"Military canines make contributions every day while they serve in our military. They are hard working and do a great job of saving the lives of their handlers and the troops who walk in their footsteps," Ron Aiello, president of the United States War Dogs Association and a former Marine scout dog handler who served in Vietnam said.

The nonprofit association is made up of current and former military dog handlers and is committed to educating the public about the invaluable service the dogs provide.

Recently, the association successfully lobbied the state of New Jersey to place an official war dog memorial alongside the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans Memorial, in Holmdel, N.J. "It will be the first official memorial that honors these dogs," Aiello said.

The association raised most of the funds for the war dog memorial on its own and hired sculptor Bruce Lindsay to design a statue of dog and handler. ART Research, in Lancaster, Pa., will cast the bronze statue in the near future, and the memorial will probably be dedicated in May or June, Aiello said.

"The U.S. War Dog Memorial will honor the nation's war dogs and will show the bond between the canine and handler," he said.

Members of the association would also like to see a national war dog memorial built in Washington, D.C. "That's a long term project though," Aiello said.

The association works in various other ways to honor and aid war dogs. For instance, it has petitioned to have the U.S. Postal Service issue a commemorative stamp for military working dogs and helps find loving homes for retired military and police dogs.

"Today the military has a retirement program for their canines. When a canine is too old to work it is retired and put into the adoption program," Aiello said. "This program was authorized back in November of 2000 by Congress and signed by President Clinton. Since then there have been a number of these magnificent dogs adopted out to loving families throughout the United States."

In addition, President Bush signed a Defense Appropriations Bill in December that enables military working dogs to retire early to be adopted by their handlers following an injury.

Aiello also makes it a point to reach out to today's active-duty military dog handlers. He has sent numerous care packages to dog teams serving in Afghanistan, Kuwait, and Iraq.

"I like to mix it up, if I put some beef jerky in the package for the handler, I'll put a chew toy in for the dog," Aiello said.

Aiello said he is sure today's military dog handlers will form the same type of bond that he shared with his dog Stormy while serving in Vietnam.

"Growing up, my family had several dogs that I became attached to. But it was not until I became a Marine scout dog handler that I really understood the bond that can form between a human and a canine," he said. "It is a bond of friendship that lasts a lifetime."

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Giving military dogs their due

Thursday, November 10, 2005                                                

By PATRICIA PARENTE

Staff Writer

BURLINGTON TOWNSHIP - Ron Aiello and and 18-month-old German shepherd named Stormy trained day and night for three months before their first patrol together in Vietnam and a defining moment that Aiello still remembers clearly some 40 years later.

Aiello and Stormy were responsible for leading a platoon as they searched two villages, he said, noting their job was to ensure there were no ambushes waiting to happen, no booby traps ready to explode.

"I would come out (of the village) and give the `All clear' to the squad behind me," he said.

Nothing was found in the first village, but as Aiello and Stormy headed down a trail and into a clearing near the second one, Stormy stopped, her head snapping up. Aiello knelt down beside her.

"Just as I knelt down, a sniper shot," said Aiello, who figures the dog may have heard the click of the rifle. "If I was standing up, he may have hit me."

Instead, Aiello dived behind a ridge, and about 30 Marines behind him were alerted to the danger.

"That was my first time out, and everything we were trained to do worked," Aiello said. "She alerted me to the danger. I read the alert and we got out."

When Aiello left Vietnam 13 months later, Stormy stayed behind to work with another handler, but the former Marine never forgot her.

Now he is working to ensure that Stormy and the thousands of other U.S. military working dogs that have been used since World War I receive the recognition they deserve.

The president of the U.S. War Dogs Association, Aiello said the nonprofit organization based in Burlington Township is raising funds to establish a life-size statue at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Holmdel to honor military canines and their handlers.

"We estimate there would have been another 10,000 names on the Vietnam wall if it weren't for the dogs," said Aiello, who was one of the first Marine scout dog handlers in Vietnam.

