This is Prince, a Viet Nam soldier, killed in the war. He has been gone almost four decades, but his handler, his human, still thinks of him every day and will never forget him. He took an old picture of Prince and digitally inserted the handsome war dog into this photo of the Viet Nam Memorial in Washington, DC.
The title of this photo is "Where Is My Name?"
Indeed, where is Prince's name? Where are the names of all the dogs who were killed in action in the war in Viet Nam, many of whom took bullets that were meant for their human handlers, their best friends.
And what became of the valiant K-9 soldiers who survived? We abandoned them. We left the dogs behind in Viet Nam.
We should have brought all the survivors home. Home. Home is such a beautiful word.
The way we left those canine heroes behind is just one more huge black mark against us. We are not the good people we pretend to be. Thank God, the military is trying to keep dogs and handlers together after discharge now, but what about the broken hearts of those poor K-9 heroes who were so totally bonded to their soldiers and then abandoned in the past? I am so ashamed. And hurt.
Prince should have his name, among all the other dogs who gave their lives for their country and were killed in action in Viet Nam, engraved right there on that wall of heroes.
Teardrops fall. But they help no one.
Still, they fall.
No comments:
Post a Comment