It makes me tremendously proud to know that a certain dog was involved in one of the most famous dogfights of all time.  I'm not talking about those infamous cruelty fests that a certain football playing human was associated with.  I'm talking about the other "dogfights", the high drama and sometimes chivalrous contests engaged in by the brave and skilled pilots that have participated in aerial combat during the last century of manned flight.

The dog that I'm talking about is the famous Snoopy! Snoopy was one of the first humanlike dogs, and I learned a lot from reading about him.  I guess he's a mythic figure to most of dogdom.  Like me, he often thinks that he's a person, and wants to be treated as one.  Snoopy had an active dream life, as dogs often have too much time for daydreams, and need to fill their inactive  hours with imagination.  Snoopy was everydog. He was Joe Cool, a famous writer, an attorney, a hockey player and the best player on Charlie Brown's little league team.  I wish I was as versatile.  Perhaps I am, in my imagination!

I'm not sure how long ago Snoopy lived, but somehow he managed to be a doghouse fighter pilot in World War I, and engaged in death defying dogfights with the Red Baron, Manfred von Richthofen.  The two aces engaged in numerous prolonged aerial battles, and according to dog legend, Snoopy was flying the Sopwith Camel aircraft that finally shot down the Red Baron.  Humans credit Arthur "Roy" Brown with the Baron's downing, but as we know truth is often lost in the fog of war. I'll put my money on Snoopy.

It's difficult to come up with any positive aspect to the fact of war, and its related death and destruction.  One small thing might be the positive effect on character that the challenge of defending country, family and values has on certain people (or animals); when they rise above fear and hatred and display courage, skill and chivalry in a righteous fight against the warrior on the opposite side.  In some wars, perhaps in most wars, where moral justification is murky at best, there are such individuals on both sides who display heroism, morality within immorality, and then bring larger than life capabilities to the battle.  These individuals live on in myth and legend, and eventually become "Snoopies" and "Red Barons".  "Curse you Red Baron!" was a phrase Snoopy used in the heat of battle, but like all great competitors, I'm sure he had a healthy respect for the Baron and his abilities. Fighter pilots from all nations and creeds share a common supreme confidence and aggressiveness,  and are said to consider themselves "brothers (or fellow packmembers) beneath the flight suit."

The aerial dogfight of World War I was a duel. It  tested the skill and the luck of the pilot, and the worthiness of the aircraft involved.  The romance and mystique of the scarfed, heroic aces of that war was a product of the times, of the newness of aviation, of a naivety about what it took for men to man those early airplanes.  Modern technology and long range missiles have taken away much of the character of those early bouts in the sky, but  the type of individual that flies those fighter jets still displays the same valor.  Tonight this dog will dream of flying sleek modern doghouses, of being a dogfight hero, of honor and a wave to my opponent.   "Curse you Buffy!" might be the expletive my vanquished opposite shouts as his damaged plane heads back to his base. "Curse you Buffy", he'll repeat.  I don't know? It has a certain ring to it, don't you think?

Buffy
The Poodle Pilot