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Date Posted: Sat, May 21 2005, 8:24:04
Author: Jeff Northridge
Author Host/IP: 4.246.255.14
Subject: Re: Dog Soldiers
In reply to: belinda 's message, "Dog Soldiers" on Fri, May 20 2005, 12:17:44

Howdy Belinda;

I'm not the author of that poem, but there is still a great deal of affection on the part of most GIs for the dogs who served with us. These came in two major types: official working dogs (guard dogs, scout dogs, and bobby-trap sniffers) and unofficial, indigenous mascots. You can get some additional information on working dogs by looking up the Vietnam Dog Handler Association in a search engine.

With respect to unofficial dogs, just about every platoon in Vietnam had a mascot. Ours was called "Queenie". Note: a "track" is an M-113 armored personnel carrier.

Queenie was about 8 months old when I first arrived in company. She would ride the tracks and go out in the field with us, but we made her stay with the tracks when we went on sweeps. Then on 1/14/69, the track she was on was blown up by a very big anti-tank mine. Seven guys were wounded including two engineers and three of those were serious.

Queenie was blown clear and ran away. 1st Platoon found her a week later in Tan An which was about 15 Km. away and returned her to us. She never rode the tracks again--smart dog! After that, she would accompany us to the front gate, stop a few feet beyond it, and watch us go slowly wagging her tail.

When we came "home" to Binh Phuoc, she would go berserk. She would bark like crazy and run around the tracks while they were still moving. After we stopped, she would go around to each of the four tracks, jump up on everybody, and give everyone a big wet lick on the face. It was nice to receive such an unrestrained welcome.

Even though she was well taken care of by the rear-echelon troops while we out in the field, she knew which platoon that she was a member of. She would mother each of us equally and it made no differance to her if someone had just arrived in country or was a short-timer.

She had a litter of four pups in June, 1969. One of them was called "Trouble" because at five weeks old, he would attack the wheels of the big trucks of the engineers and have to be rescued before he got squashed.

I hope Queenie had a good life after the battalion pulled out in mid-1970. The Vietnamese eat dogs in case you didn't know. It's strange how the dogs in Vietnam somehow knew that the GIs wouldn't have them for dinner as the main course.

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