War dog memorial suggested

Mayor pro tem against canine capering at Waterfront Park, but Vietnam vet speaks in favor

MOUNT PLEASANT — The town's new $14 million Memorial Waterfront Park should include a tribute to the war-time role of military dogs, but a canine park is best located elsewhere, Mayor Pro Tem Kruger Smith said Tuesday.

"Those war dogs saved an awful lot of lives. They were as good as two machine guns," Smith said.

Dog park supporters such as Pete Peters said a place for dogs to exercise and socialize is a good idea for the 19-acre first phase of Waterfront Park.

Peters, a Vietnam veteran, was a military dog handler in the Army 173rd Airborne Brigade in 1966-67. More than 4,000 German shepherds were used to detect booby traps, bombs and snipers, he said. Peters said his military dog, Prince, sniffed out a huge weapons cache intended for the Viet Cong Tet Offensive.

"That one dog could have saved hundreds of lives," he said. "The whole concept of dogs being used over there was kind of kept quiet because in the end the dogs were not brought back,"

Peters said. About half of them were euthanized. The rest were given to the South Vietnamese Army, he said.

Military dogs are at work in Iraq and Afghanistan detecting enemy roadside bombs, he said. Peters, of Edisto Island, is a sergeant major in the South Carolina State Guard Third Brigade, which drills at the Mount Pleasant National Guard Armory.

The park centerpiece will be a $400,000 War Memorial featuring an 8-foot-tall bronze female sculpture. In the woman's left hand is a tri-folded flag presented to grieving widows and mothers. Her right hand rests upon a World War II helmet, supported by a rifle. War dead from east of the Cooper will be remembered on a wall over a fountain that will be part of the memorial.

At its last meeting, a council majority rejected a town staff-proposed location for a 1-acre dog park in the shadows of the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge. Smith said that he found the dog park location offensive because excrement would be in the vicinity of the veterans' tribute. He said town property on Whipple Road is more suitable for a dog park.

Councilman Gary Santos strongly advocates a Waterfront Park dog park. Santos, Council Recreation Committee chairman, has placed the dog park issue on the committee agenda for its meeting at 8:30 a.m. today.

"We need to do this. We asked their opinion and they told us. It was one of the highest priorities," he said.

The park will be constructed in two phases. The future of the remaining 4.5 acres that is the second phase is undetermined. Park design charettes suggested a dog park in the second phase. Green space proponents have said they fear that the council will develop the area instead.

Ideas such as a corporate meeting center or a performance venue have been floated, but nothing has been decided. The town would have to buy the 4.5 acres from the state Department of Transportation to develop it because the DOT gave the land to the town with the stipulation that it be used for a park.

The park, located next to the Ravenel Bridge, will have a 1,250-foot-long pier that the state DOT built atop lopped-off pilings of the Silas Pearman Bridge and an 8,100-square-foot covered pavilion at the end of the pier. It also will feature a 1,400-square-foot open-air Sweetgrass Pavilion and a 6,200-square-foot Visitors Center. The town is paying for park construction through its tax increment financing program, the same method it used to recently buy its $6 million property on Shem Creek. The tax increment financing method borrows funds for improvements that are expected to increase property values, thereby generating more taxes to pay back the debt.

Reach Prentiss Findlay at 937-5711 or pfindlay@postand courier.com.

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