Dogs on The Point - Viet Nam

J

jonnyB

Well-known member
At our weekly "Men's Renewal" a fellow that was a point man in Viet Nam - 1968 gave a very emotional talk about his experiences as a dog handler. Many of us, as he, were on the verge of tears as he described his job as handler and how the dog reacted to various situations.

He and his dog were out in front of the group and were assigned to hunt for ambush, weapons caches, and vietcong villages. He slept with the dog and was at his side 24/7 and relied on the dog for his very life.

An amazing story by a fellow that is just now starting to talk about a very painful experience and the close relationship between man and dog...
 
What's even worse is that many if not most of those dogs did NOT come back and were left there in Vietnam. Many were killed and eaten by the Vietnam or God knows what else.

They were viewed as expendable equipment/resources and left over there.

Extremely sad situation.
 
The question of "what happened to the dogs" was discussed;here's what Jerry told us:

In Viet Nam there was a blood disease that affected dogs - the U.S. didn't want the dogs bringing the disease back to the U.S.

Retraining the dogs was very difficult - sometimes impossible...

They didn't want to destroy the dogs, but had no choice to do otherwise.
 
My mom who is french and WW2 veteren had a german sheperd that she had with her all the time. The reason for this was that she was a translater for the U.S. ARMY and had high enough clearance to do top secret work for Generals like Patton,she met him. The dog was saved and stayed with her dad and continued in military service till it was 10 yrs. old when it retired.Her dad was an officer in the french army as a veterinarian,so it was well taken care of.
 
The dogs would often change handlers as men came and went - for whatever reason. It then took a new handler to work with the dog, get acquainted and train together. There were a series of test that both had to pass before they could go into theater.

Was interesting hearing how the handler could identify various enemy situations by the dog's behavior. Similar to our hunting dogs, when they sense a rooster, tweedy bird or rabbit. When there's lots of gun powder the dogs become ineffective and refuse to roam. The focus is always on the dog and his nose, if possible, keeping him downwind.

Another interesting tidbit: all but one dog were males.
 
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