"All one dog had to do was stop one booby trap from going off to save one to five lives. That's the reason we decided to do this memorial, to honor their service to our country and to their handlers."

Kelly Watts, executive director of the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans Memorial Foundation, said the military dogs and their handlers deserve recognition.

"I think it's appropriate," she said of the planned memorial. "I think it will be interesting for our younger visitors and something unique for them to see."

The New Jersey War Dog Memorial is being created by sculptor Bruce Lindsay, who has a studio in Hamilton, and will feature a German shepherd on all fours alerting his kneeling handler to danger, Aiello said.

"That position is the most important moment in the time of the dog and the handler because what you're deciphering means life and death," he said.

So far, Aiello said about $55,000 has been raised toward the estimated $80,000 cost of the bronze statue that will rest on a black granite base. The goal is to have it erected in time for a June dedication.

"To my knowledge it will be the first official state war dog memorial," Aiello said. "It's going to honor all war dogs and their handlers, past, present and future."

Formed in 1999 and incorporated as a nonprofit organization a year later, the U.S. War Dogs Association was created to educate the public about the positive contributions of military working dogs, Aiello said. Most of its members are from the Northeast and are former or current military dog handlers, he said.

According to Aiello, dogs were used by the military during World War I, and also during World War II when civilians were asked to loan their dogs to the war effort. The practice continued during the Korean and Vietnam wars, he said.

Working together, the dogs and their handlers saved lives, Aiello said.

During Vietnam, he said, scout dogs were used to lead patrols and provide "an early warning system" of trouble ahead. The dogs, mostly German shepherds, were trained to pick up the human scent and also the scent of explosive materials.

They also could pick up sounds the human ear couldn't, such as a slight breeze rolling over a booby trap trip wire, he said.

"If you were a good team, the dog would alert you," Aiello said.

Sentry dog teams were used by every branch of the U.S. armed forces in Vietnam to secure the perimeters of locations, the former Marine said. The Army also had tracker dogs, usually black Labrador retrievers, he said.

Aiello said he volunteered to be a handler because he left a 130-pound German shepherd at home in 1964 when he enlisted in the Marines at the age of 19, and he and Stormy trained together for three months before being sent to Vietnam.

"They matched our personality with the dog," Aiello said. "She was beautiful and she worked out really well. It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship and the experience of a lifetime."

Aiello credits Stormy with not only saving lives, but keeping him "sane" during his time in Vietnam.

"It was like a therapy dog," he said. "Every time I was with my dog it cheered me up. Even when I was in a bad situation it helped to have my dog by my side. She kept me sane, and not only me but other Marines, too. Maybe they had a dog back home and they missed their dog."

After Aiello left Vietnam in 1967, he heard Stormy was still working there as of July 1970, but he is unsure what happened to her after that.

"We had over 4,300 dogs in Vietnam," said Aiello, who noted slightly more than 200 came out. Close to 300 dogs were killed in action, and the balance were either euthanized or turned over to the South Vietnamese army, he said.

"It was very unfortunate," Aiello said.

That's the reason the U.S. War Dogs Association wants to honor all military working dogs and their handlers with a memorial, he said.

"These canines were our companions, and they saved many lives," he said. "We felt these dogs deserved some type of honor."

Donations to help fund the War Dog Memorial may be sent to Bucky Grimm, treasurer of the U.S. Ward Dogs Association, 183 Cummings Ave., Long Branch, N.J., 07740. For more information go to uswardogs.org.

Military Canines

Send Holiday Cheer to the Forgotten Heroes

by Jennifer LB Leese

"Canines with courage and loyalty are serving over seas."

Auburn University to honor war dogs

Jack Stripling  / Staff Writer

April 29, 2005

During his first patrol in the jungles of Vietnam, the only thing that stood between a sniper and Cpl. Ron Aiello was a German Shepherd called “Stormy.” On that March

night in 1966, Aiello was walking six feet behind Stormy who gave him a silent alert, signaling danger. What Stormy had detected was the presence of an enemy sniper hiding in a tree just ahead.

