Posted on 11/28/2005 5:40:47 AM PST by Wolfie
Congress acts to let wounded soldier to keep her on-duty dog
McKean County native to adopt 'Rex,' her bomb sniffing canine
This is the story of a soldier and her dog, and the act of Congress required to keep them together.
It began in July, when Air Force Tech. Sgt. Jamie Dana woke up, confused, in a hospital bed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
Her last memory was riding in a military convoy in Iraq after she and her bomb sniffing dog, Rex, had searched a village. She remembered being in extreme pain. And she remembered asking frantically about Rex, eventually being told that he had not survived.
But she didn't know that the military had told her husband, fellow Air Force security officer Mike Dana, that she wasn't going to survive her injuries.
She didn't know that, after a bomb exploded under her Humvee, she spent more than a week in military hospitals in Iraq and Germany before arriving in Washington.
And she didn't know that Rex had survived the bombing with only a minor burn on his nose.
Click here for rest of story.
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
Remember, this is a young woman and dog that John Murtha said was the enemy. I wonder how he voted on this?
God bless this young lady and her dog.
Really? Got a quote?
ALRIGHT...Congress actually does something worthwhile....
Such good news...thanks for posting it....
Made my day...
Thank you Lord Jesus...and please heal this soldier and watch over her and her pup...
I'm glad for the happy ending, and somewhat surprised that these dogs only cost $18K to train.
With all due respect it is not her dog.... It's the US Army's dog and it is needed to save lives. It costs $18,000 and a couple of years to train one of these animals. I can sympathize with the Sergeant, but this is kind of selfish.
Now watch the military and government try to find her a job as there is no reason she cannot work full time etc etc.
Selfish??? What on earth are you doing on FR?
After six months in Pakistan, she and Rex returned to Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colo., where she was stationed. And even though she wasn't scheduled to be deployed again, Sgt. Dana wanted to go to Iraq.
"I pretty much begged to go," she said. "It felt useless sitting there and watching it on TV, like I wasn't doing my part."
Can we force the press to use correct english in it's articles and headlines???
I could always send this freak to Iraq to take Rexs' place.
This military business is not for the emotional. That dog never belonged to her and can save the lives of many of her peers over in Iraq. Military duty is all about putting the team over self and that means allowing "her" dog to continue saving the lives of american Soldiers. That's the bottomline here. Sorry if my post struck a nerve.
I fully expect Murtha to politicize this issue under the guise of being a "hawk".
In that vein did you take note of my other comment???
You opinion is duly noted..thanks for the negative feedback. Emotions should have nothing to do with this. The Sergeant knows she shouldn't have become extremely attached to a military working dog. We have 160,000 troops on the deck in Iraq right now and it that dog detects a single IED it is more important than the sergeant's attachment to the animal.
I'm surprised this issue even made it up the Chain of Command.
It is almost assured that this young lady will suffer the rest of her life and that a duty bound government will gouge her financially and health wise at every turn in the road.
It would be interesting to be able to project her station in life, five years down the road.
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