The truth is, after 55 years Snoopy is alive and well, still bringing smiles to veterans and their families.
WJBF, the ABC affiliate in Augusta, Ga., recently aired a story on a gift sent by a family member to a young man then serving in Vietnam – and how that gift not only made it back to the United States with him, but is “still bringing smiles to veterans,” according to its Legionnaire recipient.
“She knew we all liked Snoopy,” says David Jerrett of his younger sister, Luann. He was on his second tour in Vietnam, an Army specialist. She went to their local department store and bought a vinyl blow-up version, then sent it overseas. According to the online story by Kim Vickers, the blown-up Snoopy served as everything from actor to transportation to boxing opponent. At the end of his second (and final) deployment, Jerrett deflated the dog, put it in his footlocker and went home to Georgia.
Today – 55 years later – Jerrett lives in Harlem, Ga. He has been a member of Columbia County Post 192 in nearby Evans for 15 years; he joined “to see other people I know.” Earlier this year, after a talk with his girlfriend, he retrieved his footlocker and Snoopy – still intact after all those years. “He still has Vietnam dirt on him,” Jerrett says.
Since then, the dog has been re-inflated and making the rounds of Jerrett’s family and friends, as well as hospice patients. He also visited the widow of a fellow veteran. She can be seen in a photo at the bottom of the WJBF story holding Snoopy; she died in late November.
- Honor & Remembrance