Searching for dog tag owners

COEUR d'ALENE - The honorary dog tags that swayed on the branches of the old Freedom Tree bear the names of veterans who fought in wars from Vietnam back to the American Revolution.

Now that the Freedom Tree is gone, the 55 dog tags are safely in the possession of the Coeur d'Alene Parks Department thanks to the Kootenai County Genealogical Society, Lt. George Farragut Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Kootenai County Veterans Council. Efforts are being made to reunite the tags with the veterans or their families.

"We were trying to spearhead that these guys would not be forgotten one way or another," said Sandra Doutre, secretary for the Kootenai County Veterans Council.

Doutre, of Coeur d'Alene, said the tags were placed sometime in the mid-1970s during a fundraiser where people could honor veterans in their families by purchasing a dog tag and hanging it on the tree.

Coeur d'Alene City Councilman Dan Gookin made a public service announcement video, available to view at www.cdaid.org, which includes the names found on the dog tags. He encourages anyone who recognizes a name on the list to call Sandra Doutre at 818-8868 or email her at [email protected] to aid the reunion process.

"You can do your part to help," Gookin says in the video.

The old Freedom Tree was a 65-foot Norwegian spruce planted in 1959 to block the extension of Fourth Street and prevent development of Tubbs Hill. It became the Freedom Tree in 1972 to honor U.S. Air Force navigator Capt. Fred McMurray when his plane was shot down in Vietnam and he was held captive for nearly 200 days. The Freedom Tree was adorned in yellow ribbons and hopeful messages during McMurray's imprisonment and the duration of the war.

The former Freedom Tree was removed in March 2013 during McEuen's reconstruction. The new Freedom Tree, a 16-foot Colorado blue spruce, was recently planted near the Veterans Memorial on the east end of McEuen Park. It will be dedicated during Parks Day, July 12.