“If I hadn’t seen her alert, I would’ve walked out into the open,” said Aiello, who now works to restore China and porcelain in his New Jersey home.

Aiello is one of many soldiers who credits a “war dog” with saving his life. The devotion of war dogs so moved the late William Putney, a second lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps., that he wrote a book about them called “Always Faithful: A Memoir of the Marine Dogs of WWII.” Putney, a graduate from AU’s College of Veterinary Medicine, became an advocate for the dogs. In 1994, Putney established a memorial in Guam to honor 25 dogs who died helping to liberate the island.

“The dogs were about as human as an animal can get,” Putney told Auburn Magazine in 2001. “Visualize a man and his dog living 24 hours a day in combat after having been trained together for two years, and each depending on the other ... It’s a bond I think would be impossible to match between an owner and an animal in civilian life.”

Putney’s wish that war dogs and all service dogs be honored will come to fruition at a ceremony in Auburn today. A memorial, donated by Putney’s widow Betsey Putney, will be unveiled on AU’s campus. Betsey Putney and retired U.S. Marine Commandant Carl Mundy will both be in attendance.

The 6 1/2-foot memorial, which depicts a doberman pincher staring attentively toward the distance, is the last of eight replicas of the sculpture in Guam.

“I would have preferred if Dr. Putney had been alive to see it,” said Susan Bahary, the Sausalito, Calif. artist who designed the memorial called “Always Faithful.” “But I think somehow he’s looking down and watching.”

Putney, who died in 2003, worked with war dogs as the commanding officer of the 3rd Marine War Dog Platoon, which conducted more than 450 patrols during battles in the Pacific. The dogs were trained to help soldiers by detecting mines and booby traps as well as carrying messages and medical supplies.
Handlers’ devotion to the dogs made it more difficult to stomach what was once common practice in the military: the euthanization of dogs after they had fulfilled their duties. In 2000, however, President Bill Clinton signed a law that started an adoption program for the dogs.

Putney was a longtime critic of the euthanization practice, and he believed the dogs deserved better. Putney said the dogs embodied the Marine Corps. motto Semper Fidelis, which means “always faithful.”

______________________________________________________

Remembering our four-legged veterans

By Sheila Abrams
Contributing Writer

BURLINGTON — When Shakespeare coined the phrase “the dogs of war,” he was using the words figuratively. But actual dogs, four legs, cold, wet noses, wagging tails and all, have served on battlefields for generations, doubtless in Shakespeare’s time as well.

Now, as our nation is once again embattled on foreign shores, canine heroes are serving with our troops. According to Ronald Aiello of Burlington, President of the United States War Dogs Association, Inc. there are about 400 dog-and-handler teams in the Middle East at present, about 250 of them in Iraq.

Mostly German shepherds and Belgian malinois, these dogs were bred by the military at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. They are used primarily for explosive detection and drug detection duty.

In Afghanistan, Aiello explained, the dogs are particularly effective in detecting land mines. Most enemy land mines there were Russian-made, and are cased in plastic, so that metal detectors can not sense them. A trained explosives dog can smell the explosive, however. When he (or she) picks up the scent, “he sits down, which is the signal to the handler,” said Aiello. The handler then calls the dog to him and rewards the animal with a special toy. Not inclined to patriotic sentiment, as human soldiers may be, the military dog performs in hope of some play time.

Dogs in the military are also motivated by the universal canine desire to please. Military handlers are volunteers who are almost always dog-lovers by nature, and they tend to develop an intense bond with their dogs. A visit to www.uswardogs.org yields photos of soldier dogs dressed up in fatigues or helmets by their handlers, often sporting the insignia of their units. It is evident that, along with their official duties, the dogs are great morale boosters to young people far from home.

