sheep dogs...
anyone who ever put on a uniform for the military, law enforcement, fire or EMS. Those are the true sheep dogs. Anything else is just so much keyboard commando rhetoric and possibly stolen valor.
I served in the USAF for over 20 years...I am a sheep dog (retired).
My oldest son is a Marine...he is a sheepdog in ways you will never know.
My middle son is a fireman...more of a sheepdog than you can imagine.
My youngest wants to join the Army and fly helicopters as soon as he graduates...(future sheepdog but has not earned the title yet).
If you ever put on a uniform in service of your fellow man you are a sheepdog. If you have not you are only an armed individual...it is not up for discussion.
I never bothered to read this thread until today AFTER the subject came up on my RSS feed to a B5 blog
so I read this entire thread and Festus said it best...... We got sheepdogs and we got posers
I to am a retired USMC sheepdog
So courtesy to Russ Vaughn
The Sheepdogs
Most humans truly are like sheep
Wanting nothing more than peace to keep
To graze, grow fat and raise their young,
Sweet taste of clover on the tongue.
Their lives serene upon Life’s farm,
They sense no threat nor fear no harm.
On verdant meadows, they forage free
With naught to fear, with naught to flee.
They pay their sheepdogs little heed
For there is no threat; there is no need.
To the flock, sheepdog’s are mysteries,
Roaming watchful round the peripheries.
These fang-toothed creatures bark, they roar
With the fetid reek of the carnivore,
Too like the wolf of legends told,
To be amongst our docile fold.
Who needs sheepdogs? What good are they?
They have no use, not in this day.
Lock them away, out of our sight
We have no need of their fierce might.
But sudden in their midst a beast
Has come to kill, has come to feast
The wolves attack; they give no warning
Upon that calm September morning
They slash and kill with frenzied glee
Their passive helpless enemy
Who had no clue the wolves were there
Far roaming from their Eastern lair.
Then from the carnage, from the rout,
Comes the cry, “Turn the sheepdogs out!”
Thus is our nature but too our plight
To keep our dogs on leashes tight
And live a life of illusive bliss
Hearing not the beast, his growl, his hiss.
Until he has us by the throat,
We pay no heed; we take no note.
Not until he strikes us at our core
Will we unleash the Dogs of War
Only having felt the wolf pack’s wrath
Do we loose the sheepdogs on its path.
And the wolves will learn what we’ve shown before;
We love our sheep, we Dogs of War.
Russ Vaughn
2d Bn, 327th Parachute Infantry Regiment
101st Airborne Division
Vietnam 65-66