As one poignant wartime photo caption noted, "Millions of American men are overseas fighting the enemy, but if any proof were needed that they're still pretty much the same kind of fellow that left home, this photo adds a convincing touch. Dogs and boys go together - and no matter where they are, when they can, boys take their pets along." The juxtaposition of World War II, men, and their dogs reveals the bond that melded the innocence of frightened young men with the hardened-necessity of a soldier.
Author and historian L. Douglas Keeney sifted through more than 2.5 million photographs at the National Archives to discover some of the greatest mascot photography taken between 1941 and 1945. This book presents dogs that were adopted by soldiers of the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Corps, and Coast Guard. All of these photos were taken in a theatre of combat or in training areas. Some are moving, like that of Buddy sitting by his Marine master's grave; while others are almost comical, such as Knobby standing at the helm of a landing craft and barking orders during the D-Day invasion. The overwhelming majority of the animals presented in this volume are mutts; simple and unassuming, frightened by the gunfire, hungry, and separated from their homes. These dogs were not much different from the boys who made them Buddies. Soft cover. 156 pages.
