A Soldier's Best Friend: Scout Dogs and Their Handlers in the Vietnam War [Paperback]

John C. Burnam (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 22, 2003

In a Vietnam War memoir unlike any published before, John C. Burnam recalls his service in-country as a scout dog handler in the 25th Infantry Division's 44th Infantry Platoon (Scout Dog) with his canine comrades, Hans, Timber, and Clipper. Like 10,000 other young combat infantrymen, Burnam loved and cared for his dogs, literally carrying their food and water into battle, as they located injured GIs, searched out Vietcong weapons caches and deadly booby traps, and alertly thwarted enemy attacks and ambushes. More than 57,000 Americans lost their lives in Vietnam, and countless others were wounded, taken prisoner, or reported missing in action; thousands more would have fallen victim had it not been for the use of German shepherds for scouting, sentry, and patrolling and Labrador retrievers for tracking. Yet these intrepid animals' service has been largely forgotten. In fact, the nearly 4,000 American war dogs of Vietnam were classified as "equipment" at the war's end. Deemed expendable despite the impassioned pleas of their handlers, thousands were abandoned to unknown fates. Vietnam War Dogs is a stirring war story but one that honors the courage of real men and their real best friends. 8 pages of black-and-white photos enhances this superbly written testimonial to the strength and courage of America's soldiers and the heroics of their dog teams during the Vietnam War. "An authentic and compelling story by a two-tour combat infantry veteran. Read this magnificent book." —Lieutenant General Harold G. Moore (U.S.A., ret.) co-author of We Were Soldiers Once and Young: Ia Drang, The Battle that Changed the War in Vietnam

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Burnam is a man with a mission: to garner recognition for the 4,000 dogs and their 10,000 or so handlers who served in the Vietnam War. Burnam was one of the latter; his instructive book is a combination war memoir, a history of the use of American war dog teams in Vietnam and a plea for the construction of a National War Dog Memorial in Washington, D.C. A Colorado native, Burnam joined the army soon after graduating from high school, volunteered for jump school and went on to serve two tours in Vietnam. He was an infantryman with the First Cavalry Division and a scout dog handler with the 44th Scout Dog Platoon. Burnam saw plenty of action during both tours of duty. His first ended prematurely when he jumped out of a helicopter under fire and landed on a bamboo punji stake that impaled his right knee. He describes that and his other war experiences well, using minimal reconstructed dialogue. The most valuable part of the book is Burnam's description of his second tour, when he bravely led dangerous infantry patrols with his two scout dogs, Timber and Clipper. Of the countless American Vietnam War memoirs, none has provided such an in-depth look at the training and operations of the scout dogs and their handlers. Burnam, the current president of the Vietnam Dog Handlers Association, unabashedly lobbies for formal recognition of the Vietnam War dogs and their handlers, and by book's end, only the most canine phobic will give him an argument.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

This Vietnam narrative by a war-dog handler who became a career soldier has two parts. The first is Burnam's account of being a grunt with the 1st Air Cavalry Division, and it graphically illustrates how even those who in time become good soldiers start off green as grass and as dangerous to their comrades as to the enemy. The bulk of the book--its more original and moving part--relates Burnam's experience with sentry and scout dogs, particularly with one scout dog named Checker. Checker and Burnam owed one another their lives many times, and, working as a team, they saved many American casualties. For that, Checker's reward was to be left in Vietnam and most probably eaten, something that rankles Burnam to this day and will rankle animal lovers who read this overdue tribute to an overlooked group of Vietnam War participants. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 362 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (January 22, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 078671137X
• ISBN-13: 978-0786711376
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,627,642 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Clipper Would Appove!, August 31, 2003

By 

Mcgivern Owen L (NY, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Soldier's Best Friend: Scout Dogs and Their Handlers in the Vietnam War (Paperback)

