[Cagdu] FW: [K9Scoop] In honor of Memorial Day: Remembering War Dogs

Tina Thomas tinadt at sbcglobal.net
Mon May 28 18:17:36 PDT 2007 

Subject: [K9Scoop] In honor of Memorial Day: Remembering War Dogs



Utah, USA: 

deseretnews.com | Remembering war dogs | Deseret
Morning News Web edition
deseretnews.com

Deseret Morning News, Friday, May 25, 2007

Remembering war dogs

Monument heralds important work canines did in past
conflicts

By
Carma Wadley
Deseret Morning News

Some 4,000 dogs served in the Vietnam War. Their work
was directly responsible for saving an estimated
10,000 American lives. Yet their story is a largely
forgotten part of the war.

Image
Veterinarian Alan Cunningham sits beside the memorial
to war dogs at the Utah Veterans Memorial Park.

Michael Brandy, Deseret Morning News

American Fork veterinarian Alan Cunningham is one of
those who is hoping to change all that. Cunningham
recently erected a memorial to war dogs and their
handlers at the Utah Veterans Memorial Park near Camp
Williams.

"A few years ago, I read about the war dogs and was
both impressed and saddened by their story," he says.
"Fewer than 200 of them ever returned home. Some
325 died in the line of duty, while another
approximately 600 succumbed to tropical disease. But
at the end of the war, the rest were considered
military
equipment and were either euthanized or left behind.
They deserve to be remembered."

The memorial is one of only a handful of such
monuments around the country, most of which are on
military bases. "This is the first one to be placed at
a veterans cemetery, but I think it is a fitting place
for it," says Cunningham.

It is a simple monument, with a bronze dog sitting on
a sandstone slab. Cunningham purposely did not want to
show the dog in halter. "I wanted it to be
a dog, not to be working." Because, he says, as
important as the work was that the dogs did, when they
were not working, they offered companionship and
love that were also important to the soldiers.

The monument was installed in April, without ceremony
or dedication. "I just wanted it to be a quiet, humble
thing," says Cunningham, "but I hope, with
Memorial Day coming up, some people will want to come
visit it."

He pretty much footed the cost of the memorial
himself. "I tried to get donations, but not many
people were interested. I did get some from the Bank
of
American Fork. But I decided I could just work more
and get the money myself."

That speaks to why the memorial is important and
needed, he says: Too many people don't realize what
war dogs have done. "When I tell people about the war
dogs, some are amazed, but some say, 'So what?' But
you think that if those other 10,000 soldiers had died
in Vietnam, maybe one of them would have been
a person that has had an impact on your life, or my
life, directly or indirectly."

Image
A soldier in Vietnam relaxes in the demilitarized zone
with his tracker dog.

Deseret Morning News archives

There is now a push to have a national memorial to war
dogs placed in Washington, D.C. Increased interest in
the story of the war dogs has grown out of
a 1999 documentary, which first aired on the Discovery
Channel but has aired worldwide since, says Mo
Johnson, who works with the War Dog Memorial Fund,
which is raising money for the effort. The film tells
"the heart-wrenching story of the bond between the
dogs and their handlers and the great lengths
they look to save one another from the tragedies of
war," she says. (The documentary is free with a
donation of $10 or more to the fund. For more
information,
visit
www.war-dogs.com.)

"I believe the dogs should be recognized. Their
stories are stories of love. I've met many of the
handlers, and they all say that if it wasn't for their
dogs, they wouldn't be here today," she said, in a
telephone interview from their California
headquarters.

There is also a push to have the dogs honored on a
commemorative postage stamp. Two requests have been
denied, but a third one is going on now. "It's pretty
sad that cartoon dogs can have a stamp, but we can't
get one for real-life service dogs," said Johnson.

Decades later, handlers who served in Vietnam still
break down and cry as they tell of their dogs'
heroics, says Cunningham. "The courageous canine
soldiers
worked for food, water and the love and companionship
of their handlers. They never gave up on the
battlefield."

Dogs were used extensively in Vietnam, but that is not
the only time they have been called into action.
They've been used for centuries, says Cunningham,
and certainly in every modern war, including the
current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Military Working Dogs, as they were called then, were
used in World War I but became increasingly important
in World War II. Shortly after the attack on
Pearl Harbor, the American Kennel Club and a new group
calling itself Dogs for Defense appealed to dog owners
across the country to donate quality animals
to the Quartermaster Corps.

Image
A weary GI and his pup take a break from the horrors
of Vietnam.

Deseret Morning News archives

Starting in March 1942, the Quartermaster Corps
handled the Army's so-called K-9 Corps and undertook
the necessary training.

By 1945, they had trained approximately 10,000 war
dogs for the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard.
Fifteen war dog platoons served overseas in World
War II; seven in Europe and eight in the Pacific.

In 1951, responsibility for the dogs was shifted to
the Military Police Corps, as they continued to serve
in conflicts in Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm and
other military operations.

The most commonly used dog breeds were German
shepherds and Doberman pinschers. Later on, Labradors
began to replace the Doberman.

These dogs were able to detect the presence of the
enemy at distances up to 1,000 yards - long before the
soldiers could see them. When a scout dog detected
the enemy, it would stiffen its body, raise its
hackles, prick its ears and hold its tail rigid.

"They could detect the wind blowing over a trip wire
or smell underwater saboteurs," says Cunningham. There
are also documented cases of dogs lying on their
handlers to protect them and of dragging wounded
soldiers to safety.

"They were so effective in Vietnam that the Viet Cong
placed a bounty of $20,000 on the heads of dogs and
their handlers," he says.

In recent years, the military has changed its policy
on the dogs. They are no longer considered
"equipment," and when their tour of duty is done, they
are
brought back. "They may be assigned to help with
rehabilitation," says Cunningham. "They are very
effective at that, as well."

War dogs, he says, "have been forgotten service
animals. They often get overlooked. But like Seeing
Eye dogs and police dogs, they all have such an
important
place."

Image
Michael Brandy, Deseret Morning News

His memorial honors them all, he says. "I hope one day
I can look back and say I left something good on the
face of the Earth. I hope that here, at least,
these dogs will be immortal."

E-mail:
carma at desnews. <mailto:carma%40desnews.com> com

C 2007 Deseret News Publishing Company

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