To Serve Animals...Hmmm....just might work...
Posted on 09/14/2009 3:24:03 PM PDT by nuconvert
THIMISTER-CLERMONT, Belgium -- Many war monuments grace the Belgian landscape. In cities and small villages, near border points and sleepy country crossroads, they mostly honor the successes and sacrifices of World War II.
Another monument was unveiled the other day, and this one doesn't commemorate a great battle or an opportunistic unit. Instead, it pays tribute to what some people believe is an often overlooked war asset -- animals.
(Excerpt) Read more at military.com ...
London has such a monument as well.
They left off the cow (hamburger) and chicken.
Well deserved.........
Beat me to it.
I was going to ask:
Does that include animals that were served?
And, I forgot the pig.
Streamwood, Illinois (a village run by a smart Republican woman) has seen fit to put up one of these for about a decade now
What I really feel bad about are the Soviet dogs that were trained to seek their meals under German tanks.
ya know I was watching this maudlin show on Animal Planet...it was ‘Animal Miracles’, narrated by Alan Thicke, and whenever they showed a police or military animal, or a family pet, giving some or all for a human, I get misty eyed.
What wonderful creatures these animals are. I support the idea of this memorial...
I won’t turn down a juicy steak, but then there are very few security or attack cows I can think of.
ya gotta love the beard with no mustache on this guy...kind of like an Alpha centuri, Maynard G. Krebs.
I suppose there is some emotional twinge that goes off for sending these dogs to certain death (with mines strapped to them), but if we correctly recognize that these soulish animals are not sentient, and are not human-like, then the use of them gets in perspective. The memorial for the dog handlers is fine, since it commemorates the soldiers. But, if this thing is for dogs, my bet is not one dog will save his allowance and ask his owner to go down and pay to view it.
One of Hollywood’s terrible legacies is that it tries to teach us and our children that animals are thougthful, spiritual beings. Cartoons have had an awful influence on rightful thinking about the use of animals and PETA is around because too many folks have bought into these lies.
Don’t read this as advocating cruelty, but come on, people, these are animals. We are supposed to eat them!
The Inscription on the front reads as follows:
25 Marine War Dogs gave their lives liberating Guam in 1944. They served as sentries, messengers, scouts. They explored caves, detected mines and booby traps.
SEMPER FIDELIS
Kurt Yonnie Koko Bunkie
Skipper Poncho Tubby Hobo
Nig Prince Fritz Emmy
Missy Cappy Duke Max
Blitz Arno Silver Brockie
Bursch Pepper Ludwig Rickey
Tam (buried at sea off Asan Point)
Given in their memory and on behalf of the surviving men of the 2nd and 3rd marine war dogs platoons, many of whom owe their lives to the bravery and sacrifice of these gallant animals.
By William W. Putney DVM C.O. 3rd Marine WarDog Platoon
Dedicated this day 21 July 1994.
Well, I had a black lab that was clearly not sentient; but none the less he was a good soul. I miss him.
Listen up you dumbass! If you would buy your meat at the supermarket rather than hunting and killing animals then no animals would be harmed!
Good point. I don’t know what came over me.
Your penance is to leave organic taste treats before a nest of snail darters.
Wait just a minute...aren’t the snail darters the fish that Oregon has closed off water to farmers around K Falls?
The only KIA I knew from Vietnam was one of those. Both soldier and K-9 were heroes.
Michael Savage talked about the documentary about War Dogs and I think it was the dogs who served in WW2 in the Pacific. The dogs were also Marines.
They also served in other wars including Vietnam plus dogs served at Ground Zero after 9/11.
I've tasted some supermarket meats that put truth to your statement.
In February 1944, Smoky (only weighing 4lbs. and 7in. high), was found by an American soldier in an abandoned foxhole in the New Guinea jungle. She was already a young adult Yorkie fully grown). The soldiers initially thought the small dog belonged to the Japanese, but after taking her to a nearby prisoner-of-war camp they realized she did not understand commands in Japanese or English.
