Details of Humane Society’s Memorial Day weekend celebration of ‘Dogs of War’ at Wagner Shelter – all are invited!

The unusual “doubleheader” Memorial Day weekend continues for the second consecutive year May 27 and May 29 – the first date bringing to the fore a rare — locally, anyway —  “Salute to the Dogs of War” and those animals serving local law enforcement at home (Saturday, May 27 at noon) and the regular salute to all of those who have given their lives for their country in years past (Monday, May 29, also at noon).

Reserve U.S. Marine Corps Lt/Col. Robert MacDougall will lead the Monday ceremony at the county courthouse grounds on East Main Street;  Malcolm Barr Sr., a past president of the Humane Society of Warren County (HSWC) and a veteran of Britain’s Royal Air Force, heads the “Dogs of War” memorial at the HSWC Julia Wagner Animal Shelter, 1245 Progress Drive, Front Royal, off of Shenandoah Shores Road, two days earlier.

The traditional Memorial Day event at the WC Courthouse grounds, this year on Monday, May 29. Below, the Dogs of War Memorial Garden at the Julia Wagner Animal Shelter grounds, with its initiator Malcolm Barr Sr., and his dog Diva. In this Royal Examiner file photo Diva may be acting as a model for the German Shepherd statue centerpiece, then yet to have arrived at the site of this year’s Saturday, May 27th Dogs of War and Service Dogs event.

Two highlights of this year’s shelter activities will be an appearance by the newly minted Valley Chorale and a keynote speech by Washington D.C. visitor Steven Herman, D.C. bureau chief of Voice of America (VOA).

Front Royal Councilman Skip Rogers, who was a U.S. Army dog handler during the waning days of the Vietnam War will lay one of two wreaths donated each year to the two events, that at the Saturday ceremony. Rogers will lead an honor guard of local police officers including Cpl. Kevin Orndorff and Detective Bradley Pennington, placing a wreath donated by Fussell Florists of Front Royal. A similarly donated wreath will be laid in memory of the fallen at the Monday noon ceremony. Capt. Crystal Cline is in charge of the Saturday honor guard ceremony and has invited participation from Warren County Fire & Rescue and Warren County Sheriff’s Office, both of which have K-9s on their staffs. FRPD K-9 Officer Olivia Meadows and her police dog Marley will represent war and domestic dogs past and present, Cline said.

Barr, a retired journalist and military writer during the 1960s and an animal lover since his teens, got the idea of a local observance honoring military service dogs while awaiting a B-52 bomber flight over Cambodia on the distant Pacific island of Guam where he visited a World War II war dog cemetery. It was hidden in a jungle clearing, the resting place for 22 war dogs and now has a handsome Marine Corps memorial to these animals that may otherwise have been forgotten.

At the invitation of HSWC, Barr cleared a grassy space on the animal shelter property featuring a life size statue of a German shepherd dog as its centerpiece.

For the Saturday event, Barr’s neighbor, Douglas Meador of Rockland will again provide loud-speakers and microphones for which the animal shelter says “thank you!” Another neighbor, Susan O’Kelly, a hospice volunteer, with help from other Rockland ladies, will provide finger food in the shelter boardroom while members of the HSWC board of directors will provide guided tours of the shelter to interested visitors.

For further information, contact Meghan Bowers, phone and/or email at 540-635-4734 or director@humanesocietywarrencounty.org.

(From a release by HSWC)