Vietnam War Veterinarians

When we built and installed the Transmitter Site out at Marble Mountain in 1967, near Danang, our security detachment consisted of a number of dogs and their handlers. I remember vividly transiting from Danang to the site each morning with the dogs and their handlers initially until a permanent encampment was set up. One morning we were in a convoy heading out to the site with the minesweeper sweeping the road in front of us as we passed through a village. The truck in front of us was blown up and the truck behind us was blown up, obviously by command detonated mines. We vacated the truck we were in and set up a defensive position under the truck we were riding in with several dog handlers and dogs. We spent several hours there until the marines were able to enter the village and clear the area before we were able to proceed to the site. We lost the better part of the day of construction and installation as well as a number of exceptional sailors and marines. Our normal routine as we passed through the village was to throw candy and cigarettes to the villagers as we passed through in the hopes they would be distracted enough to not set off the mines or attack us, obviously this did not always work out.

That's interesting. I did not know they used dogs in Vietnam. I never saw any.