Pleiku was located about 60 nautical miles due west of Phu Cat. This was a major base with a 10,000 foot all weather instrument runway. Highway 19 was the major highway from Qui Nhon on the coast to Pleiku in the central highlands. A petroleum pipeline ran alongside this highway. Somewhere along its length the Viet Cong blew up a section every night. The K-9 Section provided security for Pleiku Air Base from Nov 1965 to 1970. The section had 27 sentry dog posts planned , but was never fully manned. Over it's lifetime, two Security Police units were assigned to Pleiku. Pleiku was the home of the 633rd and 6254th. Usually when these changes occurred, all personnel remained, just the unit name (or number) was changed. It's a military thing! After President Nixon’s announced the Vietnamization program in late 1969, the number of handlers began dwindling. Handlers rotated home and were not replaced. As the number of K-9 handlers grew fewer, K-9 post were consolidated and grew longer. At the same time, the SP's on towers, bunkers, LPs, and other perimeter post were gradually replaced with Vietnamese Air Force (VNAF) personnel. By September 1970 the perimeter was almost completely guarded by VNAF and SP Dog Handlers. As part of the base turnover to the Vietnamese Air Force, ten sentry dogs were selected for retraining to VNAF handlers. Over 100 potential VNAF handlers were selected for training. Most disappeared before completing training. The handlers that did complete the training were described as “cocky SOBs”. The Vietnamese never had a effective dog program. The dogs were more expensive to feed than their own soldiers. Several handlers were shipped to Cam Ranh Bay in June or July, 1970. The last Air Force dog handlers left Pleiku on Sept. 28, 1970 and was shipped to Phu Cat Air Base.
Patch Courtesy of Bruce Kinnard
Photo of Kennels Courtesy of Herb Bright
Weekly Training Military Dog History History in The Pacific Theater 1st Patrol Dog Class
Contributors Bruce Kinnaird John Risse Rick Tate Tony Zmijewski Links of Interest To Non-VSPA Internet Pages |
