Regards,
Steve Shewalter, Sr. SSG 101st Airborne Div '68 - '69
WAR DOGS OF VIETNAM - BETRAYED HEROES
About the time Veterans Days shows up on my calendar, my black lab Beau reminds me it's time for him to flush some pheasants for me to shoot. Beau, is an excellent gun dog and a joy to shoot over. And surprisingly, at age 11, this past pheasant season, his field work was almost flawless. We usually take other hunters with us, but our last time out - it was just Beau and me. Without the distraction of others, I could relax a bit and admire Beau's fine field work. What I observed was a military like precision I'd never noticed before. He brought back memories of the fine scout and tracker dogs I occasionally encountered in Vietnam. Like Beau, these War Dogs did their job with eagerness, and also like Beau, when tired, their favorite way to rest was with their head in your lap.
Joey too, was a black lab who performed brilliantly in the field, er, bush. He was a tireless, dedicated and well trained professional. He was also a loyal friend and playful companion. Weather did not slow him down, neither did impossible terrain, or the shortage of food and water. And was he a good dog to shoot over? Yes - but he also had to endure grenades, land mines, booby traps, and incoming artillery, without complaint.
Inherent in the make-up of all black labs is their knowledge that they are smarter than you. If they don't perform well for you, it's likely because they don't respect you. You see, you don't actually train your lab, he, in reality, trains you. If you stay on task, put in the quality time they require of you - the result will be most gratifying. You end up as a team that can accomplish near impossible missions.
Denzil Lile, a resident of Elizabethtown, KY was an Army dog handler with the 61st Infantry Platoon, Combat Tracker, 1st Infantry Division (Big Red One) during the height of action in the Vietnam War - 1968/69. As a tracker team, Denzil and Joey were as good as any the Army put in the field. They performed courageously in the most difficult combat situations. It was the usual job of the tracker team to pick up the trail of an enemy force after contact had been broken off, and pursue that enemy and see to it that the enemy force would no longer be any threat to "friendlies". There were many variations to that theme, however.
Roughly 4,000 dogs saw service in Vietnam as either, trackers, scouts, or sentries. Because uncaring military administrators, far removed from the realities of Vietnam, determined that these fine animals were expendable military equipment, almost all dogs were ultimately destroyed or otherwise disposed of. Almost all handlers pleaded with Government agencies to allow them to bring their team mates home with them. The Vietnam War was the only war in our history where this reasonable request was almost always denied. Some 250 fortunate War Dogs did actually get reassigned to military installations in the U.S after their Vietnam service.
These were rare instances where a handler did, with perseverance and a lot of luck, bring his loving friend home with him. I hear of Vietnam vets who to this day hunt birds with the off-spring of these long laid to rest friends, to a man these vets realize how truly lucky they are to have successfully brought their dogs home. Denzil Lile hunts pheasant every fall, but he doesn't shoot over a black lab. The only black lab Denzil has room for in his life and his heart is Joey.
It's unfortunate the military never adopted Denzil's War Dog Repatriotazation Test. Denzil could show that a dog possessed the humanity and temperament to adapt to family life once again in the U.S. . His test is simple - throw a tennis ball, and if the dog fails to retrieve and toss it back to you, the dog fails. I'll put my money on Joey every time.
Everyone reading this account has a Joey in their neighborhood. Daily, driving or walking down your street, you'll see a lab named Prince, Duke, or Tippy sitting in a yard with a tennis ball nearby. Their heads are proudly held high, as it's in their nature to keep watch and ensure that all is well on their street.
Denzil Lile thinks often of Joey these days. Later this year Denzil and dozens of other combat tracker team members from Vietnam, are packing their memories and old photographs and will attend a reunion in Milwaukee to remember and honor old friends (both two and four legged) who never made it home. Vietnam vets attend hundreds of reunions across the country each year, and all are very special. But this one in Milwaukee, I really hope to attend. Where else can I take Beau along and experience the pleasure of seeing him treated as an honored guest?
Must see web sites to visit are;
http://www.vdhaonline.org/ and http://www.combattrackerteam.org/
There are hundreds of others.
Steve Shewalter, Sr
101st Airborne Div 1968 - 1969
Batavia, IL
321-784-1468 Tech Support
