The time came when we received our orders and it was time for us to load up on the chopper. The attack muzzle on Candy we board first and move up close to the front. Chopper flying high and candy just looking at the Marines looking at her. I can see in her eyes she is not going to play well with others today. We reach our destination and depart quickly. Muzzle off and Chopper away. Given a direction by the leader, Candy and I take the point. Our mission that day was to get close to the enemy note their position and send them a little something before we exit stage left. Sun was high and all was well for a few hours. Suddenly Candy sends a quick, silent, alert. Standing dead in her tracks and looking straight ahead, she indicates to me we are very close to whatever it is she is alerting. A motion to all to get down and stay that way. Candy is given the silent hand and arm signal to stay down and to stay put. In her eyes I can see she is not happy at this command but holds true to the order. My team leader wants to know what it is that has the dog upset. I tell him what ever it is, I can assure you it is very close. "Spread out and move up a little closer," is the command given by the leader. Taking my position with Candy we start moving just a bit foreword. Just then one of the men makes a sudden move to our right and a chicken starts running from the hedge row making all kinds of noise. Candy wants to take up the pursuit and have a little fun with the bird. The Recon boys were relieved that it was nothing more than a chicken. I had to explain that this Scout Dog will alert on anything in front of us.

      That night we made our way to the top of a hill that would offer the right cover and give us a good view of the valley below. Setting up in a circle and with some distance between us all, Candy gets her food. We are always alone and we like it that way. This way she won't make some guy her late night chew toy. The team leader radios in for elumination to be fired. This would give us a look see on what is below at this time. From a distance we can hear the guns fire and in a second or two we hear the pop of the device. We are covered well and the area is well lit for our view. Dark now and we are settling in for the night. Around midnight Candy sits up straight with ears and eyes looking dead into the night. Oh my god we have company coming right up the hill. I notify the team leader who wakes up everyone. Stand by to stand by. "What is it he asks"? I don't know but I can tell you that it is coming right up the hill. Candy is tied to my ruc sac or field pack that weights about forty plus pounds. Everything we own is in that pack. It is all she can do not to make a sound. Then it happened. Running at us like a freight train with no conductor, a wild boar (wild pig) runs right through our position. This really gets Candy bent out of shape. First a chicken makes fun of us and now some crazy fat pig interrupts our quiet time. That's it....That's it...I can stand no more is what Candy is saying. Gone like a mad woman Candy breaks command and with my field pack in tow she gives chase to the pig. Running loose, spilling the contents of the pack, and barking (yes barking at night something she never did) at that pig like she was on the streets of New York. The noise of the pig and the sounds of Candy barking echoed all over. I'll bet she could be heard from every point in Viet Nam. Rumor has it the men on the USS New Jersey thought they could hear a dog barking somewhere around the DMZ. (Just a joke of course) Anyway, after showing the pig who was boss, my famous Scout Dog made her way back with my pack nearly empty and a look as to say, "What I didn't see any of you pitching in for the fight." "I had to kick the ass off that pig myself." "How about some sleep now?" It was time for us to get the hell out of there and I mean real fast. We knew that the NVA were in that region and with all that just happened, we all decided to call this mission off right now. Getting our gear together, and running at top speed, our radio man was calling for taxi ASAP. We need a chopper now and a grid (our location) would be called in. We needed to get to another safe high ground and leave the area now. Not too long we could hear the choppers coming. Dropping the leash and turning Candy free with no muzzle was not a good idea. Unfortunately, it was the best idea since we now knew that we had company not too far behind. Chopper landing and guess who is the first on the "bus"? Guess who is going to fly first class no matter what anybody says? Yep, you got it. Old Candy made one jump as she knew how to do and was on the chopper. Only one thing went wrong. Her handler was not there with her at that moment. So making sure that the chopper was friendly and that we were going to have a friendly flight, she ran up bit the pilot, turned around and bit the copilot for interfering with her original bite, and then bit the gunner just in case he had anything to say about the seating arrangements. All on board, Candy now muzzled via the leash around her mouth, three of eight men bit, we take off. The pilot was shouting some ugly words about the dog but we couldn't hear with all the noise. I'm sure he didn't want to come back and ask us if she had all her shots today. You know what they say, "If you can't take a joke....well you finish it.

I love you Candy and thank you for bringing me home,