A Look at Bond Between Dog, Handler
HARRIS: During World War II, specially trained dogs sniffed out land mines and tracked down snipers and carried messages from unit to unit. K-9s have been used by the military since World War I. Even today on the battlegrounds of Afghanistan dogs are used to ferret out the enemy going cave to cave. In our "In-Depth Report" Lisa Webber, from affiliate KTHV, shows us how the bond between a dog and handler can last a lifetime.</s>JERRY WALSH, K-9 DOG HANDLER: 10-4. Just run it like a regular drill.</s>LISA WEBBER, KTHV CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a love one man has perfected.</s>WALSH: Today, we want to start running them both together.</s>WEBBER: And followed for 35 years.</s>WALSH: I didn't think I'd be a dog handler, never even entered my mind.</s>WEBBER: Jerry Walsh runs five juvenile detention facilities in Arkansas, this one, outside the rural town of Mansfield.</s>WALSH: Good girl.</s>WEBBER: He trains a team of handlers and bloodhounds to find teens who run away.</s>WALSH: I love working with dogs. Never lost it, I'm still amazed by them.</s>WEBBER: But Jerry's skills stems from something many people want to forget. It was 1966, Jerry was 19, and the Army drafted him as a scout dog handler for the Vietnam war.</s>WALSH: That was my excuse. When I got orders to go to scout dog schools, I said sir, I've never had a dog. He said, it doesn't matter, the Army is going to give you one.</s>WEBBER: Dog's name was Marty.</s>WALSH: Well, he didn't growl at me, so I said I'm getting that dog.</s>WEBBER: But their mission was no laughing matter with the 40th Scout Dog Platoon. On each patrol the two worked 50 yards ahead of troops. Marty sniffed out trip wires, mines and ambushes.</s>WALSH: When I look in the mirror, I know it is long ago. But when I look at the pictures, memories are still there.</s>WEBBER: Jerry called the terrain treacherous.</s>WALSH: Some days it seemed like we walked forever. Other days, if we had made it a mile, you know, three quarters of a mile through the jungle, we did pretty good.</s>WEBBER: The two, were a team, eating together and sleeping together.</s>WALSH: I was like a lot of guys, I used to read my letters to him.</s>WEBBER: And like many soldiers, Marty took to the skies.</s>WALSH: He loved to fly.</s>WEBBER: He even had a favorite seat.</s>WALSH: He would get in your face and growl and make you move. And then when the helicopter took off, he liked to get his head out.</s>WEBBER: But after 16 months, their tour was over.</s>WALSH: It was very hard to give him up.</s>WEBBER: Jerry returned home, but Marty stayed on, serving two more tours.</s>WALSH: The dogs are so effective, that the Vietcong, the North Vietnamese army had rewards on the dogs and the handlers.</s>WEBBER: For three decades Jerry never knew what happened to his mate, until last year when he found Marty's third handler. They put together their friend's record.</s>WALSH: He served 36 months in combat. He no American soldier was ever wounded or killed on a patrol he lead.</s>WEBBER: But unlike many heroes, Marty never made it back. Officials say roughly 2,000 dogs served in Vietnam. But less than 200 returned. They were left in Vietnam or euthanized.</s>WALSH: I think this is the anger and the pain that we had as dog handlers that they were left behind, they did not deserve that kind of fate. They deserved to come home.</s>WEBBER: Jerry says his comrades called the dogs, soldiers, but the military classified them as supplies.</s>WALSH: You can't classify a dog as surplus equipment.</s>WEBBER: Marty, he found out, died after contracting a blood disease.</s>WALSH: I was worried that he was abandoned or -- you know, given over to somebody that would mistreat him. And when I find out the military put him to sleep. It gave me a sense of peace about the whole thing.</s>WEBBER: The dogs, he says, were more than companions. He says Marty was the sole reason he lived.</s>WALSH: As you get older, like we all are, you appreciate the fact that you've been able to have a life, been able to have children, go to school, work, be happy, you know, that you probably wouldn't have had that if it wasn't for the dog. It's our way of bringing these dogs home.</s>WEBBER: Especially the one he left behind.</s>WALSH: They are definitely unsung heroes. In Mansfield, Lisa Webber, today's THV.</s>HARRIS: There's a museum exhibit set up to honor unsung heroes at Fort Benning, in Columbus, Georgia. I'm Leon Harris, and our "Closing Clip" is coming up next.