World War II Veteran Trained Killer Dogs for Canine Corps

Dawn Kurry - Knight Ridder/Tribune

Marshall Ussery, originally of Cordova, NC, decided he would like be in the Coast Guard, should he ever get to choose.

Ussery, born July 2, 1921, was working at Steeles Mill when the call for men with only one child came through. He volunteered and was sent to Ft. Bragg, along with 900 others.

"They took us all out and said to us be we'd be examined," said Ussery. "They were calling for men for the Marines and Navy; they wanted so and so many men and if you didn't volunteer you were drafted. We put our clothes in a basket and didn't see them for the rest of the day. Then we were examined by doctors and dentists.

"When I got my clothes back, I went before men at a desk that said, 'We'd love to have you in the Marines.' And I said I came for the Coast Guard, and another man further back said, 'Right here!' and I got in the Coast Guard," said Ussery. "They sent me to Manhattan Island for basic training. They'd run a survey to see what you best qualified for. They asked me if I liked dogs. I said yes. They asked me had I ever trained dogs, and I said yes."

Ussery said during the war, American citizens were encouraged to send their dogs in for training, to be used in the war.

"They sent rabbit dogs, hunting dogs, all kinds. I loved dogs. They sent me to dog school in Ft. Royal, Virginia; and 500 men came into the camp from all over, other boot camps. And the dogs began to pour in; 1500 dogs were there. Each man was assigned three dogs. They were mostly shepherd dogs and Doberman Pinschers. They also trained beagles to find landmines, but that was not connected."

The dogs were training to find snipers in trees or under bushes, alert their soldiers to intruders or enemies, to crawl, to attack and even to kill. The dogs were trained to find war casualties, or dead bodies. They were taught to take a message into a pouch beneath their chin, on their necks and to sneak behind enemy lines to another American soldier.

Ussery was sent to the coast of Florida with his German Shepherd, King.

"One night he told me someone was in the restricted area, he was pulling me," said Ussery. "I said, 'Halt. Who goes there?' and a voice answered in a different language, so I shot a signal in the air and they sent four men in a Jeep. It turned out to be a family of people that lived on a boat. They had broken down and drifted in. They took them to base, and they kept them for a week, asking them questions. It was a man, his wife and three kids."

Another evening, Ussery was assigned to a post.

"They put me out on guard duty. It was not dark yet. There was a restricted area, with a bayou and a bridge. The officer of the day would come and check on you, and when he came around he pointed to a log in the water. He said it was an alligator. 'I'd love for you to kill him,' he said to me. The next morning I woke up to a terrible noise. The alligator was fighting a porpoise in the water. He came up under the bridge to catch his breathe and I shot him, and the boy from the next post came running and went to get the officer, but the officers had switched. Four men in a Jeep came to investigate, and left the alligator there."

Ussery was threatened with the $500 fine of illegally killing an alligator, but with some luck was able to go on vacation the week of his trial due to a notice from the Red Cross that his wife was delivering their baby. The officer that had requested Ussery to shoot the alligator researched the matter, and defended his actions, stating that alligators and dogs are natural enemies, and Ussery had merely been defending himself. The alligator's skin was sent to Texas for curing, where it went missing. The skeleton was preserved for a museum, as the reptile measured eight and a half feet in length.

Ussery was impressed by his canine companions, and recalled one heroic dog who went to the Philippines. His name was Jake, and the Sergeant wanted him to go into a German machine gun nest. He took the dog and slipped him around back of the enemies, and ordered him, "Jake, kill!" He killed four soldiers before he was shot in the jaw. The dog was shipped to Ft. Royal, Virginia, where they tried to help him, but due to his severely aggressive nature, had to be put down.

"It was just amazing the way you could train dogs," said Ussery.

He recalled an exercise where the soldiers would march in a circle and their dogs had to stay seated in the original circle. A man on a horse road by the building as the soldiers paced around the dogs inside.

"One dog took off and all of them left and turned on each other, and I yelled 'King!' and he came out of the pack," laughed Ussery.

Ussery kept King all his service, and served state-side by training dogs and guarding the coast. He is proud of his accomplishments. After being discharged, he worked for Carolina Power & Light for 30 years until he retired. He and his wife, Lottie, met at Ellerbe Springs in 1940.

Ussery has signed up for the Flight of Honor on Sept. 17. He is looking forward to the trip to Washington, D.C. that is free for World War II veterans. The trip is all-inclusive, and is sponsored by Rotary International, local rotaries and private donors.

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