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DOGS AND HANDLERS, AS READERS HAVE SENT THEM IN

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Every name on this page came to me by e-mail from somebody who wanted their dog remembered. I've put them in order by year. I've only written what the person told me, and nobody is on here without asking to be. Some of these men I've since talked to on the phone for an hour. A couple of them I'm going to see at the handlers' reunion next summer. If your dog belongs here, write me. Give me the dog's name, what kind of work he did, your years, and anything you want said. SMOKEY · AIR FORCE SENTRY DOG · 1965-66 Handler: Antonio Keller Tony walked the perimeter of an air base at night with Smokey. He says that in a whole year he never once had to guess whether something was out there, because Smokey always knew first. Tony was one of the early ones. He retired from the post office last year. CAESAR, AND A HUNDRED OTHERS · 1966-67 Harvey Charest, Army veterinary technician Harvey wasn't a handler. He was one of the men who doctored the dogs: heat, ticks, cut feet, bad stomachs. He wrote to say he still remembers a big shepherd named Caesar who let him clean his ears every week without a fuss and then tried to take his arm off when he picked up the thermometer. Harvey says to tell every handler out there that the vet techs loved your dogs too. PRINCE · ARMY SCOUT DOG · 1966-67 Handler: Ralph Blackmon Prince alerted on trip wires by lying flat down and refusing to move another inch. Ralph says he used to get kidded about his lazy dog until the day everybody found out why Prince had lain down. MAJOR · AIR FORCE SENTRY DOG · 1967-68 Handler: Edward Dawson Ed heard from another handler, years later, that Major was sent on to an air base in Thailand when things wound down. He's never been able to find out more than that. That's more than most of us know, and I told him so. REBEL · ARMY SCOUT DOG · 1967-68 Handler: Robert Gracia Rebel wouldn't eat unless Bob sat in the run with him while he did. So for eleven months Bob ate his own supper sitting on an upside-down bucket in a dog run. He says it was the best company he had over there. KING · MARINE SCOUT DOG · 1967-68 Handler: Ernest Chamness The Marines had their own scout dogs. Ernie says King was the only creature in the whole Marine Corps who outranked his sergeant, and the sergeant knew it. King's ears, he says, were the biggest he ever saw on a shepherd, and they never missed a thing. THOR · ARMY SENTRY DOG · 1967-68 Handler: Thomas Warburton Tom and Thor guarded a supply depot at night. Tom says Thor hated thunderstorms, which was a problem during the monsoon, and that he spent a good many nights sitting in a bunker with ninety pounds of shepherd in his lap. SAM · COMBAT TRACKER DOG, LABRADOR RETRIEVER · 1968-69 Handler: William Miles Not every dog was a shepherd. Tracker teams used Labradors to follow a trail on the ground. Bill says Sam was the friendliest dog in the whole outfit, would let anybody pet him, and once followed a trail for most of a day without lifting his nose. Bill named his son's dog Sam, too. RINNY · ARMY SCOUT DOG · 1968-69 Handler: Terry Canterbury (1948-1996). Sent by his sister, Mary Ritch Mary wrote that her brother passed away in 1996 and that the only thing about the war he ever talked about was his dog. She has the letters he wrote home, and nearly every one of them mentions Rinny. One of them asks their mother to send dog biscuits. She did, every month. Mary, thank you for writing. Terry's dog is on here now. BARON · ARMY SCOUT DOG · 1969-70 Handler: Gregory Barber Greg says Baron could tell a water buffalo from a man at a hundred yards and would not waste an alert on a buffalo. He says he has tried for thirty years to describe the look on Baron's face when they walked past one, and he can't do it. SHADOW · ARMY SCOUT DOG · 1969-70 Handler: Nicholas Lavergne Nick is from Louisiana, and he says he talked to Shadow in French the whole year because it was the language he talked to dogs in at home. Shadow didn't seem to mind. Nick wonders sometimes if the next handler ever figured out why the dog didn't answer to English. WOLF · ARMY SCOUT DOG · 1970-71 Handler: Ronald Dale Ron and Wolf had the run next to Bruno's. Wolf and Bruno could not stand each other and spent the whole year growling through the fence. Ron and I got along fine. He found this page last winter and we've talked every week since. He says Wolf was the better dog. He's wrong. TROOPER · ARMY SCOUT DOG · 1970-71 Handler: James Horrocks Jim was in a different platoon, farther south, the same months I was. He left Trooper behind the same way I left Bruno and he doesn't know what happened either. We've agreed to believe the same thing about both of them. More are coming. I have three more e-mails to answer and I want to get them right.

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THIS PAGE LAST UPDATED SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1999