Posted on 11/20/2005 8:46:31 AM PST by Valin
Washington -- They had trained together for three years in the military and were deployed overseas side by side. In June, they arrived in Iraq, where they worked as a team scouring houses and villages for hidden explosives. Then, one afternoon, riding back from a mission, a roadside bomb went off under their humvee.
Air Force Tech. Sgt. Jamie Dana was critically injured -- bleeding internally, her lungs collapsed, her spine fractured, her pelvis broken. In her last moment of consciousness, she asked in desperation about her comrade. "Where's Rex?" she pleaded. When no one answered, she grabbed a medic's arm. "Where's my dog?! Is he dead?"
The medic told her that he was. "I felt like my heart broke," she recalled in an interview. "It's the last thing I remember."
Weeks passed before Dana absorbed the news that the medic was mistaken and that Rex was alive. The German shepherd was burned slightly on his nose but was not seriously injured. Dana teetered at life's edge, with doctors unable to assure her husband and parents that she would survive.
Not long after she started to rally from her injuries, Dana asked Air Force leaders if she could adopt Rex. The answer was no; it was against the rules, and Rex was still valuable to the military.
Now, the Air Force has changed its view -- but federal law stands in the way.
Under Title 10 U.S. Code 2583, the Air Force says, it cannot allow the wounded airman to take her combat dog home until the animal is too old to be useful. Rex, 80 pounds and brown and black with gold markings, is just 5 years old, not nearly the retirement age of 10 to 14.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
"The German shepherd was burned slightly on his nose but was not seriously injured."
I bet he's no longer as as good at sniffing out hidden explosives as he once was.
Better send him home. :)
I bet you never worked for the government, you see the answers too clearly....
I have sent a request for assistance to my Senators, hope everyone else will.
Let her please have Rex. It would make both of them so happy.
They're just going about it wrong. They need to throw a materials handling tag on the dog, mark it as "Fails to Function, Reason Unknown," and be done with it. Used to do it all the time to hand stuff over to DRMO.
Give this NCO the damn dog. Just do it, it's not a big deal. Who do I have to irritate about this?
AR
(USAF-Former)
HA. Good luck - Connecticut here. Dodd would want to try to buy the dog a drink (or call EMK to make a 'sandwich'), and LIEberman...well, is 'canine' kosher?
Please let her have her dog. For the Air Force, there will be other dog/soldiers, but the relationship she has with her dog is one of a kind. She and her dog almost made the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty. Please let her keep her friend.
bump
good luck.
I know that. didn't mean for you to take it as meant for you.
Any decent vet would do an exam and declare the dog 'unfit for duty' - and give him a medical discharge.
"Fails to Function, Reason Unknown,"
Whatever way. Always another rule that can supercede another rule uh?
Send the dog to the Vet and declare a new diagnosis of PTSDD. Give the dog a medical discharge and send him home with his battle buddy.
The least they can do is give her the dog. She's earned him. And maybe it'll be a nice feel good story for the MSM to talk about for a day or two instead of filling the screen with nothing but the bad things that happen in Iraq. Of course i'm sure the reason the Compost did this story was to try to make the Pentagon look heartless and cruel. I can just see foolish leftists sitting around now saying "Look at those mean army men, they won't even let a poor injured woman have her pet!"
Rex would be the best therapy this young woman could get. Motivation to rehab will be found in the dog. Give this woman her dog.
an oportunity for the Commander in Chief?
GS ping!
Darned right. He was wounded in action. Give him a purple heart and send him home with his comrade. Actually, did he have three wounds? Give him three purple hearts and let him go home like John Kerry did.
Nope. Someone buy the Air Force a puppy and let this soldier and her partner go home together. They have earned that right.
Yep. PTSD. Needs to go home with his partner.
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