At last a national monument for American's war dog teams is to be built, after decades of campaigning on that behalf.
The John Burnam Monument Foundation, Inc. was approved by Congress to build and maintain the memorial, to be known as the "Military Working Dog Teams National Monument." It will stand in tribute to U.S. military working dog teams of every war, not just Vietnam.
Burnam was a dog handler in Vietnam during that conflict, and his dog Clipper was among the thousands ordered to be abandoned in place when the U.S. pulled out of Vietnam. Burnam detailed his experiences in his book, "Dog Tags of Courage."
For more on the Military Dog Teams National Memorial, google up and surf the home page at: http://www.jbmf.us.
(Special interest: Click up the Memorial links at that site for lists of dogs and handlers killed in Vietnam. So effective were these teams teams that there was a bounty established on both the dogs and the handlers).
Tax deductible donations to JBMF, Inc. can be mailed to SunTrust Bank, Attn: Kevin Thorpe, 1445 New York Ave NW, Washington, DC 20005.
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