The Nome Nugget

Propose Army Abandon Use of K-9 Dog Sentries

By YATES McDANIEL

WASHINGTON, (AP) The Army dog, now used for scout and sentry duty, may follow the Army mule and the carrier pigeon in a return to civilian status.

The same Army officials who tried unsuccessfully to motorize military funerals have now decided to demobilize the dogs if that can be done without stirring up too much opposition within and outside the service.

Secretary of the Army Wilber Brucker only last week reversed a protested order to abandon the traditional use of horse-drawn caissons at the military funerals in Arlington National Cemetery.

The decision involving the horses was understood to have been reached by Gen. Williston B. Palmer, Vice Chief of Staff.

That same office is known to be involved in the current campaign to get the Army out of the dog business.

The need for economy is being given as the reason for demobilizing the Army's 950 dogs, now doing scout and sentry duty at home and abroad. The same reason was advanced for the now-abandoned effort to dispose of the 16 matched grays and riderless black horse used in some military funerals.

In addition to training and maintaining its own dogs, the Army at Ft. Carson, Colo., trains 50 dogs monthly for the Air Force.

When the Air Force asked for dogs two years ago, it did so for the announced reason that it was cheaper and more effective to use dogs in patrolling key air bases and bomb-dumps.

But those who favor demobilizing the Army's dogs say the Army has little use for the animals in peacetime, and suggest the Air Force can train its own.

During World War II, the Army enlisted about 10,000 dogs in its "K-9 Corps," and dogs served extensively and won commendations also in the Korean conflict.