There are over 58,000 names on The Wall.  Most of them belong to very young men, whose life was ended before they had a real chance to live it.  It's all very sad really.  It's to two such names on The Wall that this page is dedicated.

In rememberance of those who volunteered, served, and made the ultimate sacrifice while attached to US Navy K-9, Sentry Dogs. 

FN  Merle  Keith  CARTER - 
Born: February 3, 1947, Salpulpa, Oklahoma
Died: October 22, 1967, Southwest of Da Nang, Quang Nam Province, RVN
Vietnam Veterans Memorial on Panel 28E, Row 49
Dog: Duke 39x8

Every morning the sentry dog teams assigned to posts at the Marble Mountain Transmitter Site loaded onto the truck for the trip back to the kennels at approximately 7:00 a.m.  This was the case the morning of October 22, 1967. 

Shortly after passing through the gate the truck hit a mine:  The resulting blast destroyed the truck and threw handlers and their dogs in all directions.  Keith was mortally wounded, and died at the scene. 

Several other handlers received wounds from the action.  They were all able to return to duty as their wounds healed.  Apart from shock and possibly a few flesh wounds, all the dogs on the truck at the time came through the incident reasonably unscathed.
 

A severe fire fight broke out the early on morning of May 5, 1968.  It appeared there was a general attack on the western perimeter of the Marble Mountain Transmitter Site from Post 6 on the southern end around to Post 2 on the northern end. 

As the first shots rang out, Bill was caught out on the permiter and retreated as quickly as he could to the 'doggie' bunker.  'Doggie' bunkers were small defensive positions placed just back from the wire and approximately half way between the more substantial perimeter defense bunkers and the wire. 

As the scale of the battle increased, Bill made the decision to move again, this time to the perimeter bunker, afterall the 'doggie' bunkers placement put the dog handler team in the middle of a cross fire between the attacking enemy and the fire from the perimeter bunkers.  During this move Bill was mortally wounded.   The time was approximately 3:00 a.m.

GMG2 McNulty was in the middle of his rounds at this time, and also found cover at the bunker on Post 6, that Bill was trying to reach.  He saw Bill fall, left the relative safety of the bunker, and tried to help him.  Bill died in his arms soon after.