MEMORIAL DAY 2002 was a Very Sad Day in New York

NEW YORK CITY (USA) — Editor's note: Today's feature is a guest article from Major Paul Morgan (ret), U.S. Army, who served his country with the dogs in Vietnam 1965-1966, again in '69-'70, and most recently, in New York, Sep. 2001.

Cau Xang, 1965:
Where it all began.
"How much for the dog?" Capt. Morgan asked Father Tu (center). "Trente-huit! (Thirty-eight!)" the priest replied.
Thirty-eight dollars? No. Father Tu wanted Capt. Morgan's .38 caliber pistol. And it was the bargain of a lifetime. (Photo: K-9 Soldiers: Vietnam and After, Hellgate Press)

I just received an invitation to speak at a retired police officers' conference in September 2002. The officers wanted me to bring my two books about WAR DOGS, America's Forgotten Heroes, K-9 Soldiers, Vietnam and After and The Parrot's Beak. They also wanted me to talk about my dog's performance at the World Trade Center on September 12th, 2001. He found three sets of firefighters' remains and was injured. Cody and I had to decline the invitation.

On July 4th, 2001 I appointed myself the unofficial chairman of a non-existent WAR DOG MEMORIAL COMMITTEE on Long Island, New York. I wanted to see the memorial go up by Memorial Day 2002 or Veterans' Day 2002 at Fort Hamilton, New York, one of the US Army's oldest installations.

The command at Fort Hamilton took no interest in the project, but Suffolk County veterans of World War II, Korea, Vietnam and Desert Storm thought it was a great idea. A letter I wrote to Suffolk Life Newspapers was published in 36 different local editions and it seemed like we were on the way to having a WAR DOG Memorial at Armed Forces Plaza in Happauge, New York.

Hundreds of phone calls and emails were received and there was talk of some $50,000 in donations for the memorial. We even had several sculptors submit sketches of German shepherds in various alert poses. A local veterinarian, Dr. J.W. Greenfield, who has a weekly TV show, had my buddy, Hal Wilson, and I on his show, The Family Pet on September 1st, 2001. Hal Wilson's dog, Sue, a beautiful black German shepherd was a perfect model for the WAR DOG Memorial.

Then the attack on the World Trade Center took place ten days later and it seems like everything changed. Hal Wilson and I responded to the scene with our dogs, Sue and Cody Bear. Our efforts were detailed in dogsinthenews on September 24th, 2001 in a Letter from a World Trade Center Rescuer and His Dog. Next thing we knew AKC Gazette printed a story about our heroic little dogs in their November 2001 edition. It was titled Duty, Honor, Country, by Jan Mahood. Then a similar story appeared in the Veterans of Foreign Wars Magazine in January 2002, First on the Scene by Shannon Hanson.

Our two household pets became heroes just as thousands of other dogs had become famous for their exploits in World War II, Korea and Vietnam. They received Silent Valor Awards from New York and the Animals' Victoria Cross, The PDSA Dicken Awards from England.

Talk of the WAR DOG MEMORIAL continued on for months as did the funerals, the memorials and the recognition of the dead and missing from the World Trade Center, The Pentagon and those killed in a field in Pennsylvania where heroic passengers overtook airline hijackers planning to suicide bomb the White House or the CIA on September 11th, 2001.

New York has become a very sad place to visit and a sadder place in which to live since 9-11. Talk at family gatherings, social events, dog shows, dog walks and school visits with search and rescue dogs is very somber indeed.

On May 21st, 2002 Hal Wilson and I, with our dogs, Sue and Cody Bear, appeared before the Suffolk County Legislature to brief the law makers about our WAR DOG project. One legislator asked us if the hundreds of dogs which served at the World Trade Center and The Pentagon searching for the dead and missing would be included in this memorial to WAR DOGS, America's Forgotten Heroes.

My buddy, Hal Wilson, said, "Sir, we have been at war since 9-11 and these dogs before you are war dogs.....All of them they will be memorialized!" Then we were asked, "What did your dogs do at the World Trade Center?"

Hal Wilson promptly shut up and I choked up, teared up and with a broken, not so brilliant presentation told the legislators what Cody Bear and Sue had done.

Hal regained his composure and told the legislators we were both combat veterans of Vietnam, had seen much combat but nothing like the destruction we saw at World Trade Center in three hours on September 12th, 2001.

"... another officer asked me, "How good is your dog?" We were standing on a hose line and Cody was scratching again. I didn't have to answer the officer when Cody's paws suddenly were covered with blood. "Body Bag!" was heard again and another roll of orange plastic was passed down the line."

— Paul Morgan (Sep. 24, 2001)
Letter from a WTC Rescuer & His Dog

After that I apologized to the assembled panel members who were as upset as we were.

As the title of General Hal Moore's book about Vietnam combat puts it, "We were Soldiers Once and Young!"

I sincerely hope the WAR DOG MEMORIAL becomes a reality but it sure is a hard subject to talk about.

"No Dogs at the Wall!"
was what Paul and his dog Cody were told at the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial, Washington, D.C., Veteran's Day 1994. But he recounts: "When the band finished playing and the ceremony was completed, Cody and I were surrounded by hundreds of Vietnam vets ... The law may dictate no dogs at the Wall, but he was an exception to the law that day." (Photo and excerpt from K-9 Soldiers: Vietnam and After, Hellgate Press)