Forgotten Heroes - The Robert Hartsock Story DVD & Digital ~ #Review #MillCreekEntertainment

Forgotten Heroes - The Robert Hartsock Story

Image Credit: Mill Creek Entertainment

Disclosure: I received free product for review purposes and all opinions expressed here are my own.

Forgottten Heroes The Robert Hartsock Story is a DVD and Digital that I recently received from Mill Creek Entertainment to review. It is a documentary telling about the story of the only military dog handler that has ever received the Medal of Honor, which is the highest personal military decoration.

It tells of 10,000 lives that were saved in Vietnam, with the aid of 4,000 military dogs and their handlers. SSGT Robert Hartsock was the only handler ever to receive the Medal of Honor, which is the nations highest award.

The beginning starts with President Lyndon Johnson who struggled with the Vietnam War, which was a civil war, unlike WWI and WWII which were based on a country's domination over another.

In Vietnam scouts dogs were used to find the enemy by their smell, hearing and sight. The canine operations were widely unknown to avoid revealing our capabilities to the enemy. Scout dogs were able to find traps laid by the enemies, such as booby traps, a mine or trip wires.

When the Vietnamese found out about the scout dogs and their leaders, they put out a bounty on them.

The documentary went on to tell of Robert Hartsock, who grew up on a farm and had a father who had been in the military. He grew up learning about teamwork, working on the farm and playing in sports. He also had a willing attitude to help others.

Fellow friends that were drafted into the war told of how Hartsock was a great soldier, who could out shoot anyone, and how good he was at push ups. It told of the scout dog program, which Hartsock and others were in, and given their own German Shepherd to train with.

One of the most important things that the soldiers found out was to take excellent care of their dogs, and they took it seriously. They had vets that took care of the needs of the dogs. It told of when one of the dogs died, it was just like a fellow soldier had died.

Various friends and fellow soldiers told of how they got along and their camaraderie. They celebrated Christmas and had a common bond of friendship.

One of the former vets told of how a dog found a sniper in a palm tree. The dogs and their trainers walked along in front of their units. Another told of how when the dogs got over tired, they were just like anyone and let things slip.

It told of February 23, 1969 when Dau Tieng erupted. The base camp that Hartsock was in was under an unexpected and brutal assault by 2 North Vietnamese divisions. A fellow soldier told of how Hartsock and another solder were on top of the bunker with him when a rocket came in behind them and killed civilians. Nearly 20,000 enemies were the most ever seen in their area in over five years.

Not thinking about his own life, Bob Hartsock took it upon himself to throw himself upon a satchel charge and was greatly wounded. He then crawled to a ditch and helped to suppress enemy fire. Another solder (Sgt. Hughes) was then able to get away and was able to alert the tactical operations center what was going on. They were then able to get reinforcements.

SSGT Hartsock gave his life for his fellow soldiers, which was the ultimate gift. Besides his fellow soldiers grieving, Hartsock's scout dog Duke passed away shortly after his handler did. Although he was physically fit he didn't want to eat or drink, and ultimately died of self imposed starvation.

At the end of this documentary it showed actual footage of President Richard Nixon giving a posthumous Medal of Honor to Robert Hartsock's family in a White House ceremony.

This was a very informative documentary and I learned about a true American hero named Robert Hartsock!