A new memorial in Washington, D.C., will pay tribute to the sacrifices and heroic deeds of service animals and their handlers.
In her three decades as an artist, Susan Bahary has sculpted some of the country’s most famous service animals: the Marine war dogs of Guam, President George H.W. Bush’s service dog Sully, and a certain Boston terrier mix who helped locate wounded and capture a German spy in World War I.
“They’re like my children, so it’s hard to pick a favorite,” she says. “I can tell you right now, it would be hard to beat Stubby. The story is very moving, and kids love it too.”
Bahary’s current project, though, is especially close to her heart – and her biggest work to date: the National Service Animals Memorial. Envisioned as a park-like or plaza setting in the nation’s capital, it will pay tribute to the sacrifices and heroic deeds of service animals and their handlers.
Those animals include dogs, horses, donkeys, mules, homing pigeons, dolphins, sea lions and others. Throughout the nation’s history, they have served as guides and therapy companions, assisted in search-and-rescue operations, and saved lives in times of war by transporting vital supplies, carrying messages, detecting explosives and poison gas, and tracking enemies.
In 2022, the National Capital Memorial Advisory Commission – responsible for approving and siting commemorative works within Washington, D.C. – gave unanimous support to legislation authorizing a service animals memorial, agreeing that the variety of ways in which animals have aided, comforted and protected humans is “a subject of lasting historical significance” to the United States.
Bahary plans to tell that story through bronze sculptures, informational plaques and – in line with most new memorials – a mobile app offering visitors an interactive experience.
“Animals have a way of bringing us together,” she says. “The idea is to have a place of honor, education, inspiration and healing for veterans and everyone who’s lost an animal.”
In the early 1990s, Bill Putney, commander of the Marine Corps’ 3rd War Dog Platoon in World War II and a Silver Star recipient, asked Bahary to apply to sculpt the country’s first official war dog monument. “Always Faithful,” a life-size bronze Doberman pinscher, is installed at Naval Base Guam. More recent works include “The Pledge,” depicting a female soldier and her working dog at the Military Women’s Memorial, and “Service and Sacrifice,” a sculpture of John Douangdara, lead dog handler for Navy SEAL Team Six, and his war dog Bart, both killed in Afghanistan in 2011.
Bahary also did sculptural work for a memorial in Pozières, France, to the 9 million animals that died in World War I. There, “something clicked in me,” she says. “I said, ‘We’ve got to do something like this in the United States, and I started sketching.”
The National Service Animals Memorial is now in the site-selection and fundraising phase. To raise awareness, Bahary wears a purple poppy, the international symbol of remembrance for animals that served.
“We want everyone to help us make this a treasure for our country we can all enjoy,” she says.
Learn more about the National Service Animals Memorial here.
- Honor & Remembrance