Other types of service provided by dogs include tracking, search and rescue, sentry and scouting duty. 

Dogs Of War

The U.S. War Dogs Association is an organization made up of former and current military dog handlers, whose goals include honoring the dogs that have served in past wars and helping protect and improve conditions for dogs serving now and in the future.

Aiello, a Marine dog handler in Vietnam, is most passionate about the subject as he talks about the history of dogs in the U.S. military.

Dogs were first used officially by American troops during World War I, when they were mainly trained by and borrowed from our Belgian and French allies. During World War II and the Korean war, the nation asked patriotic Americans to lend their dogs for military use, and these dogs were trained by the Quartermaster Corps. One dog was actually awarded a Silver Star and a Purple Heart, the award later revoked because it violated Defense Department regulations. However, numerous dogs did receive commendations for their service.

Dogs that survived World War II and Korea were returned to their original owners when it was possible. The dogs in Vietnam were not so fortunate. The first canines to be owned outright by the military, they were regarded as property and treated accordingly.

Property they may have been thought of, but according to Aiello, at least 300 of them died heroically in combat. At the end of hostilities, most of the remaining dogs were either euthanized or turned over to the South Vietnamese. Of 4,300 war dogs serving with the U.S. military, only about 200 were returned to the U.S.

Aiello still gets emotional when he talks about Stormy, the female German shepherd who was his devoted partner in combat. The pair went out on patrol at night, their job to detect and warn troops in his unit of enemy activity. On each patrol, Aiello and Stormy put their lives on the line, the man knowingly, the dog unwitting and trusting.

“You just did it,” he said. “It was a job. You didn’t think about it.”

When Aiello came home, Stormy was left behind. The handler tried to find out what had become of this unique piece of “military property,” and determined she had four handlers after him. But her ultimate fate is still unknown to him, and will probably remain so.

Conditions now are better for military dogs. Since Congress passed a law in 2000, dogs serving in the military are brought home and, when possible, placed for adoption after they are retired from duty. Handlers and their families get first option.

One of Aiello’s favorite stories, beautifully told on the association’s extensive and elaborate website, is that of Fluffy, a male German Shepherd and Iraqi war veteran. Originally named Tariq Aziz (after Saddam’s foreign minister), Terror for short, this dog was given to a Special Forces unit by Iraqi Kurds, to serve sentry duty. The frightened and abused dog was renamed Fluffy by his handler, Sgt. First Class Russell Joyce. In short order, Fluffy learned what was wanted of him and performed.

When Joyce returned home and wanted to bring Fluffy with him, red tape intervened. Fluffy was, after all, an Iraqi dog and not an official U.S. military dog. Fluffy now lives in North Carolina with the Joyce family. To learn how Fluffy came to America, visit the U.S. War Dogs website and click on the link to “Fluffy, Iraqi Freedom.”

Canine Memorial

The U.S. War Dogs Association is working to establish a memorial to the war dogs at the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Holmdel.

A scale model of the statue, a dog and his handler (photo on cover), has been created by renowned sculptor Bruce Lindsay, former Architectural Division Manager of the Johnson Atelier in Mercerville. (His studio is near Grounds for Sculpture.)

The bronze statue itself will be about five-feet tall, on a round black granite base, four- feet wide by two-feet high. In total, the memorial will be about seven-feet tall, with the dog and handler to be about 125 percent life size.

The association is asking the public to contribute funds to build it. So far, about $36,000 has been raised, about one third of what is needed.

Aiello said the memorial will be signed over to the state of New Jersey as soon as it's erected, making it the first official state memorial to war dogs.

Another project the association has undertaken is persuading the U.S. Postal Service to issue a stamp honoring war dogs. A petition for this purpose is available for signature at the website. The U.S. War Dogs also support efforts now underway to erect a National War Dog Team Memorial in Washington, D.C. (To learn more about this effort, visit www.wardogmemorial.org, or write to John Mayo, Information, National War Dog Memorial Fund, 1009 Jessamine Road, Lexington, S.C. 29073.

