Flirey (French pronunciation: [fliʁɛ]) is a commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in north-eastern France.

Following advances made by American forces during the Battle of Saint-Mihiel, Corporal Lee Duncan, an aerial gunner of the U.S. Army Air Service, was sent forward on September 15, 1918, to Flirey to see if it would make a suitable flying field for his unit, the 135th Aero Squadron.

The only dogs left alive in the kennel were a starving mother with a litter of five nursing puppies, their eyes still shut because they were less than a week old.

When the puppies were weaned, he gave the mother to an officer and three of the litter to other soldiers, but he kept a male and a female.

He called them Rin Tin Tin and Nanette after a pair of good luck charms called Rintintin and Nénette that French children often gave to the American soldiers.