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| 14 - War Dog Platoon |
Technical Sergeant Elmer Wexler, USMC
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Acquisition Number: 2012.1078.1
Medium: watercolor on illustration board
Both breeds of dogs most often used by Marines—German shepherds and Doberman pinschers—can be seen in this paining, along with their handlers, making their way through thick jungle terrain during World War II. While the island is not identified, the artist was assigned to 2d Battalion, 2d Marine Raider Regiment, and sailed to Bougainville as part of 1st Marine Amphibious Corps in the fall of 1943. He landed with the first wave of Marines, and he remarked in his notes about observing war dogs on the island.
Messenger dogs worked with a pair of handlers, delivering information about enemy positions and logistics from one to the other. Marines with scout dogs were alerted to the enemy's presence well before they would have heard, smelled, or seen them without canine assistance, saving American lives.
Elmer Wexler (1918-2007) was an American illustrator and cartoonist, who joined the Marine Corps in 1942, first training as a lineman and then going to work as a combat artist and draftsman. He had studied art after high school at the Pratt Institute of Fine and Applied Arts in Brooklyn and began drawing illustrations for pulp magazines and comic strips. Wexler was assigned to Marine Corps Headquarters, supporting public relations efforts. He saw action on Guadalcanal, Bougainville, and Okinawa. He was discharged from the Marine Corps in late 1945, reaching the rank of Master Technical Sergeant. Wexler returned to his career as an illustrator and comic book artist in New York. During the Vietnam War, he traveled overseas as a member of the National Cartoonists Society at the invitation of the USO, drawing sketches for wounded Service members recuperating in hospitals.
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