With the end of World War II, the United States entered a Cold War with the Soviet Union. This conflict brought armed clashes, where once again, war dogs would save the lives of U.S. service members.
During World War II, it is said that war dogs saved 15,000 men. In Vietnam, the dogs were credited with saving 10,000 lives, though many handlers who served there believe that number is grossly underestimated. Across roughly 87,000 missions, Vietnam war dogs uncovered 2,000 tunnels and bunkers, enabled 1,000 enemy captures, and contributed to 4,000 enemy kills.
I can tell you firsthand, I am alive today because of the actions of these incredible four-legged teammates during the Global War on Terror.
A common theme in the history of the Military Working Dog program is that it often seems to lag behind, and tragically, these brave U.S. K9 service members were abandoned after both the Korean and Vietnam Wars by the US Government.
This article is Part 3 of a four-part War Dog Series. You can read Part 1, which covers the history of war dogs through World War I, here, and Part 2, covering World War II here.
War Dogs in the Korean conflict
When the Korean War broke out, the U.S. military had lost the robust K9 program developed during World War II and again relied on citizens to sell their pets.
The government primarily sought German Shepherds, usually between two and six years old. These dogs left established lives as civilian pets to become US Government equipment. Handlers and their K9s trained at Fort Carson, Colorado, for several months before deploying to Korea.
The 8125th Sentry Dog Detachment landed in Incheon and served for two years, not realizing that when they left, they would do so without their dogs. These sentry dogs were critical in securing supplies, especially at ammunition dumps, to prevent the Koreans from stealing ammunition and saving their human counterparts along the way.
ONE DOG SAVED
Before shipping home, handlers learned that their dogs would be left behind. One handler refused to accept that fate for his partner. The dog, Blind Sam, was secretly moved to an orphanage in hopes of sparing him from near-certain death and giving him a chance at a better life.
Author J. Rachel Reed recounts this story in her book K-9 Korea: The Untold Story of America’s War Dogs in the Korean War.
U.S. WAR DOGS IN VIETNAM
Once again, the U.S. turned to civilian dogs to build a military working dog force to help save American lives in the steamy jungles of South Vietnam. These war dogs were deployed as sentries, scouts, mine & booby-trap detectors, and trackers of hidden enemy jungle locations.
Their stories are countless and absolutely amazing. The number of lives saved is estimated at 10,000; however, I believe that number is grossly underestimated. Approximately 270 K9 handlers were killed in Vietnam, and approximately 500 war dogs died on the battlefield, protecting their pack.
One K9 handler, SSG Robert Hartsock of the 44th Infantry Platoon Scout Dog (IPSD), 3rd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, earned the Congressional Medal of Honor posthumously for his actions on February 23rd, 1969.
In the midst of an enemy attack on his base camp, SSG Hartsock spotted and engaged an enemy sapper, wounding him. Realizing the sapper was about to detonate his explosives, SSG Hartsock jumped on them to protect his commander.
SSG Hartsock survived the explosion and crawled to a nearby ditch, where he laid down suppressive fire, allowing his commander to seek shelter. He continued to engage the enemy until he ultimately succumbed to his wounds.
Scout dog teams often led patrols, walking point to detect dangers such as trip wires, mines, snipers, and enemy troops. The dogs’ alerts gave units time to call artillery or air support before walking into danger. The dog’s handler could determine the distance to the danger, usually by the degree of his dog’s state of “alert.” Then, instead of walking into the NVA or Vietcong trap, they could call in artillery fire or air support to obliterate the enemy position.
Not every unit on patrol got a dog; there weren’t enough K9 teams to go around, and in those cases, a soldier would have to walk point alone. But with a scout dog team leading the way, most patrols were successful or uneventful.
The scout dogs had such an impact on the enemy, the North Vietnamese put a price tag on the dogs’ heads. That’s how much of an impact these combat multiplayers had on the battlefield in Vietnam.
Special Operations Use of War Dogs in Vietnam
US Navy SEALs tried using Combat Assault Dogs in Vietnam with some success and learned the K9s’ limitations in the unforgiving environment of the jungles of Vietnam.
One night on the Ho Chi Minh trail in 1970, K9 Prince went to a hard alert: Danger is close! The SEALS took cover, and 100 North Vietnamese Army (NVA) regulars walked right by them. There was a firefight, and it did not go especially well for the SEALs, but they managed to break contact and extract safely. If not for Prince, they certainly would have been killed or captured.
Prince’s handler tried to bring him home, but ran into military red tape. He even tried to fix some paperwork, but it did not work out. Prince’s handler left him with another SEAL handler with instructions not to let him get euthanized. Prince was not euthanized, but was later killed in action doing what he loved to do, protecting his pack.
Of the five dogs used by SEAL Team 2, only two survived to live out their lives with adoptive families.
- Rinny: returned to the USA, had a good remainder of life with the family who adopted him
- Prince: KIA Vietnam
- Dusty: KIA Vietnam
- Zepp: officially euthanized by USAF in Vietnam
- Silver: returned to the USA, lived out his days with ST 2 handler Dewey Schwalenberg
LEFT BEHIND
The Vietnam War ended in 1975. Of the more than 4,000 U.S. military working dogs that served in the conflict—estimated to have saved over 10,000 U.S. service members’ lives—only 208 were returned to the United States.
The dogs that survived the battlefields and disease were simply left behind, as the U.S. government classified these loyal service members as nothing more than equipment.
To this day, many veteran dog handlers from that era will tell you that one of the hardest days of their lives was leaving their most loyal best friend and partner—the very one who saved their life and the lives of their teammates—in Vietnam to die.
Repeating history
It’s an unfortunate scenario that has played out twice in the United States War Dog Program: following both the Korean and Vietnam Wars, the value of military working dogs was lost as often as it was found. The same story would play out again until the Global War on Terror, when their importance once more became undeniable.
Take a moment and remember the US K9 Service Members Killed In Action—or abandoned by the very government they served.
Coming up in Part 3 of this series: War Dogs and the Global War on Terror.
