Our logo is inspired by this photo of Spec. 4 Dan Warschauer, U.S Army Chaplain’s Assistant. 1st Brigade Headquarters 4th Infantry Division. Here, Dan sits with his dog, Lock a’ Load, on top of a bunker, early in the evening at the beginning of one of his guard duty shifts. The location was Dak To, Vietnam, during his tour in 1968-1969.
Lock a’ Load aka “Locker” was a very intelligent dog, and constantly at Dan’s side. He was always ready to ride in the Chaplain’s jeep and was able to sniff out the “enemy”. He once even jumped into a helicopter (onto Dan’s lap) as it was lifting off to fly to a firebase, because he wanted to be with Dan. Locker’s diet was made up of scraps from mass hall. One of Dan’s duties as Brigade Chaplain’s Assistant was to serve officer’s mess, so Locker was well provided for! when Dan left Vietnam after his tour was finished, Locker was turned over to a Military Intelligence soldier and spent the rest of his life in Pleiku. Dan wanted to take his faithful companion home, but for Locker it would have meant ninety days in quarantine at a facility in Hawaii, which was not desirable for a dog used to roaming about the military bases.
Upon his return, Dan married Irene, and their first child, Averi, was born in 1973. Dr. Averi Brickson has no memory of ever NOT seeing this photo on the wall at home, and also has no memory of life without dogs.