[ SHOWGSD-L ] Fwd: [TX_RPOA_E-News] Working Military Dogs Monument Unveiled in San Antonio!
- From: "Stormy V. Hope" <stormy435@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: GSD list <showgsd-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 29 Oct 2013 10:54:46 -0700
TX RPOA E-News
From Responsible Pet Owners Alliance Texas Outreach
Crossposting is encouraged.
October 29, 2013
"Who is the Responsible Pet Owners Alliance Texas Outreach?" We wear many
hats while promoting and preserving our historic relationship with all
animals. In this case working military dogs is one hat! Note the
statement:
"When you pet them and they just kind of tell you during all this chaos,
'Hey, it's going to be all right, confide in me.' They're not going to talk
back to you, but they can give you a little taste of home," ...
We can all relate to that!
....................................................
MONUMENT TO WORKING MILITARY DOGS UNVEILED
San Antonio Express News
By Sig Christenson
sigc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
October 29, 2013
For "must-see" picture of this beautiful monument with four dog breeds:
http://tinyurl.com/lhnrgm6
(Subscribers only for article which is printed below.)
Retired Army Master Sgt. John Burnam's scout dog Clipper took the point
after a soldier lost a leg to a mine buried in a thicket of rubber trees in
Vietnam.
At first spread out, the GIs formed a single column as the dog weaved left
and right while soldiers in his wake uncovered booby-trap wires and marked
them with toilet paper.
"That's when they came through the booby-trapped field with my dog, and that
saved us all," Burnam, of Bethesda, Md., recalled.
Clipper and nearly 4,000 other military working dogs left behind, killed or
euthanized in that long-ago war after going into harm's way with 10,000
American troops were saluted Monday. At a ceremony that drew 750 people to
Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, canine handlers helped unveil the nation's
first monument to military working dogs.
The monument stands on a 5,000-square-foot plaza at the Lackland parade
field, where fledgling airmen graduate from basic training. Four breeds used
most over the years by U.S. troops are featured, with a statue of a handler
in uniform.
It was a time for celebration, but sadness rooted in bonds forged in combat.
"I always understood his sense of loss, especially to Timber and Clipper,
especially Clipper," Ray Anthony Burnam of Stockton, Calif., said of his
brother's two dogs.
"You never forget your dogs," said handler John Dupla of League City, who
fought alongside Lucky, a Labrador retriever, in 1967-68. "In my case, 45
years, I still think, I feel sad that we left ours behind. They were never
adopted."
Adopted himself, John Burnam never forgot his time as a German shepherd
handler with the 44th Infantry Scout Dog Platoon. He designed the $2 million
memorial and led an eight-year effort to bring it to life.
The Air Force has used dogs for more than 60 years, and has trained them at
Lackland since 1958. The program has expanded dramatically, with dogs today
trained to detect drugs, explosives, even humans.
Roughly 500 working dogs are at war on any given day, and there are 2,500 in
all, said Collen McGee, a spokeswoman with Lackland's 37th Training Wing.
Unlike Vietnam, where one dog in Dupla's unit was killed in action, two
euthanized and another handed off to missionaries, canines today come home.
Air Force Tech Sgt. Leonard Anderson, a two-tour veteran of Afghanistan and
a Purple Heart recipient, got his dog back.
"When things are going bad, when things have really gone bad and you're
sitting around and trying to figure out what's next, what's going to happen,
(you're) homesick, ready to get home, ready to get out of here, it's the
ability of that dog to come to you and look at you," Anderson said.
"When you pet them and they just kind of tell you during all this chaos,
'Hey, it's going to be all right, confide in me.' They're not going to talk
back to you, but they can give you a little taste of home," he said.
......................................................
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__._,_.___
__,_._,___
Stormy V. Hope
https://www.facebook.com/GSDCA.LegislationAwareness
https://www.facebook.com/CaRPOC.CaliforniaResponsiblePetOwnersCoalition
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