Military Dog Cemetery - A Tribute
By Jay Stoeckl, Chief Assistant to the Assistant, Assistant Breeder, Nov. 18, 2024
Well, I’m back!
15 days on the road. Seven deliveries! It was a very successful trip. Puppies and mama dogs found their new forever homes in Utah, Louisiana, Florida, Virginia, Michigan, and Minnesota. All are pleased with their new heart dogs!
I want to share with you a very special story I encountered along the way—a tribute to the police and military dogs who have served us for the past hundred years.
Yes, I said that right. One hundred years!
About a year and a half ago, our executive assistant, Jody-Lynn, was watching the local news with her husband, Bob. A police dog named Gunner, had lost his life in the line of duty.
While in Allen Park, Michigan, Jody and Bob took me to a dog cemetery none of us had ever been to before. In that moment, they recalled seeing the news reel of Gunner and wondered if he was buried there.
He was.
Accompanying Gunner’s tomb was a myriad of memorials, dog sculptures, and head stones. The more modern ones were of finely etched granite. The older ones were weathered cement, their rough markings faded from decades of precipitation.
I had seen pioneer cemetery grave markers identical to these older ones.
The modern graves appeared out of the earth beginning in the 1970s while the faded cement graves went all the way back to the 1930s.
To illustrate just how critical our canine friends are to us, their hundred year history of military service was exemplified at this amazing tribute to their contributions to humanity.
Throughout this acre of canine tombstones, American flags fluttered in the cold November breeze. Many of the grave sites included bouquets of plastic flowers.
Other tombstones, many adorned with dog sculptures, contained favorite dog toys the service dog had enjoyed during its lifetime.
They included fun names like Bonzo, and Jiggs. Some names were more gentile like Lady and Blacky. Others had a more regal and military air like Duke, Captain, and Emperor.
And there were coins on top of many of the memorials.
If you don’t know the significance of the coins, just visit any military cemetery. Each time a friend or family member of a fallen veteran visits his or her grave, they leave a coin on top of the headstone, a testimony of their solemn visit.
And here is the coin trivia most people don’t know.
Leave a penny means you visited the grave.
Leave a nickel means you went to basic training together.
Leave a dime means you served in the same unit.
Leave a quarter means you were present when the soldier or dog was killed.
Many of these service dogs had received that same level of honor.
Jody and Bob brought with them their own service dog, Hercules. And Syrenka, who had volunteered to accompany me on my journey, was with me. None served in the military or police forces, but their work is still important to us.
Both Hercules and Syrenka walked along with the three of us as if they knew well the magnitude of the ones buried there.
How many buried there had died a natural death? How many had given their lives in service of their country? I would guess that most fit in the latter category.
The mere presence of being there made all five of us reach a new plateau of awe for God’s greatest gift to humankind, our canines.
Syrenka and Hercules even wondered if one of the dog sculptures might come to life! They sniffed at the sculptures to see if they were living, breathing creatures.
Maybe I’m crazy, but I saw Hercules leave a coin.
The magnitude of such a display was both daunting and moving within each of us. The memorials listed hundreds of names and spanned other continents: Europe (Germany), New Zealand and Australia.
Memorials recognized dogs of every conflict since World War II. Police and military dogs had the same level of recognition. Both lived in the highest level of honor, willing to give their lives for the rest of us.
As we spend each Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day and recall our military men and women who gave their lives for our freedom, let us honor their four-legged companions who, by themselves, must have saved thousands of lives by their service.
So, to each of you who ever had a “Gunner”, that devout dog who saved your life in one way or another, I honor your memories through this testimony.
Speaking of saying good-bye to a devoted furry friend, how in the world can Jennifer and I let go of the amazing puppies we raise without becoming too emotional?
Isn’t it hard for us to hand over our precious puppies after having given them so much time and attention over the first 8-12 weeks of age?
And what about those puppies who have needed a little extra TLC?
Don’t we grieve when we must say good-bye forever?
Find out just how we can let go of our sweet babies on today’s Movie Monday!
Here’s the link:
Jennifer Stoeckl is the co-founder of the Dire Wolf Project, founder of the DireWolf Guardians American Dirus Dog Training Program, and owner/operator of DireWolf Dogs of Vallecito. She lives in the beautiful inland northwest among the Ponderosa pine forests with her pack of American Dirus dogs.
