Centennial Event at the Doberman National

[Reni Margar]

There does seem to be some Doberman people on this list so maybe someone here will sell me a dog. I would like to find one like they breed in Guam.

I've seen some video and stills that are very moving and brought tears to my eyes... well, my left eye anyway.

Seems a few of you are irritated with the parent club for what ever reasons but I don't understand any of this because I am not a member, not even to mention that I don't understand why this event was not taking place in Guam, it all seems very odd to me to say the least.
The statue, that resides on Guam ,with the Doberman on it, is spectacular.

Though, I don't stop by too often , but when I do , for some reason the Doberman people here are talking about stuff I don't understand. Are any of you from Guam? I would like to pat some of you on ur backs but people might think I'm strange.... all I really hear is all this chatter in my head and on my tv.
I suppose you all know each other and are a tight circle of friends. Can I be your friend too? I don't have any friends. I think this is an opportunity for me to inform the rest of the show community about myself and what is going on in my life.
I'm sure that most of the people that are on this list have no idea of my accomplishments in life and I'm not surprised. I can't think of a single thing i've ever done. oh well, I just wish I had a brave friend that gave it's life for me.

If all this has been reported, sorry, perhaps I missed it.


Reni

[Elaine]

Boy that was a fun read! :rolleyes:

Ah "Reni" ... thanks for taking the time to give us your input. Did Linda help you with the post?

About the Centennial, since you brought this up, I do have a few thoughts on the subject. I can’t speak for others, only myself… I thought the event was lovely. Anytime we honor our veterans it is a wonderful thing. Arthur and I have seen first hand how our country treats our veterans, it is not a pretty picture.

Arthur is on active duty in the USAF, with over 20 years service to this country, starting in the Marines, then he flew with the Navy, and now he’s in the Air Force. He's been deployed all over the world, including twice to Iraq. As a military medical doctor he has seen how this country treats our veterans when they return home. He's worked in the Veterans Hospitals, we have gotten the calls in the middle of the night that we’ve lost a solider and the family needs to be notified. As a military wife, I know first hand about the sacrifices members of the military and their families make for this country. I profoundly understand what it means when our fine men and woman put their lives on the line for this country. And, we see the military service dogs in use, and know about their service to this country as well. Honoring the contributions of our veterans is not a one time thing for us, it is a part of our daily life. I do not need a special celebration to shed a tear for our veterans. As for the War Dogs specifically, we are members of M.C.K.C., as are Bob and Jane Forsyth. We see them at least once a month. Our club has a tribute to the War Dogs at EVERY one of our M.C.K.C shows, each and every year.

The press releases I've read about this Centennial event all feature Jeff Helsdon. I would rather see that the veterans are mentioned by name and where they are the ones being honored, afterall, they are the ones who made the sacrifices we are celebrating, they should be the focus of the attention, the veterans and their service to this country. The only name I see again and again is Jeff Helsdon. Sorry, I know the man too well and have seen him up-close in action over too long a period of time, going back to the early 1990's when he was married to Cathy Ceely. I have not written about the DPCA celebration in part because I would like to ignore Helsdon groupies who want to make the veteran's celebration about Mr. Helsdon and other grand standing DPCA Board members, as though the event was about them. I find that offensive, especially for a man like Jeff Helsdon, who has not served this county, and actually threatened Arthur as Arthur was deploying to Iraq back in 2005. I guess watching people use our veterans to advance themselves sickens me on some level.

Honoring the contributions of our veterans is something we believe in doing every single day of our lives. In addition to the DPCA’s tribute, we should honor them with our votes and our political will, so that our elected officials do not chip away at the benefits these fine men and women have earned in service to this country.
__________________

[Athy]

The press releases I've read about this event all feature Jeff Helsdon. I haven’t seen one where the veterans are even mentioned by name and they are the ones being honored, they are the ones who made the sacrifices we are celebrating. They should be the focus of the attention, them and their service to this country. __________________

Elaine I think this is a very insightful comment. I would have LOVED to have been provided with a press release that gave each veteran's name and a bit of background about him and his dog.

I think that would have been really interesting reading and would have honored those men and their animals.

Athy

[LoveThoseReds]

There is a short bio of each and every veteran on the Centennial website.
http://dpca.org/faithful/wardoghandlers.htm I strongly urge each and every one of you to check it out.

It's my understanding that the remaining commemorative programs will be available for purchase. The programs are filled with each of the war dog handlers stories.

The Doberman Digest has dedicated many pages to the war dog handlers in the past few issues as well. So, if any of you would like to learn more about the handlers, there are a couple of sources.

The War Dogs of the Pacific video that was shown at the Celebration on Thursday was a real tear jerker, and a recommended watch as well. http://wardogsmovie.com/film.html