Canine Commandos by Nigel Cawthorne

Author:Nigel Cawthorne
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ulysses Press
Published: 2012-03-23T04:00:00+00:00

Lucky

There was another war dog on Guam called Lucky, but he did not arrive there until the late PFC Edward Topka’s Lucky had been rotated home. The second Lucky belonged to Donald R. Walton, who had been given the German shepherd as an eight-week-old pup by his friend Doug Springer. Walton had taught Lucky to obey basic commands before he was called up into the Navy.

While he was in the service, Walton’s wife and infant son were to live with her parents in Washington, D.C. City life was not going to suit Lucky, who was used to roaming free in Owl Creek, Pennsylvania. So Walton called the Marine Corps, who were desperate for dogs at the time. They came right back to him, saying, “Yes, we want your dog.”

Walton sent Lucky by train to Camp Lejeune in a crate marked “USMC Devil Dog.” Lucky was then eighteen-months old.

The Marine Corps kept the Walton fully informed of Lucky’s progress. After basic training, he was sent out to the Pacific Theater in 1945 as a replacement for a casualty. His job was to seek out Japanese soldiers still hiding out in the caves and tunnel complexes on Guam. He was then used in the amphibious assaults on other Pacific Islands as the marines pushed west across the Pacific.

Walton received letters both from the Marine Corps and from Lucky’s handler. He could even write back. A letter addressed to Lucky, giving his serial number, 651, sent via an army post office number in San Francisco, would be forwarded to his handler.

In one of the handler’s letters, he explained how useful Lucky was because he was never surprised by the enemy, always sensing their presence. Walton said: One of the favorite tactics of the Japanese was a night banzai attack to try to overrun a position of the marines—throw them into confusion and do a lot of damage to them. When the handler went to sleep, he slept with the palm of his hand under the throat of Lucky. Lucky had been taught never to bark or growl. But if he sensed anything out of the ordinary at night, his throat would vibrate in a silent growl, which would awaken the handler. And the handler then roused the other marines. And they were never, ever surprised by a banzai attack by the Japanese. And the presence of the dog was such an important matter to the other marines that the handler threw away his own shovel. All the marines dug holes when they always took cover. But the handler never dug a hole, and neither did Lucky. The other marines dug two extra holes. They wanted Lucky right with them.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.