In 1960, U.S. advisers to the South Vietnamese military initiated a dog program, aiming to use sentry dogs for base protection and scout dogs for tracking the Viet Cong. From 1965 to 1970, Pleiku Airbase, now the airport, employed 26 dogs, humorously nicknamed “Four Footed Radar,”.
On October 29th [1965], twenty-five of us received orders for Pleiku AB. That afternoon we packed our gear and boarded a C-130 headed north. Upon our arrival, we were told we were told unexpected. We just laughed it off and took our dogs off the plane, staking them out between the runway and the rice paddies. The only buildings, in the distance, near the foothills, were those the 25th Infantry Division. We soon discovered we were to share those quarters with them for the next month.
There wasn’t a place for our dogs to stay, so the first day we began by making temporary kennels for them. We put the shipping crates in two lines and staked the dogs between them. Within a couple of days we had our dogs settled in and we began guard duty at the ammo dump, the fuel storage area, and the perimeter of the base between the runway and the rice paddies.
We lived in tents and worked 12-hour shifts from 6 PM to 6 am, everyday, although once in awhile we got a day “off post” when we spent our time building a permanent type kennel for our dogs.
– John Risse (source)
Amazingly, you can find online a complete list of the dogs, their names, their handlers. One dog, Bullet was reassigned from Da Nang to Pleiku in 1967.
Another Dog Rebel appears in a lot of photographs. Rebel joined the team in pleiku in 1969. Definitely a photogenic and happy dog! I can see why there are a lot of pictures of him! Richard Schlosser was Rebel’s handler for a year from 03/31/1969 – 03/28/1970.
I’ve written before about Pleiku jackets and patches. There is a great Pleiku jacket with a silly dog face on the back which I assume has some connection to the K-9 unit.
But there is another day that REALLY sticks with me. April 22, 1966. It was another mortar attack. I was “off post” that night and Duke was at the kennels. Just after 2:00 am the first mortar hit. … When I got to the kennels Duke was up on the posting truck like he was waiting to go to post. I walked up to the truck calling his name. He was growling and barking at me… Eventually I was able to get my leash around his neck and get him under control. The veterinarian was right behind me and he was able to tranquilize him. It was only then that we were able to see that he was badly injured. He had ripped the kennel’s chain link fence trying to get out of the kennel during the attack and his back legs were totally torn up. He had lost a lot of blood and was in very bad shape. The vet told me he had to be transported to the 9th Med. Center, in Saigon,…That is the last time I saw Duke.
– John Risse (source)
If you want to know more about dogs in the vietnam war in general you can read here
Eastward Ho! 