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 ...
Why be personal? If you want to discuss my post, please do so.
Well, your gut didn't make this call. Others did.
Unless it's vital to you to lobby to go take it back from her, it's done.
My gut tells me that calculation was already made by the CO, and the CO ran it up the chain because he either didn't need that particular dog any more or it was rendered unsuitable somehow. That's why congress had to get involved, to allow the command to do this. If the command is OK with it, I'm OK with it.
That, and it is a small price to pay. Not all soldiers have such a tangible way to say thanks to them as this.
Is it ridicule of the Purple Heart you intended or ridicule of the Air Force?
"She has been blown up for her unselfish acts.
True, and many others WILL be blown up. Let's not forget that.
That website is run by a guy I know, and he's a dog-God. :~D
I trained with him when he was still doing open obedience classes. He's since trained dogs and competed worldwide.
I have found that a lot of people on the internet, even in Germany, don't bother with the umlauts because it's a lot of trouble to go to system tools, open up the character map window, and select and copy the necessary letters.
Any native German speakers out there?
The reason why Congress has to be involved is that Federal Law forbids an individual from receiving US Government property that is still usable.
Are you implying that many will be blown up if this specific dog is retired?
I think we're OK if we spell it the way the Schutzhund clubs spell it :~D
Possibly. One thing for sure if it is retired prematurely it won't be detecting IEDS.
Odds are that this young lady will be shifted aside with scant attention for her future. Far too many of the severely wounded are soon forgotten by a thankful Government. Sad fact but it is true.
These forgotten people and their horror stories abound.
Can you show that there is ~any~ shortage of bomb detection or any other working dog in the military? Or are you just gonna argue like this dog going home will lose us the war, on some myopic principle?
There's a good reason for the law mentioned in the article...
adopting a military war dog was prohibited by law until the dog reached retirement age because of the $18,000 training expense.
Let the woman adopt the dog, yes -- but WAIT until he's saved other lives first, and is ready for retirement.
I help train seeing eye dogs. We keep the dogs from puppyhood until they're about a year and a half old -- then we have to give them up. Forever.
The Seeing Eye institute's rules against future contact with the dog are so strict, in fact, that puppy-raisers are not permitted to even know the name or address of the eventual recipient of the dog. Thank you letters from those recipients are channeled through the institute, and thoroughly censored to make sure we never find out where the dog is!
So we know ahead of time that even though we get very attached to the dog, we must be prepared to give it up for the good of others.
I'm sure military dog handlers are advised that they must adopt this attitude too -- no matter what. I admire this young woman for her service, but this is out of line.
I remember reading an article years ago about the hundreds of working dogs being destroyed when their handlers were shipped home from Vietnam. I can only imagine the effects this had on the soldiers that spent so much time over there with them.
Well, since the only thing my dog is likely to try to protect is her dinner (and probably not even that - she even lets the cats smouch out of her dish as long as they don't get too pushy), I think I'm safe.
And you know that the dog's nose is ok after the explosion?
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