8 Things Vietnam Scout Dog Handlers Never Told the Men Behind Them

A German shepherd named King sat down on a jungle trail in Phuoc Long Province, and a column of 1st Cavalry soldiers stopped behind a handler most of them could not name. This file counts eight things Vietnam scout dog handlers carried that the men behind them never heard about, from the dog's food in the handler's helmet to the silent alert only he could read, the tripwires the dogs found, and the word on the paperwork that decided what happened to the dogs when the war ended. Drawn from the handlers' own association, Army and Air Force records, a handler's books, and the words of men who held the leash and wrote about it under the files of this channel and its sister archive. Every account is attributed, and no witness is invented. Sources: U.S. Army Scout Dog School, Fort Benning, Georgia, and the Infantry Platoons (Scout Dog) sent to Vietnam (48th Infantry Platoon Scout Dog: activated September 2, 1966; arrived January 11, 1967) Vietnam Dog Handler Association: dogs and handlers who served, were killed in action, and came home The Big Picture (U.S. Army television series), "Scout Dogs," Fort Benning, 1969 John C. Burnam, Dog Tags of Courage and A Soldier's Best Friend: Scout Dogs and Their Handlers in the Vietnam War U.S. Military Working Dog Teams National Monument, Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas, dedicated October 28, 2013 Nemo A534 and A2C Robert Throneburg, 377th Air Police Squadron, Tan Son Nhut Air Base, December 4, 1966 (Vietnam Security Police Association records) Robby's Law (military working dog adoption), signed November 6, 2000 Lam Son 719 and Operation Dewey Canyon II, 1971 Accounts written by Vietnam veterans in the public comments of videos on this channel and its sister archive (used without names)