A Soldier's Best Friend: Scout Dogs and Their Handlers in the Vietnam War

by John C. Burnam

An affecting testimonial to the bond between American soldiers in Vietnam and their canine helpers, A Soldier’s Best Friend is veteran John C. Burnam’s account of his tenure as a scout dog handler patrolling the jungles of Vietnam with his German shepherd, Clipper, at his side. There were 10,000 soldiers in Vietnam like Burnam, accompanied by these intelligent, adaptable scout dogs.  Between hazardous missions, the dogs were loving, playful friends who shared the lives of their human squadmates, while in the combat zone they were all business.  Routinely braving danger, the canines searched for injured GIs, probed for potentially lethal booby traps, located underground weapons caches, and warned of approaching enemy attacks and ambushes.  So valuable was the dogs’  service that the Viet Cong offered a hefty bounty for their lives. Despite their heroism, many of these dogs were abandoned at the conflict’s end, left to fend for themselves.   Since the 1990s, this book has had two runs as a self-published book, and one as a trade title, with all three of these print runs selling out. 

Genres: Military Fiction, History, Military History, Animals

320 pages, Paperback

First published February 10, 2003

Reviews

[Charles F. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Big tear jerker if you have a heart for animials. Make me want to go out an adopt a German Shepherd dog

[Nic · Rating 3 out of 5]

From the tagline on the cover, I thought there would be more about other scout dogs and their handlers in Vietnam, but it centered on the author's overall experience in Vietnam.

[Ivan Ayala · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book I chose to read is called 'A Soldier's Best Friend' by John C. Burnam. This author was actually a retired infantry man and dog handler during the Vietnam War in 1954 through 1975. John was a 19 year old man from Littleton, Colorado who trained in California and Georgia before he was drafted to the Vietnam War. It was interesting and melancholy because of the difficult experiences he had during the battles in South Vietnam.

One of the battles that really shocked me was the battle at Bong Son in South Vietnam. John and his platoon which consisted of twenty five soldiers were in search of enemy base camps when all of a sudden they were over run by a hundred Vietcong enemy soldiers. They suffered great casualties and had to order air strikes to kill the enemy. After the airplanes bombed their enemy which was close to their village, John was walking forward in search for any more surviving soldiers when he saw someone walk out a hut. It was a lady that was completely burned walking towards him. She put her hands on her mouth and tried speaking but she fell faced down on the floor and died right in front of him. I was shocked and felt depressed after I read this.

John begins training with scout dogs which are used for detecting mines, booby traps, enemy soldiers, and downed friendly soldiers. John trained with many German Shepherd scout dogs but the closest to him was named Clipper. He truly loved that dog and worked closely with him in the line of fire. He loved him almost as part of a family. One day when they were at their base camp the enemy bombed the camp and many scout dogs died and some were badly injured. John cannot save them because he would get killed by the bombs if he tries to go and save them. John eventually gets hurt by a bamboo spike to his knee and ends up leaving the war after his two years of service. He misses Clipper very dearly and many scout dogs are abandoned after the war is over.

I liked this book because I learned that war is very serious and yet you can become family with fellow soldiers you never knew. I would recommend this book to anybody who wants to know what soldiers go through or who wants to become a soldier in the future.

[Eva-Marie Nevarez · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hate to give this one star and say this but I couldn't get into this at all. I love, love, love war dog stories. I've read a few that we're brilliant. I'm not a rereader but there are at least two or three I'll almost definitely read again because of the strong emotions they evoked inside me. I wanted the same thing here.
I think part of the problem is that, in my opinion, Burnam is *too* detailed. I didn't get very far into this but unless the story changes this is more about Burnam's own life than that of his war dog(s). I want the war dog(s) story.
I'm sure there are plenty of people who have liked/loved this and will like/love this but it wasn't for me. :(
If anyone has read a war dog story they really loved I welcome the recommendation(s) because this is fascinating subject for me.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative and emotional; most people have heard little, if anything, about the role that the dogs played in Vietnam or any other war, but it's a powerful story. The relationships that developed between the human handlers and the dogs with whom they worked were closer than most bonds with other people.
At the end of the war, our government just abandoned the dogs that were in Vietnam at that point, no matter how much the dogs' handlers begged to be able to take them back to the States. That part of the story was hard for me to read; it was heart-wrenching, and I was outraged (and still am) at the callousness of it... though I suppose it shouldn't be a surprise, given that governments are often that indifferent to human life, too.