The U.S. War Dogs website, maintained by Aiello, is full of information, history, dog lore, and wonderful photos and stories. There are also lists of items needed by military personnel in the Middle East, including things for dog handlers and their dogs.  Anyone wishing to help can make up a package and send it to Aiello at 1313 Mt. Holly Road, Burlington, N.J. 08016.

Published Nov. 11, 2004

Training facility to host event for 'war dogs'

LOCKPORT — You could say Riley's the giving type.

He spends time after school helping autistic children.

This weekend, Riley will sink his teeth into a fund-raiser for his peers serving in the Middle East.

And that's why he's considered one of man's best friends.

Riley is a Belgian Malinois owned by Ann Socha, a trainer at K-9 Guardians Boarding and Training Center.

On Saturday, the Lockport dog-training facility will host an "esquive" contest to raise funds for the U.S. War Dogs Association.

Esquive is a French wording meaning to dodge or evade. In the contest, a trained dog tries to stop someone wearing a protective outfit before that person can run back to the dog's handler, Socha said.

"It's really neat for the public to watch," Socha said.

Most of the canines that participate are family pets, albeit ones that meet strict training standards that take several years to achieve.

"There are hours upon hours of discipline training," said Robert Bonk, facility volunteer.

Owner Gary Tippett established K-9 Guardians more than two decades ago. While the business offers the usual obedience classes and other canine services, it specializes in hard-to-train dogs, like those who bite.

"That's the type of thing that the normal trainer won't touch," Bonk said.

Besides teaching dogs, K-9 Guardian employees also enjoy raising dollars for their furry friends.

This year, Bonk came across the war dog group on the Internet.

The U.S. War Dogs Association is a non-profit organization that supports past and present military dogs, and their human counterparts, and educates the public about their service.

President Ron Aiello estimates about 300 to 400 dog teams serve in Iraq, Afghanistan and other parts of the Middle East. The military canines are patrol dogs whose jobs usually involve sniffing out explosives.

"The dogs are saving a lot of lives over there," Aiello said.

The association sends the dogs and their handlers care packages. Some of the items include treats, toys and special blankets for the dogs, and food and letters for their handlers.

"That's a morale booster," said Aiello, who served as a military dog handler in Vietnam.

Proceeds collected Saturday will go toward the care package program.

The fund-raiser starts at 1 p.m. at the K-9 Guardians center, 1159 Bruce Road (at the corner of Bruce and Farrell roads).

Aside from the esquive contest, the event will include a raffle for restaurant certificates and doggie goody bags, and a photographer will be on hand to take pictures of people with their pets.

The cost is $5 per person, children under 12 admitted free, and $25 for each dog handler team with half of the entry fees to the winner.

For more information on the fund-raiser call (815) 838-4406, or visit www.k9-guardians.com. For more information on the war dogs association, visit www.uswardogs.org.

Reporter Andrea Hein can be reached at (815) 729-6018 or via e-mail at ahein@scn1.com.

By Louis C. Hochman

Wall Township resident Michelle Smith knows not all heroes walk on two legs.

“Last year, I was just searching on my computer and I typed in ‘war dogs,’” Ms. Smith recalled. “I knew there were dogs used in the military, and I wanted to see what I could do to help.”

And through that idle curiosity, Ms. Smith stumbled on the home page of the United States War Dogs Association, located at uswardogs.org. And through that organization, she found a way to help the military’s K9 soldiers.

“I just started to contact companies, to see what they could give,” Ms. Smith said, a dog owner herself.

Since the United States sent troops to Afghanistan, and then later Iraq, schools, churches and community groups throughout the Jersey Shore area have worked to assemble care baskets for soldiers serving overseas. Most often, they collect the everyday items difficult to come by while in service — toiletries, sunblock, candy, soap and other amenities.

