Forgotten Vietnam war dogs to be memorialized in Layton
Linda Crismer plays with her Contract Working Dogs Mazzie in her Fruit Heights backyard on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2019. The Vietnam Veterans of America Northern Utah Chapter is raising funds to get a statue to honor Vietnam War Dogs next to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Layton. The statue will be modeled after Mazzie who served in Kuwait for 5 years.
Contract working dogs Geli, front, and Mazzie sit for a photo in owners Jim and Linda Crismer's Fruit Heights backyard on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2019.
Contract Working Dogs Geli plays in owners Jim and Linda Crismer's Fruit Heights backyard on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2019. The Vietnam Veterans of America Northern Utah Chapter is raising funds to get a statue to honor Vietnam War Dogs next to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Layton.
Contract Working Dogs Mazzie sit for a photo in owners Jim and Linda Crismer's Fruit Heights backyard on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2019. The Vietnam Veterans of America Northern Utah Chapter is raising funds to get a statue to honor Vietnam War Dogs next to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Layton. The statue will be modeled after Mazzie who served in Kuwait for 5 years.
Contract Working Dogs Geli, left, and Mazzie sit for a photo in owners Linda, left, and Jim Crismer's Fruit Heights backyard on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2019. The Vietnam Veterans of America Northern Utah Chapter is raising funds to get a statue to honor Vietnam War Dogs next to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Layton. The statue will be modeled after Mazzie who served in Kuwait for 5 years.
Jim Crismer plays with his Contract Working Dogs Geli in his Fruit Heights backyard on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2019. The Vietnam Veterans of America Northern Utah Chapter is raising funds to get a statue to honor Vietnam War Dogs next to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Layton. The statue will be modeled after his other dog Mazzie who served in Kuwait for 5 years.
Contract Working Dogs Geli sit for a photo in owners Jim and Linda Crismer's Fruit Heights backyard on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2019. The Vietnam Veterans of America Northern Utah Chapter is raising funds to get a statue to honor Vietnam War Dogs next to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Layton. The statue will be modeled after Mazzie who served in Kuwait for 5 years.
Contract Working Dogs Geli plays in owners Jim and Linda Crismer's Fruit Heights backyard on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2019. The Vietnam Veterans of America Northern Utah Chapter is raising funds to get a statue to honor Vietnam War Dogs next to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Layton.
Jim Crismer plays with his Contract Working Dogs Geli in his Fruit Heights backyard on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2019. The Vietnam Veterans of America Northern Utah Chapter is raising funds to get a statue to honor Vietnam War Dogs next to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Layton. The statue will be modeled after his other dog Mazzie who served in Kuwait for 5 years.
Jim Crismer plays with his Contract Working Dogs Geli and Mazzie, right, in his Fruit Heights backyard on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2019. The Vietnam Veterans of America Northern Utah Chapter is raising funds to get a statue to honor Vietnam War Dogs next to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Layton. The statue will be modeled after Mazzie who served in Kuwait for 5 years.
Contract Working Dogs Geli, left, and Mazzie sit for a photo in owners Jim and Linda Crismer's Fruit Heights backyard on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2019. The Vietnam Veterans of America Northern Utah Chapter is raising funds to get a statue to honor Vietnam War Dogs next to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Layton. The statue will be modeled after Mazzie who served in Kuwait for 5 years.
LAYTON — Recognition finally came for the Americans who fought in an unpopular war, with construction of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., and again just last year with a smaller version in Layton.
But one local Vietnam veterans group is also asking today: What about the thousands of loyal military dogs left behind and forgotten when the United States pulled out of the war?
“Who knows how any lives those dogs saved,” said Linda Crismer of Fruit Heights.
The U.S. military trained dogs to find booby traps and trip wires, act as sentries, scouts and trackers, and explore Viet Cong tunnels.
The United States War Dogs Association estimates 4,900 dogs served in Vietnam from 1964 to 1975. Only about 200 made it out of Vietnam, the group said. Most others were euthanized or turned over to the South Vietnamese army.
Crismer and her husband, Jim, are associate members of the Vietnam Veterans of America Northern Utah Chapter 1079, and she is heading the fundraising effort to place a war dogs memorial statue alongside the Vietnam memorial wall in Layton Commons Park.
“We would like to do something to acknowledge the dogs left in Vietnam,” Linda Crismer said.
She recently appeared before the Davis County Commission to ask for a donation for the project, and Layton City has agreed to furnish the space for the memorial statute.
Crismer presented a cost estimate to commissioners. The sculpture, an explanatory plaque and brick engravings would cost $23,700, and another $19,500 would be needed for landscaping, masonry, concrete and utilities.
Layton Recreation Director David Price said the Crismers are working on an application for a RAMP (Recreation, Arts, Museums and Parks) grant to help pay for the statue.
“We think the dog statue would be a beautiful addition to that part of the park,” Price said.
Price said the city admires the previous work of the sculptor chosen by the Crismers for the project, Lena Toritch of Salt Lake City.
Toritch, who works out of Young Fine Art Studio, said she will use one of the Crismers’ adopted former foreign service dogs as the model for the Layton statue.
“It is symbolic — it also pays tribune to all the K9s in the military and police,” Toritch said.
Mazzie is a 9-year-old German shepherd who worked as a military contractor dog in Kuwait, Linda Crismer said.
“He’s perfect,” Toritch said. “He’s the local hero.”
The Crismers adopted Mazzie from Mission K9 Rescue in Houston, which finds, shelters, rehabilitates and adopts out former military and contractor working dogs.
The Davis County couple also adopted Geli, a shepherd-Belgian malinois mix, another Kuwait service veteran.
“They both have PTSD,” Linda Crismer said. “Mazzie was mistreated pretty badly while he was serving.”
She said Mazzie still can be “terrified” when he goes outside — “he’s got his tail tucked. But at home he acts like a normal dog now.”
Geli, 6, and Mazzie are very well-behaved and usually calm, although gunfire and fireworks cause them great distress, Crismer said.
When the statue goes up, Layton will be one of the few places, maybe the only spot, in the nation that has a Vietnam memorial and a Vietnam dog commemoration side by side, Crismer said.
The Crismers didn’t serve in Vietnam but they are associate members of Chapter 1079 to help do their part today by aiding former military working dogs.
“We’re doing our service now by taking care of these two dogs,” she said of Geli and Mazzie.
The Crismers have always had dogs, Linda said, and in the final years of her 40-year teaching career, she had service dogs brought in so her students could learn about them.
“And the kids said, ‘Why don’t you get one?'”
How to donate to the War Dog Memorial Statue in Layton:
• Checks payable to VVA Chapter 1079, War Dog Statue, 1290 W. 1045 South, Clearfield, UT 84015
• At Wells Fargo Bank, WarDog Statue/VVA1079 Donation Fund
• Zelle, WarDog Statue