"Good boy!" :/

is a memoir to the Marine dogs of war. Captain Putney was a veterinarian and Commanding Officer of the 3rd War Dog Platoon, and later chief veterinarian and Commanding Officer of the USMC War Dog Training School at Camp Lejeune, NC. It is a tale of immense courage. And incredible sacrifice.

After Putney returned from the war, he was horrified to discover that many of the dogs were euthanized upon being returned home. Outraged, he fought for the dogs right to return to their owners, as many were pets, donated by patriotic Americans. He won that and headed up the overwhelmingly successful re-training program for these dogs to go home to their families.

Sadly, this lesson was forgotten and the dogs of Korea and Vietnam did not return home to their owners. In the final days of his administration, President Clinton signed into law an act that allows military dog handlers to bring home the dogs with which they worked. Once again, it was Putney who led the charge for this bill to become law.

I highly recommend his book to all who love dogs, but who also understand just how vital dogs are to military operations the world over. The human lives they have saved will never be fully known.

Without digital technology and drone cameras, that sort of photograph had to be very well planned.

Which one is Col. Potter?

They just showed the episode where he was the last surviving member of his WWI unit. I learned that my grandfather also served on horseback in WWI. I have his army discharge papers which say he was a "very good horseman," turns out he brought ammunition to the front on horseback. He joined up with his brother who was given the silver star, learned more about my grandfather's service when I went to a ceremony summer before last honoring my great uncle's service. I never met my grandfather, he died when my Dad was 12, and my grandmother said he never wanted to speak about the war.

That is so neat!

As for the wild ones:

THE WILD FREE-ROAMING HORSES AND BURROS ACT OF 1971
(PUBLIC LAW 92-195)
§1331. Congressional findings and declaration of policy
Congress finds and declares that wild free-roaming horses and burros are living symbols
of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West; that they contribute to the diversity of life
forms within the Nation and enrich the lives of the American people; and that these
horses and burros are fast disappearing from the American scene. It is the policy of
Congress that wild free-roaming horses and burros shall be protected from capture,
branding, harassment, or death; and to accomplish this they are to be considered in the
area where presently found, as an integral part of the natural system of the public lands.


And yet the U.S. Forest Service and BLM are removing OUR wild horses and burros from OUR public lands to appease the welfare cattle and sheep ranchers and other special interest groups. We are losing these American icons to cruel, inhumane roundups all for greed.

in London.....it says,”They had no choice.”.....always makes me weepy.

Waterworks first thing in the morning--glad I have a box of Kleenex handy. How touching. How true.

Thank you for the KLEENEX warning!

was the beginning of the end of cavalry in war, though the use of animals as unwitting combatants hasn't ended.

As one who views animals other than humans as people, I am very saddened by the suffering and deaths they have suffered through history.

Dogs, birds, elephants, camels, dolphins... people.

I mourn the loss of these lives.
The horses weren't "heros". That just makes their murders excusable. They were victims.

3 million of these gentle creatures forced to rush into a hell zone, frightened out of their minds no doubt, with cries, and bloodshed, explosions, gun shots all around them.

We shouldn't be forcing other animals into a violent painful scary death for wars we humans decide to engage in. That includes modern day animal usage with dolphins and other intelligent creatures. I know, that was then, when they did not have the motor vehicles, and had to match the other sides use of 'living transport vehicles'. I just cringe when innocent animal suffering nd abuse is glorified as patriotic or something. They have no idea of what patriotism means. They have no love of the flag, or took no oath to die for the country they were shipped from....shocking I know.

Thanks for the reminder of un-heralded heros of humans' stupid wars.

Thank you for this and you are right, it's Kleenex time.

There are hundreds of stories of men having their mounts shot out from under them. Even hundreds of years ago, if you took out a man's horse with an arrow, its easier to take out the man on the ground. Knights horses also wore armor. The equitational art of dressage started in the military on exceptionally trained horses. The, "Airs Above the Ground", of the famed Lipizzaners are originally military moves to throw off ground soldiers. The other side of that was, you didn't want your horses captured by the Russians in WWII, because they would eat them. They were starving. General Patton raced to save these horses at the Spanish Riding School in Austria when it was about to be captured. "The Bolshevik swine care nothing for horses. When they arrive they will slaughter them on the spot and fry them up as steaks to feed their hungry troops," declared a captured German officer.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5968191/How-Lipizzaners-horses-saved-Nazis-Russians-allied-forces-Second-World-War.html

Whether in the military of old, or modern day, horses have served humans well, and been mostly unappreciated. Its hard to believe we would have made it without them.