" A Soldier?s Best Friend"is about John Burnham"s experience as a Scout Dog handler for the 25th Infantry Division in Vietnam. This review drops the "Master Sergeant" from his name because he writes as a "short timer" enlisted man, not as the career non- commissioned officer he became. SBF is a 3 -part tale. The lst concerns the author?s original tour in Vietnam as an infantryman with the First Air Cavalry Division, known to vets as "The Cav". He is wounded, medevaced to Japan and reassigned to Okinawa. Thanks to the vagaries of the Army personnel system, he is assigned as an "OJT" guard dog handler around a Chemical Warfare dump. His time on that island is the 2nd segment. The 3rd part concerns Burnham?s return to Vietnam-after he re-enlists for another combat tour to get away from the chemical dump. (Stranger things have happened! This reviewer knew a guy who reupped for the 173rd Airborne in Vietnam because he was miserable in Wurzburg, Germany!) Burnham becomes a Scout Dog handler with the 25th. A handler and his German Shepherd almost always walked point in the field. They were the lead in the line of march and therefore highly vulnerable. Scout Dogs searched for trip wires, mines and other booby traps, injured GIs and sensed Viet Cong laying in ambush. They saved thousands of Americans casualties. The author himself acknowledges that without his main dog, Clipper, he would be another name on The Wall in Washington DC. This reviewer has not read a combat tale where I felt as close to the ground as in SBF. The author has a very simple and direct style that takes the reader right to the core of a patrol. I loved the recounting of Clipper zigging left, zagging right, dutifully leading a platoon around a series of booby traps. Small wonder that handlers said they felt safer with a good dog than another GI! SBF ends sadly as Burnham is forced to leave his buddy Clipper behind in Vietnam. Their final parting is wrenching to read. Unlike the Korea and WW2 conflicts, the US military forbade repatriation of dogs when a handler's tour was over. They were left behind for the "duration" or until they were killed. Their fate had to be cruel as Vietnamese regarded dogs as a source of food, not pets. The Appendix lists the 288 dogs killed in action as well as the 285 handlers who made the ultimate sacrifice. SBF is highly recommended for its' very personal look at one soldier's combat experience. It is further recommend for yet another unique look at the Vietnam War that affected so many of us. Just when one thinks he has heard every Vietnam story possible, along comes a book like SBF to show that he hasn?t. If the book has a weak spot, it is a common one: NOT ONE SINGLE MAP! Why do publishers constantly make this omission? This merits a reduction in rank for SBF from 5 stars to 4. That complaint aside, SBF rates "Number One"

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of a kind -thus far, May 4, 2003

By 

"chops655" (Harrisburg, NC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Soldier's Best Friend: Scout Dogs and Their Handlers in the Vietnam War (Paperback)

Burnam's book was both informative and exciting to read. I initially picked it up because it was such a unique subject.The book is seemingly broken into two parts: Before the Scout Dog assignment and after. I thought that it would be dry getting to the Scout Dog portion. Not So! Each page is filled with an honest look at Vietnam as experienced by a young kid from the Mid-West. Not to ruin it for others, I won't mention them here, but there are several portions that are a hoot and some that are hard to read -emotionally. Burnam holds nothing back for sake of posterity or politics. He explains the military use of dogs in Vietnam and -sadly- the result of their service in how the U.S. Government chose to view the dogs and 'release' them from service. I've read several books about Vietnam and this has been the first one that has given such an honest view of a fairy unknown
(to the general public) portion of the military's arsenal. An excellent read!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My Father is Lieutenant Fenner., October 26, 2009

By 

Matthew R. Fenner - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Soldier's Best Friend: Scout Dogs and Their Handlers in the Vietnam War (Paperback)

I found this book by accident on Amazon and was surprised to see in the excerpts a Lieutenant Fenner. I was more surprised that it was my father. It has been a wonderful experience to be able to read someone else's impressions of my father during that period of his life. We are both reading the book and it has been amazing to listen to him remember his time with the 44th Calvary. He told me about the bakery and then 2 chapters later I was reading about it.