Phu-Cat AB, RVN, Dog Handlers

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June 25, 2016; 21:34

Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 6

Phu-Cat AB, RVN, Dog Handlers

My tour was 12/15/1968 to 07/04/1970, Dog was Selig 7A96 and I was Chuck Collins, 37th SPS, Canine Section.

It's only 47 years since we all humped Kilos at Phu-Cat and continue to wonder how we did after DEROS back to the world. I continue to be amazed how many people did not know we used dogs in Vietnam. I would always get the blank stare and I knew right away there was no clue about who or what we did. But, the most important aspect of life is what ever we do - we did it well!

I think being a dogman ranks right up there as a major life event armed with automatic weapon, a dog and a real/present decision to fire. Not to be taken lightly. What I have become aware of over the years as classified documents are now public are the multiple and massive number of "probes" which most likely resulted in danger of detection by VC. How many of us had hot alerts which suddenly vanished? Hard to think about how close we were to probes or Sapper Teams as we humped our posts especially on Kilos 10, 11, 12, 13 or 14. Simply amazing. What do you think? Chuck Collins charles_h_collins@yahoo.com

August 1, 2016; 13:25
	re: Phu-Cat AB, RVN, Dog Handlers Hi Chuck! 10-4 kilo! I hear ya! The Northeast to North, Northwest was intense at times. When I was there, they kept us inside the wire. I found out years later that the k-9's before us had no wire. Many memories... Jim Hart & Sarge 726M & Smokey A912, AKA..."Flop"

March 2, 2017; 01:04
Bob Plummer Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 2	re: Phu-Cat AB, RVN, Dog Handlers Hey Chuck, remember me? I went on R&R with you to Taipei. My right-hand Scotty 8M94 .Bob Plummer Phu Cat 69-70

September 15, 2017; 08:46

Robert Woodson

Join Date: Apr 2017
Posts: 2

re: Phu-Cat AB, RVN, Dog Handlers

1966-1967 August until June, could not wait to leave and get back to round eyes and the big BX. After volunteering for Vietnam I found myself questioning my mental condition. Leaving the US of A for sleeping in a tent and eating C-rats, bathing in a river filled with excrement. Things got better once the Captain (Sullivan) got us into barracks built for the civilian workers who were building a runway. Then the kennel came and we no longer had to fight with cobras in our dog's shipping crate. Then Carabos came and the lag time for mail decreased. Things were good, and to top it off Capt Sullivan got us access to the civilian chow hall, what a change, even gained 20lbs. That all changed with the USAF chow hall opening, back down 20lbs. Now I'm 40lbs over weight!

January 25, 2018; 12:37

re: Phu-Cat AB, RVN, Dog Handlers

I was in the 37th SPS in 1967. I had come from Pleiku as a dog handler. For some unknown reason, I was ordered to Phu-Cat without my dog. I worked Security for a brief time and was then ordered to Thuy Hoa. I worked there in K-9 until the Tet Offensive! If I am correct, Phu-Cat had just opened up that year. We slept in New metal hooches. We (K-9) lived in eight man tents at Thuy Hoa at first until they built the new hooches.my memory isn’t the best.

At Pleiku and Thuy Hoa , K-9 worked outside the wire if there was any. This is what I recall.