Vietnam War Dogs Remembered

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Dogs have served in the military for decades.  Their contributions through various wars have saved the lives of many.  Read more about the much-deserved memorial dedicated in their honor and the lives of those they have touched.

Decades later, Vietnam War dogs are remembered

By JESSICA RAVITZ, CNN, Feb 18, 2010

www.wavenewspapers.com

Maybe it was the sound of the wind cutting through the wire. Perhaps he caught a small vibration with his keen eyes. Or it could have been a slight difference in the air’s smell.

Whatever it was, when Sarge noticed that his Marine Corps handler, Fred Dorr, was creeping down the wrong path in the Vietnam jungle, the German shepherd did something he’d never done out in the field: He looked at Dorr and barked, before taking a seat.

“When he sat down, I knew there was a trip wire. I was one step away from it,” remembered Dorr, who with his dog in 1969 was “walking point,” leading the way for a dozen soldiers. Had the hidden explosive device been tripped, “It would have gotten half of us.”

More than 40 years later, the gratitude and love Dorr, 59, feels for the dog he served with is as strong as ever. And it’s for this reason that Dorr, president of the Vietnam Dog Handler Association, drove from his Yoakum, Texas, home to be in Southern California last week.

About 200 Vietnam War dog handlers, who were trained to read and communicate with their canine partners, gathered for a reunion. On Saturday they joined several thousand others for the 10th anniversary rededication of the War Dog Memorial at the March Air Reserve Base in Riverside.

Read the rest of Jessica’s article.

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One response to “Vietnam War Dogs Remembered”

1. Daphne Gilbertson writes:
   

   War Dogs in the Vietnam War. I read they were left by the Military to S. Vietnamese Army. I also read they did not want them. Did the S. vietnamese Army kill the dogs? Brutal and savage – which Asian deaths are.

   Or did the N. Vietnamese kill them? I can imagine what a shock it was for the dogs when they Handlers left and then dump on these Vietnamese which they did not like anyway. American Military Trainers taught the dogs to seek out Vietcong, etc. I have tried to research this topic but it just ends of as a Black Hole. Congressmen and American Reps have gone to Vietnam after the war.

   I am sure they could have asked? There must be some documentation on this.

   It seems like the smae Black Hole for the POWs and MIAs. There would be more than 58,000 names on the Wall if the War Dogs did not help.

   Please respond and let me of the answers. Thanks

   [Reply]

   @ May 27th, 2011 at 13:21