The Bulldog…

On the campus of The Citadel, in front of McAllister field house, there is this statue of a brass bulldog:

The Bulldog Monument is a memorial dedicated to Maj. Sam M. Savas, Jr., Class of 1951, who died in Vietnam in October 1965. He also served as a Citadel tactical officer from 1962 to 1965.  The Bulldog Monument is made from brass belt buckles, waist plates and breast plates collected from cadets.

His son Sam, was a class mate of mine. The second bronze plaque on the statue is dedicated to him. As with all things there is a great and sad story that goes along with it.

During my time at the Citadel, many times before a big weekend such as Parents day-Sam would go out in his PT gear and a bag full of Brasso with him-and polish up the Bulldog.  He did not have to do it-but he knew darn well that the college maintenance folks would probably not do a very good job, if they even did it at all. Thus, as a way to pay tribute to his father, he would make the statue gleam-even if just for a short while.

After graduation, Sam joined the herd of us who trotted off to Pensacola-and naval aviation schools command. He earned his wings as a helicopter pilot, flying H-46’s out of Norfolk. Along the way he picked up a wife. As he was over in the HC squadron and I was in an E-2 squadron-on opposite schedules of deployments, we did not get to see each other a lot. However we did some things together and also his wife became a friend of my ex-wife. When the time came to go to shore duty-he transferred down to Corpus Christi, TX. There he flew Huey’s as one of the station SAR pilots.

In October of 1985-twenty years to the month since his father was killed, Sam was killed in an aircraft accident near Padre Island in Texas. I can still remember answering the phone that night-on the other end of the line was Sam’s wife, telling us the news. She had only been notified herself a few hours before. Why she called me, I’ve never been exactly sure.  Soon after we got the word out to our classmates-many of whom were in the Norfolk area.

Sam was a great guy-and whenever I have returned to the campus, I make it a point to stop at the statue and linger a while. In the day, I used to walk past that statue every day on my way to practice with the crew team. I quite often-as a young man of 19, 20 and  21-did not give the statue a second glance. Now when I see it, the stark reality of father and son, memorialized so-haunts me. What must it have been like for Sam,  to see that just about every day of his four year stint as a cadet. I cannot imagine it.

While writing this post, I tried to find summaries of the mishap. They cannot be found-so rapidly is the record fading. They probably are on some data base at the Naval Safety Center.  Whenever I go to the Vietnam memorial in DC, I make it a point to look up his father’s name. Today’s new breed may know the place on campus and the names-but they do not know the real story. At least I think they do not. I would ask them to treasure their time there-when its gone, its gone.

But I will remember Sam-both father and son-and the destinies that have linked them now eternally together.