08/31/09, entered by Dave Broeker, VDHA Webmaster

Previously, the VDHA had listed a dog with the tattoo of 1X74 as being named "Ludwick" and assigned to Tan Son Nhut.   When William Prince joined the VDHA, recently, he stated the name was misspelled in our database and we quickly changed it from Ludwick to Ludwig, per handler Prince's request.  I asked Bill Cummings to please check and see if there was an AF Form 323 in reference to a dog with a tattoo number of 1X74 and he confirmed he had the form but the dogs name was spelled "Ludwing".  The information below is listed so as to keep our research.

Information from "Overseas Weekly" dated September 18th, 1966. In reference to the name "Ludwig" as mentioned in the article, information is very sparse as the paragraph states: "Recently, a dog named Ludwig was killed by the blast of a mine".

The date on the article is 09/18/66, and we know that the dog with the tattoo of 1X74 was KIA on 08/22/66, or about one month earlier.

Now this is falling in to place! Four paragraphs from the bottom of the article, it says: "The 25th Div animals arrived at Tan Son Nhut in July (1966) after a 12 week training course at Ft. Benning, Ga. They were given more training at the air base before moving into Chu Chi and have adjusted well to the heat."

This finally ties in that the dog actually was at Tan Son Nhut AND Chu Chi! Both bases are correct and the KIA date as reported by the article all match!

The only thing in question is the actual name of the dog. Only once in the article, the dog was referred to as "LUDWIG".

Bill Cummings provided information from an AF Form 323 specifically stating that the dog with the 1X74 tattoo was named "LUDWING", and it also stated the dog was KIA on 08/22/66. Nowhere in the article was a tattoo number referenced.

All this information listed above leads me to truly believe that we are talking about the same dog, Ludwig-1X74. The only doubt is about the true spelling of the name.  Normally, I believe we should default to the AF Form 323 as a final answer to this mystery, BUT, the handler of the Dog never has faultered in his belief that the Dogs real name was spelled "LUDWIG-1X74".  For that reason, I am choosing to list the dog the way the handler, William Prince, requests.