Comrades, forever
By Steve Herring
Published in News on October 28, 2015 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/STEVE HERRING
Vietnam veteran Carl Groover, left, and Vietnam-era veteran James Rowe look at the South Carolina War Dog Memorial that was parked at the Wayne County Veterans Services office parking lot on Monday. The memorial is being transported to Columbia, S.C., by Dennis Lewis of Goldsboro, an associate member of the Vietnam Dog Handler Association.
"That's beautiful. It is really beautiful. A lot of memories. I remember the real thing," Vietnam veteran Carl Groover says as he stands next to the sculpture of a Vietnam-era soldier and his military working dog. "I remember those days. Thank God for dogs."
Groover pulls out his cell phone and starts taking photos as others walk up to get a closer look and take photos of the 1,700-pound bronze sculpture sitting on a trailer in the parking lot at the Wayne County Veterans Services Monday afternoon.
The animal's ears are erect indicating he is on alert, and the soldier's eyes are looking right over the dog's ears to spot what the dog has already sensed.
The sculpture, the South Carolina War Dog Memorial, will be at Johnston Community College in Smithfield on Friday. On Saturday, a motorcycle escort will accompany it to the South Carolina line where a motorcycle escort from that state will lead it to Veterans Park in Columbia, S.C., where it will be dedicated on Veterans Day.
The time on the soldier's watch is 11:11, symbolic of Nov. 11 -- Veterans Day.
Renee Bemis of Lake Charles, Ill., was commissioned to sculpt the piece for the South Carolina Veterans Park.
"The way she did this, two stray dogs came up to her house," said Dennis Lewis, a Goldsboro resident and an associate member of the Vietnam Dog Handler Association. "She started feeding them. She called animal control to find out who the dogs belonged to. Animal control picked the dogs up. She told them that if nobody claimed them then bring them back.
"When animal control took them nobody claimed them, and they euthanized the dogs which upset her. But at that time she knew exactly what these soldiers went through, and she put her heart and soul into this sculpture."
Lewis volunteered to transport the sculpture from Illinois to South Carolina.
"They were getting what I thought were astronomical quotes on transporting the memorial," he said. "So I told Johnny (Mayo of South Carolina who was a dog handler in Vietnam), 'I will take two weeks off work. I will go pick the memorial up, and I will bring it back. He was the push behind this memorial.
"It is honoring the Vietnam-era soldier, but it is more a memorial for the dogs. It is his life's work to remember his dogs. This is a culmination of what he wanted to do."
Lewis traveled to Illinois to pick up the sculpture on Oct. 20 and by chance, the Vietnam Dog Handler Association national convention was being held this past weekend in Nashville, Tenn.
Lewis decided since he would be in the general area that he would take the memorial by.
Since then, he has been making stops at bases across North Carolina including Seymour Johnson Air Force Base while preparing for the trip to South Carolina.
Lewis rides with the sculpture uncovered so people can see it.
"When I stop to get gas or anything, it usually takes me 20 to 30 minutes to get out of the parking lot," he said. "I mean, I want people to notice it. There have probably been a thousand pictures taken since I started transporting it, and that is not counting the ones taken at the Vietnam Dog Handler Convention."
Lewis traces his involvement with the Vietnam Dog Handler Association back to several years ago when put on a POW/MIA banquet because there are three men from Wayne County still missing in Vietnam.
Lewis said he thought the three men had been forgotten. Perry Money, a dog handler who attended the event, told Lewis the story of what had happened to the dogs, as well as the soldiers in Vietnam.
"I was trying to honor those men, those POWs, then I find out there is something just as tragic that happened to our service animals," Lewis said. "They didn't know they were leaving their dogs because they had been told they would be reunited with them stateside. When they got on the plane is when they find out their dogs aren't coming home.
"Johnny Mayo, he is the guy represented in the statue. He lost one dog, and he had to leave another dog."
There is a special bond between the dog and its handler, Lewis said. People who own and love dogs understand that.
"The fact that these guys put their trust in those dogs and then they had to leave their dog in Vietnam and then they were either euthanized or eaten by the South Vietnamese -- a tragic story.
"As tragic as that story is, now every dog is treated like a soldier. He gets a trip home or is buried in a military cemetery. There have been two buried at sea. They were coming home. One died from its injuries and the other had cancer and had to be euthanized. It broke my heart, and I said if there was anything that I could ever do that I would do it, and I have been working for that organization ever since."
Lewis did not serve in the military, but said he is thankful for those who did.
"It is a debt that I can never repay," he said. "Many men better than me died for me."