Dogs are barred from the hallowed resting place for U.S. military veterans and heroes that is the Fort Logan National Cemetery in Denver.
But on Sunday, Smuckers, a mixed-breed Labrador-golden retriever, was given special dispensation so she could participate in a special ceremony to return a Purple Heart medal to the family of Korean War hero Richmond L. Litman.
“Well, she definitely dug up some treasure,” Leatra Plick said during the ceremony Sunday afternoon about four rows from where her stepfather, Richmond L. Litman, who died in 1990, is buried beneath a white marble tombstone.
About 25 years ago, the medal was mysteriously lost. Smuckers dug it up in the backyard of the Dexter Street home of her masters, Steve Jankousky and Tom Unterwagner, in 2004. But it would take 11 years for the medal to finally find its way back to the Litman family.
“I will honor it as much as he honored it when he was alive,” Plick said. “I truly appreciate it from the bottom of my heart.”
Smuckers’ tail was wagging and her left rear leg was shaking with excitement when it came time for the presentation. The award was tied with a purple ribbon to Smuckers’ new purple collar.
The ribbon was untied and given to Plick, to cheers from about a dozen Purple Heart recipients including Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta, the first living veteran to receive the Medal of Honor since the Vietnam War.
Jankousky and Unterwagner initially called several people with the last name Litman, hoping to find him or his family. But it wasn’t until 11 years later that they saw an article about a Vermont group called Purple Hearts Reunited and contacted its founder, combat-wounded veteran Zachariah Fike.
Within 24 hours after a story appeared about the medal, Plick called Fike to claim it.
The ceremony also was sponsored by the Military Order of the Purple Heart. The group has reunited 150 medals with service members or their families or local museums.
Litman enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1948 and was wounded Sept. 18, 1950, in South Korea. How the medal came to be buried in a yard four blocks from his home remains a mystery.
