Local man's dog prompts war memorial
MANSFIELD -- Veterans of every war have their monuments, and now Smoky is getting one too.
Smoky was a Yorkshire dog of war, found during World War II in the South Pacific and cared for by Bill Wynne of Harlan Road.
On Friday, a monument to dogs of war, inspired by Smoky's story, will be dedicated at Cleveland Metroparks Rocky River Reservation Memorial Field. It is located just south of Detroit Road in Lakewood along the Rocky River Valley Parkway.
The dedication is set for 2 p.m. Wynne will be there along with Vietnam Marine veteran James Strand of Eastlake. Strand read Wynne's 1996 book on Smoky, "Yorkie Doodle Dandy,'' and decided the little dog was a war hero. He convinced the Cleveland Metroparks board that their park is where that monument should be.
"We managed to raise $31,000 to have it built,'' Wynne said.
Wynne, 83, was an Army aerial photographer whose buddy found Smoky, a purebred Yorkshire terrier, in the jungles of New Guinea. He sold her to Wynne for two Australian pounds.
"She was about 10 months old and never weighed more than four pounds,'' Wynne said.
Where Wynne went, Smoky went too -- from New Guinea to Biak, to Luzon, Okinawa and Korea. The pair also went to Australia on leave.
"That's where she became a therapy dog. At the Red Cross' request we went to hospital wards,'' he said. Smoky was a hit. After the war, in a civilian hospital, Smoky inspired a catatonic patient to reach for her and utter his first sounds in two years.
Smoky's great military moment came on Luzon at a recently captured Japanese air strip.
"The engineers needed to put down a telephone line to link the field with outside help in case the Japanese came back,'' Wynne said.
To do that, the engineers would have had to tear up a taxi strip where American fighters could safely be parked under palm trees where Japanese airmen couldn't find them. There was a 72-foot long drain line under that strip and Smoky pulled a small line through it so the engineers could eventually drag a heavier phone line through it and save tearing up the field.
"I just made them promise they would dig Smoky out in case she got trapped in there,'' Wynne said.
Smoky performed admirably.
When the war ended, Smoky came home with Wynne to Cleveland.
For the next 12 years the pair would be inseparable and even go into show business together as part of a television show on Channel 3 called "Castles in the Air.''
Wynne said Smoky could be taught to perform endless tricks. The little Yorkie could walk a tightrope, climb ladders and peddle a scooter. Just a few of her show business tricks.
Smoky died in 1957 at the age of 14.
Wynne wanted war dogs remembered and with Jim Strand's help met sculptor Susan Bahary who created the "Always Faithful" war dog sculpture placed at a Navy base on Guam in memory of 25 military dogs who died in combat during WWII.
Wynne's war-time photo of Smoky sitting inside his G.I. helmet for Yank Magazine was famous during World War II and that is how Bahary pictures her in the new Smoky and All Dogs of War monument in Lakewood.
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