The K-9s Come Home

After a year and a half as a combat dog in the South Pacific, Rex was carefully retrained by the Army for civilian life. Then he was turned back to his owner. For a while the German shepherd seemed as friendly and tractable as ever. But one day his front-line viciousness flared up again. In his master's backyard in Albany, Calif., Rex suddenly rose with a snarl, leaped a seven-foot fence, set upon 65-year-old Ume Akazi, a woman of Japanese descent. Before his master could pull him off, Rex gashed her knee severely.

With K-9 demobilization about half complete last week, such incidents were happily rare. Out of nearly 9,000 demobilized war dogs returned to their civilian owners, fewer than a dozen have been reported as troublemakers. Army, Marine, and Coast Guard trainers have received hundreds of letters praising the model behavior of canine veterans since their return to civilian life.

Of the 23,000-odd dogs in service, the Army took 19,000. More than half saw active service--140 as mine-detecting dogs, 151 as messengers, 268 as sleigh dogs, 541 as scouts, and more than 9,000 as sentries. Of the 15 breeds originally enlisted, German shepherds, Belgian sheep dogs, farm collies, Doberman pinschers and schnauzers turned out to be most satisfactory. Best all-around breed was the German shepherd.

The Army lost 5,808 dogs from all causes while on duty, although only a very small percentage were actual battle casualties. Of those that came back, 446 were found to be unalterably affected by their war experience. At the Army's dog retraining center at Fort Robinson, Neb., they were destroyed, with the consent of their owners. They had become incorrigible killers.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.