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The founder of the company I worked for the last 20 years of my career was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Duluth Air National Guard. He was an exceptional man in many ways, founding a company based on the belief that there had to be a way that the synthetic oil used in the jets he flew could also be used in cars. Thus was the synthetic oil market generated.
In addition to his passion as an entrepreneur, he had a passion for dogs, donating thousands of dollars to the purchase and training of dogs for our local police departments when there was a needed vacancy to fill.
One one occasion years ago he loaned me a copy of a historical documentary about the use of dogs in the service of our military. Being a dog person as well, I was moved by the many stories of servicemen in Vietnam whose lives were saved because of their dogs’ bravery.
The dogs would sometimes smell the enemy before our soldiers could see them, thus avoid being ambushed. One soldier who had been shot was dragged to safety by his canine companion after he’d been shot in an open area.
In trying to find this documentary recently I located several other stories instead. This article is about…
