I have been in Information Technology since I separated from the USAF in 1975. I am currently employed by Dell Perot Systems and have been focused on Application Lifecycle Management and Continuous Integration Engineering.

My father was career military and I had the opportunity to travel the world, my greatest experience and fondest memories are with the military working dogs. As a military family it was difficult to keep a family pet, we moved around the world every couple of years. I do have very fond memories of certain dogs the family had the luxury of owning.

There are many reasons for my desire to establish a monument to the military working dogs; the greatest reason is the education of the public to the accomplishments, the courage, the devotion and the contributions of these amazing animals to our military and our nation.

While serving in the USAF, I had the opportunity to perform many jobs with my MWD, while security of the installations in Vietnam and the United States cannot be ignored, the opportunity to perform the roll of narcotics detection both in Vietnam and United States was both challenging and rewarding. You learn about the scent cone, the latency of scents associated with a removed object and how your dog can best communicate this to you, while working in some of the most difficult of environments. I have a saying that goes like this, “You can fool the handler, but you will not fool the dog.” What I mean by that is, the dog and handler are not communicating, the nose knows. The handler is not able to decipher what his dog is trying to communicate to him. The role of Military Customs was crucial, it was imperative that the soldiers understood the extreme difficulty of slipping items past customs and the dogs were a strong deterrent in order to prevent our returning soldiers from making a mistake.

I volunteered to help establish a national monument in 2001, shortly after a Parade Magazine article was printed containing an article about the “dogs of war.”

While working for the monument I have developed many different web sites and spoke to many different groups. I am still amazed when people develop a shocked look on their face and inevitably ask the question, “They had dogs in Vietnam?” This explains my desire for the public to become educated about these amazing animals.

To me nothing demonstrates the need for education more than the fascination by the American public with the dog that accompanied the "Seal Team" into Osama's compound.

I am so excited that the effort is gaining strong supporters and a dedicated following, I am looking forward to the day that my dog and I can visit the monument together.