With the help of several companies and a few individuals, Ms. Smith and the other members of U.S. War Dogs take on a similar effort. But their collections are geared at items useful to the dogs and their handlers.

For instance, Ms. Smith said, she might ask a company to donate ear and eye cleaners, sturdy dog toys, collars, nail clippers or other health and grooming items. She looks for sunblock without para-aminobenzoic acids-— since dogs can be prone to licking up the toxic components in their sun protection.

Companies throughout the country have been exceedingly helpful, Ms. Smith said.

“They’ve been phenomenal,” she said.

Local resident Gaye Wittenberg, of Manasquan, was one of the largest individual donors, providing what Ms. Smith described as a “ton of stuff” for both the dogs and their handlers. Companies donated items ranging from snack chips and almonds, to sunblock and toiletries, rope toys, to gum.

The group is also focused on installing a war dog memorial at the Veterans Veterans Memorial in Holmdel. It is continuing fund-raising efforts, but right now is about $50,000 short, Ms. Smith said.

According to U.S. War Dogs, military dogs have been used by the United States since World War I. They and their handlers have been trained to operate as scouts, trackers and sentry units, and often work in explosive detection.

According to the group, more than 4,000 dogs served in Vietnam, and it is estimated that they saved more than 10,000 American human lives. But the dogs were classified as surplus military equipment after the war, and were either euthanized or transferred to South Vietnam.

U.S. War Dogs also celebrates a 2000 law that requires dogs who survive service overseas be brought back home when a conflict ends.

Ms. Smith said she and other members of U.S. War Dogs have received e-mail from soldiers serving overseas, offering their thanks.

She said the U.S. War Dogs effort — and other similar ones — are particularly important in a time when domestic politics and other issues make headline news.

“The war’s not plastered all over the TV as much. People need to see what’s going on, and they need to see the dogs are soldiers too. They need help too,” she said.

Anyone interested in contributing can do so through uswardogs.org.

______________________________________________________________

Published in the Asbury Park Press 12/12/03

NEPTUNE -- The good work of Ridge Avenue Elementary School pupils went to the dogs Wednesday as they donated a check toward the construction of a memorial for military war dogs and their handlers.

A week of 25-cent raffles to win stuffed dogs -- supplied by the school librarian, Brenda Johnson -- yielded $25 that was presented to representatives from the United States War Dogs Association.

The representatives -- Ron Aiello of Burlington Township, the president, and treasurer Bucky Grimm of Long Branch -- spoke to students about war dogs and how they are used in the military.

"We think that the job of the war dog handlers and their dogs is very important," said Grimm, who patrolled the perimeter of his base with a German shepherd during the Vietnam War.

Students from third through fifth grades who attended the presentation agreed that war dogs play an important role.

"They are cool, and they save people from bad men to booby traps to bombs," said fourth-grader Federico Alderete, 9.

The association has raised $25,000 so far toward the memorial, to be built at the site of the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans' Memorial in Holmdel. The memorial -- which will be a statue of a handler and his dog in bronze and black granite, will cost about $75,000, Grimm said.

Aside from learning about dogs, Johnson wanted her students to take away a lesson about giving.

"I wanted them to know that even though we don't have much to give, we can give kindness and respect," said Johnson, who initiated the project to learn about war dogs and to raise money for the memorial after meeting association representatives at a dog show.

Students were excited to learn more about war dogs and had many questions for their two guests.

"I think it's really smart because they (dogs) use their senses to protect the soldiers," said Warren Worthy, 10, a fifth-grader.

Jasmine Moure, 10, also in fifth grade, agreed. She raised $3 for the donation.

"They risk their lives for soldiers," she said.

Technology teacher Elynn Shapiro said the students will continue to raise funds for other related causes, including the Monmouth County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Eatontown and the K-9 unit of the Tinton Falls Police Department.

Alison Waldman: (732) 643-4277 or awaldman@app.com