rat them out if he wasn’t allowed in, too. It worked.

Graham became an anti-aircraft gunner on the USS South Dakota. He helped shoot down 26 planes at Guadalcanal. Later, the Dakota took heavy damage and Graham got a face full of shrapnel, but he lived and helped his fellow soldiers. 

His mother saw footage of the vessel’s return. She called the Navy about enlisting a child and they responded by stripping Graham of his medals, dishonorably discharging him and throwing him in the brig. It wouldn’t be until 1977, after years of hardship and additional service and injuries, that President Carter overturned the discharge and restored his medals.

4. Momcilo Gavric Was a Soldier at Age Eight

You’ve probably heard a tale or two about a soldier signing up for service before they were 18. This was something that happened with some regularity during WWII. Children as young as 14 scammed their way into service by lying about their ages and we saw how Calvin Graham served at 12. Technically this is both illegal and frowned upon, as we don’t want children putting their lives on the line. But child soldiers are far from unheard of. One of the youngest ever was Momcilo Gravic, a Serbian soldier at 8.

As World War One was starting, Gravic’s village was attacked and his entire family killed alongside everyone else. Alone, the boy headed out to find the Serbian army. They took him in and, moved by his story, officially admitted him to the division. Three times a day he was to fire a cannon to avenge his family. 

Gravic stayed with the soldiers through many battles, even sustaining his own injuries. He attained the rank of corporal. At age twelve, when the war was over, his commanding officer gave him one last order. Head to London and finish school. 

3. Jean Thurel Was a French Soldier for Nearly a Century

You expect most soldiers to be young and physically fit if nothing else, it probably helps during the physical part of war like trying to not be shot or exploded. But there is certainly room for people with more years and experience in command positions. You want a general who has been through some stuff in charge, not a kid who just read about it. But how experienced are we talking about? In France, it’s very experienced.

Jean Thurel was still busy soldiering when he was 100. In 1787, King Louis XVI awarded him the Médallions des Deux Épées for the third time. It was given to honor 24 years of service. He joined the French military in 1716 when he was 18 and served during four separate wars. He was still serving in 1804 when he was 106.

2. Monte Gould Was America’s Oldest Basic Training Graduate

Joining the military is typically a young person’s game these days. Fresh out of highschool is when many sign up, or soon thereafter. But it doesn’t always play out like that. Monte Gould is an absolute exception, having graduated from the US Army’s basic training course at the ripe, old age of 59.

Gould is a Marine and Army Reserve veteran and went through boot camp for the Marines back in the late 70s. He finished the modern BCT in 2020 in the top 10% despite his age, proving sometimes experience and skill beat youthfulness when it counts. But he was also quick to point out that it was a hell of a lot easier in his old age and Marine boot camp would be impossible now.

1. The Mormon Battalion Was the Only Faith-Based Regiment 

Faith and military service have gone together for a long time but typically in a mostly pragmatic way. There are army chaplains but military service is not guided by any particular religious principles. In US history there has only ever been one entirely faith-based regiment – the Mormon Battalion.

In 1846, migrating Mormons appealed to the US government, and directly to President Polk, to help them. A man named Jesse Little proposed the President could use the Mormons to defend and fortify the West in exchange for aid. The President agreed and ordered the raising of a 500 man battalion. They would fight in the Mexican War. The Mormons agreed.

Though the battalion saw no combat, they endured one of the longest and most grueling marches in military history across 2,000 miles. They also had one official battle against wild cattle.