Hi my name is Claire and I am an Army wife and an Army mom. I have one soldier at Benning and another in Iraq. Needless to say I have a soft spot for soldiers... and especially the ones who start out as puppies! :)

My maternal family has a War Dog hero from WWII that they boast. I have heard stories of him being KIA and how he had shown great bravery during a close combat situation. I would love to learn more about this dog, but I do not even know where to begin. I know that the local paper where my family lived in Ohio ran a stroy about Red. The paper that ran the story folded 20 years ago. I am sure the library may have a copy of the article, but I can't get there anytime soon to go through the microfiche.

My mom says that she recalls his name being "Big Red" and he was simply called "Red." He was a Pincher. I have all of his owners/trainers names since they are relatives (non of them are living any longer). Where should I start to even look? Is there a national database for all War Dogs killed in action going back as far as WWII?

Claire,

Try the VDHA website.

Also if the dog was a Pincher then he may have been
used by the USMC since most of their dogs during WWII were Pincher.

I have a list of all the USMC dog KIA's on Guam and Iwo Jima maybe he was in that bunch, I will look and see when I get home from work.

Perry C. Money
USMC Mine and Booby Trap Detection Dog handler
usmc8672@yadtel.net
pmoney@championindustries.com

Great! Thank you so much! I would just love to find out some information about him so that I can tell his story to my kids. I would really hate for his memory to be forgotten by our family simply because the ball was dropped and the story wasn't passed down to the next generation. I appreciate your help!

Claire,

I'm still searching.

I've check all the grave makers at the K-9 Cemetery on Iwo Jima (reviewed the orignal photos) and did not find his name there.

Next we will review the names from Guam (26) Pinchers were killed in action there.

The commander of he USMC dogs during WWII has passed away, but he did publish a great book title "Always Faithul", I will read it again and look for the name in it.

If we don't find it there then we will contact the
the USMC History Division at Quantico, VA.

Contary to common belief the militry keep very, very good records, problem is always very to look.

Semper Fi

Oh Wow! Thank you so very much for checking! I am really hoping to find something. I am going to contact the library in Ohio that may have the article about Red's death. It may have details -- and it should at least have a date. That newspaper shut down a very long time ago, so I am hoping the library will have it's back issues on microfiche. I don't know if the military kept the owners names in the database too, but Red's owner's last name was Steiner.

Thanks again. I hope I can do something to keep Red from being forgotten.

Claire,

A total of 25 USMC Doberman Pinchers were killed in action during the Liberation of the Island of Guam.
24 were buried on the island, and 1 was buried at sea.

Kurt, Skipper, Ni, Missy, Blitz, Bursch, Yonnie, Ponocho, Prince, Cappy, Arno, Pepper, Koko, Tubby, Fritz, Duke, silver, Ludwig, Bunkie, Hobo, Emmy, Max, Brockie, Rickey were all buried on the island, and Tam was buried at sea.

Please go to the following website for the history of USMC War Dogs starting in 1935, from there you can go to a lot of places and just might find the answer to your question, and I will continue to search also.

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/1878/wardog.html

or just type (war dogs) in in your search window and scroll down until you see the usmc 1935 reference in the title.

There is no doubt that the records exist, just a matter of looking in the right place, or asking the right person.

Semper Fi

Thank you. I really do appreciate it. If I find him I will pop back on and let you know!

Since I have been looking for him, I have been able to read some of the history. After reading more about these War Dogs I am convinced that they need to do a really good movie about them. They are really quite incredible, and I think that most of us are just unaware of all they have done in the Armed Forces.

Thanks again!

C