Dog Soldier Of Los Cerrillos

In the 1900s, technology was advancing at a speed which was at that time in Santa Fe as well as everyplace else, not only very new, but confusing and scary to many, especially for the older folks that were comfortable with the way things were. Particularly, it seemed so in most of New Mexico, where tradition was fossilized in a state of ma ana, tomorrow.

What's the hurry? Like everything else, with time, people accepted what was new in their life and soon found these new technologies a real need. From small and large companies to each individual, new electronic gadgets became both lifesavers as well as hindrances at times. Dog Soldier of Los Cerrillos encompasses the life of some old military combat veterans and their tributes to freedom as well as their unhealed wounds.

For many, the thousand-yard stare stayed with them for years. Combat made many soldiers chain-smoke, use drugs, and drink themselves drunk in hopes of reducing the pressure of always being in that life-or-death situation through every mission that would, as time went on, manifest itself into a lifetime of addiction.

Cecil Franklin was no different. As a civilian who constantly fought his alcoholism. Falling off of the wagon came and went as life's pressures grew or ebbed. Being Cheyenne and raised on the reservation in his early years was to teach him the old ways but as he became a young man he had searched out a trade in hopes of assimilating into modern society and move from the poverty of the reservation.

He was, as were many other young men, serving in the military and the war in Vietnam. By a stroke of luck he became the handler of a black Labrador called Jet and one of a five man tracker team that searched and hunted in what was sometimes called Indian Country behind enemy lines. After his service, Cecil married, had fathered a daughter, divorced, and raised his daughter on his own after moving to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where his life took many turns.