Origin of The Crow

The Crow began life as a Yard Bird, the name and creation of a chain of Army Supply Stores that operated in the Northwestern part of the country during the time the 172nd TC was training at Ft. Lewis, WA and preparing for deployment to Vietnam in the summer of 1968. His "recruitment" by our members, just prior to our departure, could not have foretold of his nearly 40 year history with the unit which included eventual deployments to Operation Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom. He now awaits the completion of a Vietnam Exhibit in a warehouse in Ft. Eustis, VA, to take his well deserved place in the Army Transportation Museum on that post. Certainly, The Crow has had a long and illustrious career that began from such humble beginnings, hanging upside down at the entrance to the Olympia, WA Yard Birds Store.

Yard Birds were made to be used for the advertisement and promotion of the Yard Birds chain of stores. Curiously, after some research, we discovered that the ones pictured in an old photo looked very much like our mascot, but were in a standing position while The Crow is in a kneeling position. We learned that Port Northwest is a media company that has documented the story of Yard Birds, both in a documentary movie and on the Internet. The company was also collecting stories about these statues to include in the documentary "The History of Yard Birds" so we contacted them with our story and asked them about the difference. The following reply fills in our knowledge of this now famous and beloved statue of wood and fiberglass. It should not surprise anyone that he is a one-of-a-kind specimen.

From Port Northwest:

"So - as for the TC Crow - we spoke to the Store Manager, Noel Cole, from the Olympia store and he said that your bird was very unique - it was the only one of its kind made. At one point a version of the bird was mass produced to stand along the roadside with a flag that said Yard Birds, Chehalis, WA. They were left along highways all over Washington and into Oregon and Idaho to advertise the store.

The TC Crow was a bird that was made to hang at the entrance of the Olympia store. It hung upside down from a rod sticking off the top of the store building. It was sometimes stolen, most frequently by North Thurston high school around graduation time. Finally, the city of Olympia made Yard Birds take it down, claiming that it was a hazard to people walking underneath it. The shop crew from the Chehalis store, which is where they were made, had to come remove it. That is the last that Noel knew of it until now!

Hope that this helps! Thanks again for contacting us. We hope that you will consider letting us record the story of the TC Crow!!"