As the wife of a Vietnam veteran “Dogman” (432nd SPS K9), I have a huge place in my heart for the K9s. Many years back, I met Johnny Mayo (also Vietnam Dog Handler). Johnny has been working diligently the last several years to have a war dog monument built to honor the service of over 40,000 military working dogs.
All of his hard work is now paying off, and the work is in progress. The South Carolina War Dog Monument (SCWDM) will honor the service, sacrifice and loyalty of our nation’s military working dogs serving since World War II to present. The SCWDM will be a world-class memorial placed on the center of the plaza in front of the South Carolina Vietnam Memorial in Columbia’s Veterans Memorial Park.
The project will be built in two phases. Phase I will be a 13-foot wide granite base with larger-than-life bronze statues of dog handler and German Shepherd. Phase 2 will include the three remaining primary dog breeds who served with our troops since World War II (Doberman Pinscher, Labrador Retriever and Belgian Malinois Shepherd).
Right now, my husband and I are at the annual Vietnam And All Veterans Reunion in Melbourne, Florida. It is the largest veterans reunion in the country, and we have attended it for 20 years. Some of you may be familiar with my image called War Dogs Sacrifice (image above). The display in the image was created by Johnny. He started it several years ago with just a few of the plaques and a very simple display. Over the years, it grew to what is shown in my image. I saw the display again today, and it has grown even larger, adding the current information on the new monument.
I would like to do my part to help the War Dog Monument effort. So I told Johnny today that I will contribute all proceeds that I receive on the sales of the image War Dogs Sacrifice from 4/26/13 through 5/5/13 to the project. Here is the link to purchase the image: War Dogs Sacrifice
You can also help with your purchase of the image and by forwarding this information on to others you know who would like to see a monument such as this be built to honor our K9 veterans and working dogs.
If you would like more information on the monument. you can visit the website at: South Carolina War Dog Monument
On behalf of the K9 Corps, I say a big thank you!