Another GI then sold Smoky to Corporal William A. Wynne of Cleveland, Ohio, for two Australian pounds (equal to $6.44 at that time.) For the next two years, Smoky back-packed through the rest of the war and accompanied Wynne on combat flights in the Pacific. She faced adverse circumstances, living in the New Guinea jungle and Rock Islands, suffering the primitive conditions of tents in equatorial heat and humidity. Throughout her service, Smoky slept in Wynne's tent on a blanket made from a green felt card table cover; she shared Wynne's C-rations and an occasional can of Spam. Unlike the “official” war dogs of World War II, Smoky had neither medical care nor a balanced diet formulated especially for dogs. In spite of this, Smoky was never ill. She even ran on coral for four months without developing any of the paw ailments that plagued some war dogs. Smokey in the USAF Smokey Joins 5th Air Force
As described by Wynne, "Smoky Served in the South Pacific with the 5th Air Force, 26th Photo Recon Squadron and flew 12 air/sea rescue and photo reconnaissance missions." On those flights, Smoky spent long hours dangling in a soldier's pack near machine guns used to ward off enemy fighters. Smoky was credited with twelve combat missions and awarded eight battle stars. She survived 150 air raids on New Guinea and made it through a typhoon at Okinawa. Wynne credited Smoky with saving his life by warning him of incoming shells on an LST (Landing Ship Tank), calling her an "angel from a foxhole." As the ship deck was booming and vibrating from anti-aircraft gunnery, Smoky guided Wynne to duck the fire that hit 8 men standing next to them.
Smoky's tricks enabled her to become a hero in her own right by helping engineers to build an airbase at Lingayen Gulf, Luzon, a crucial airfield for Allied war planes. Early in the Luzon campaign, the Signal Corps needed to run a telegraph wire through a 70-foot long pipe that was eight inches in diameter. Soil had sifted through the corrugated sections at the pipe joinings, filling as much as half of the pipe, giving Smoky only four inches of headway in some places.
As Wynne himself told the story when he appeared on NBC-TV after World War II:
“I tied a string (tied to the wire) to Smoky's collar and ran to the other end of the culvert . . . (Smoky) made a few steps in and then ran back. `Come, Smoky,' I said sharply, and she started through again. When she was about 10 feet in, the string caught up and she looked over her shoulder as much as to say `what's holding us up there?' The string loosened from the snag and she came on again. By now the dust was rising from the shuffle of her paws as she crawled through the dirt and mold and I could no longer see her. I called and pleaded, not knowing for certain whether she was coming or not. At last, about 20 feet away, I saw two little amber eyes and heard a faint whimpering sound . . . at 15 feet away, she broke into a run. We were so happy at Smoky's success that we patted and praised her for a full five minutes.”
Smoky’s work prevented the need to move 40 United States fighter and reconnaissance planes while a construction detail dug up the taxiway, which would have placed them in peril of destruction by enemy bombings. Smokey Memorial in Clevland, Ohio
A special monument honoring Smoky, “World War II's littlest soldier and most famous war dog,” stands at the Eastlake Doggie Park, in the eastern suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio. The granite monument features a small photograph of Smoky. On Veterans Day, November 11, 2005, another memorial for Smoky was unveiled in Cleveland Metroparks, Rocky River Reservation in Ohio. The bronze life-size sculpture of Smoky sitting in a GI helmet sits atop a two-ton blue granite base. The monument is dedicated to “Smoky, the Yorkie Doodle Dandy, and Dogs of All Wars.”
From: http://www.itsayorkieworld.com/history.shtml
She is also credited with being the first ever therapy dog, visiting and performing tricks for wounded troops in numerous military hospitals throughout the Pacific and the United States.
Sgt. Yorkie...(I know only a Cpl.)
If anyone took the time to read about the service of US Wardogs you would learn how many human lives they saved. So acute were the senses of some dogs that they could alert troops to enemy troops hundreds of yards away. They could be trained to hear the vibration of a trip wire in the breeze. They were so effective in Vietnam that they, not soldiers, were often targeted for death.
I’ll ignore the snide and ignorant comments of those who never trained or worked with a Wardog. Those who did serve with them have nothing but praise for them.
Aww... what cute and brave pup. ;-)
Smart move there, ignoring the ignorant. Especially when they appear to take pride in their ignorance - you’d get no where with them
Yeah, that's what great white sharks say about humans. mmmm, tasty humans ;^)
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