HONORING PRIVATE FIDO PUSH ON FOR NATIONAL MEMORIAL TO U.S. 'WAR DOGS'.

Byline: LISA FRIEDMAN

Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - If it's true that every dog has its day, then the tens of thousands of canines who have served in every U.S. military operation since World War I could finally be getting theirs.

Legislation moving through Congress would create a national monument honoring the four-legged soldiers who sniff out booby traps, guard military bases, track down missing service members and faithfully perform countless other acts.

Officially they are known as Military Working Dogs, but retired service members call them simply "war dogs."

"Having a dog in the service is, I think, why I'm still here," said Bruce Wellington of Camarillo, who served in the Marines in the Pacific during World War II with his German shepherd mix Prince.

A corporal in the 2nd War Dog Platoon, Wellington said war dogs and handlers in his platoon led more than 500 patrols into enemy territory.

"Never was a patrol ambushed," he said, crediting the dogs' acute hearing and smell, and intense training that helped soldiers read their canines' signals.

"There would be thousands more American grave marks in Vietnam, World War II, Korea, even today without these dogs," said John C. Burnam, author of "Dog Tags of Courage: Combat Infantrymen and War Dog Heroes in Vietnam."

Burnam has made it his life's mission to seek recognition for the estimated 4,000 dogs who served in Vietnam.

The first step

Actual construction of a memorial could be years away. But a key first step came in May when the House approved the 2008 Defense Authorization Bill instructing the Pentagon to make way for a monument at a U.S. military installation.

Under terms of the bill, Burnam's nonprofit group National War Dogs Memorial Inc. would pay for and maintain the monument. The measure could go to President George W. Bush by October.

Dogs were first used in the U.S. military during World War I as sentries and messengers. During World War II, the U.S. Army devised a program specifically for training war dogs, and hundreds of families across the country donated puppies for the war effort.

Dr. William Putney of Woodland Hills was selected to be one of the first Marine Corps commanding officers for the military's still-experimental program.

A veterinarian before the war, Putney worked tirelessly when he returned home to Southern California until his death in 2003 to let the country know about the dogs' heroics.

"They were faithful to us right to the end," Putney said in a soon-to-be-released documentary by Sherman Oaks filmmaker Harris Done, tentatively titled "Always Faithful: War Dogs of the Pacific."

In the film -- and in a book Putney wrote also titled "Always Faithful'" -- the San Fernando Valley veterinarian recalls how his own dog Cappy was killed in battle.

After the war, Putney was given the job of "detraining" 550 war dogs and returning most of them to the homes from which they were donated to live out their days. Some, like Wellington, wrote to the original owners and received permission to keep the dogs.

Bratton's dog

In 1949, however, the military reclassified war dogs as "equipment." When their service was completed, they were euthanized.

The policy stuck for a half-century. Of the more than 4,000 dogs that served in the Vietnam War, officials estimate fewer than 200 returned home.

Among those who were forced to leave their dogs behind in Vietnam was Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton.

A sentry dog handler for the U.S. Army, Bratton recalled long nights patrolling base perimeters during his one-year tour of duty with Duchess, a small German shepherd.

"Working with sentry dogs are long, boring nights. The dog becomes your best friend," Bratton said. "The dogs never left Vietnam."

In 2000, President Bill Clinton signed legislation allowing military dogs to be adopted at the end of their working lives by former handlers and other qualified caregivers.

Done and others credit Putney with advocating tirelessly for the cause. The canines' plight also was aided by the 1999 documentary "War Dogs."

Narrated by actor Martin Sheen, the documentary was produced in Studio City and funded by former Corona Mayor Jeffrey Bennett, then the owner of a pet food company. Bennett put up more than $1.5 million to help tell the war dogs' stories.

Smaller monuments to war dogs have been erected at March Air Force Base in Riverside as well as at Fort Benning, Ga. But Bennett called the possibility of a national memorial "spectacular."

"It's time," he said, recounting stories of dogs sniffing out Viet Cong hiding underground, or diving off patrol boats and emerging with an enemy soldier loaded with explosives in their jaws.

"Nobody really understands the role these animals played in fighting our wars," Bennett says.

Bratton agrees.

"Their work was often done out of the public eye," Bratton said, calling a national monument in war dogs' honor "very appropriate."

Pet-friendly

Meanwhile, hundreds of military officials are keeping the stories of war dogs alive in cyberspace and film. There are at least four Web sites devoted to recounting the history of military canines.

Done said he is seeking an outlet to air his documentary. Putney in particular, he said, would have been delighted at how far the movement for a national monument has come.

"He worked so hard to make sure the dogs' sacrifice wasn't forgotten," Done said. "Nobody would be as happy as him."

Burnam said he, too, can scarcely believe national recognition for war dogs is almost a reality. He has just one requirement: that the memorial be pet-friendly.

"You definitely want dogs to come," Burnam said.

lisa.friedman(at)langnews.com

[phone]

CAPTION(S):

5 photos

Photo:

(1) In 1944 on Iwo Jima island in the Pacific, a group of World War II handlers take their dogs out on a lonely night security patrol.

(2) Lt. William Putney, right, operates on a captured Japanese war dog, aided by Pfc. Raymond Tomaszewski on Guam in 1944.

(3 -- 4) Pfc. Bruce Wellington keeps watch during World War II, left, with his messenger dog Prince. Right, Wellington's son poses with Prince after the war outside their North Hollywood home.

(5) L.A. Police Chief William Bratton is seen in this photo from 1967, when he served as Duchess' handler in Vietnam.