My dog was the best you know. You wouldn't be a true dog handler if your dog wasn't the best. They're just, they're just like a human being. He could almost talk.
He was donated to the Air Force by a family from, I want to say, Sacramento, California. He was about a year, year-and-a-half old when the Air Force bought him. He was a black and tan. Good dog, good dog. Good teeth. Smart. Always wanted to play with you. If you weren't there he would (whining noise) whine and cry, you know. Just like a little baby. He had good teeth and he - when he bit somebody they stayed bit.
You get mad for nothing. They get mad for nothing. They get loyal. You get loyal you know. It's really a friendship that goes deep.
They put you overseas, first night we were there, "Hey, we need the dogs here." "What? Aren't we getting any training?" "Nope. You go out there and walk." This is getting blown up. That's getting blown up. They weren't big on giving you training.
The , they said they had rewards out for us or for ears on the dog, $25,000 they would tell us. We were just out there trying to get out alive. I'm a farm boy from Wisconsin, you know, what do I know about walking around in jungles, you know.
Sometimes a truck would post you. Sometimes a helicopter would post you. Sometimes you'd walk. Most of the time it was the and napalm dumps and the runway, supply areas, fuel areas, stuff like that. You were the first, the first line of defense. They use you. You got alerts. You see the bad guys, you'd get on the radio and hightail it. You were expendable. A lot of people were saved by them dogs, because they were on. Lot of people, lot of bases, a lot of equipment was saved.
I was just walking along and all of a sudden Duke went down like he was a bird dog, growling and digging his paws, you know. Sure enough there was the wire stretched out like this, tied to a bush. And if I had walked two, three feet more my foot would have caught it and I'd a lost something. And it was an old World War II pipe-type pineapple grenade with the ridges, it wasn't the like the smooth kind. It was an older type but still just as deadly.
But when I thought I might lose Duke, at some time or another, that really. ... I didn't mind if he licked my face. I loved it. He means he was alive. No, he was ... I wouldn't be here if wasn't for him. I wouldn't be here. I mean if I wasn't married and didn't have a little baby I would've stayed. That was the hardest thing I had to do was leave that dog. I, I bawled.
