FORT JACKSON, SC (WIS) – A retired Sergeant 1st Class stationed at Fort Jackson is up for an award after a successful 170 combat patrols and many years in the service. Who is this mountain of a man with steel in his heart and ice water in his veins? He is not a man. His…
Dogs are often noted as heroes in the news, but in this case, army dog handler Sgt. Aaron Yoder took a bullet for his black lab, Bart, during a gun fight in Southern Afghanistan last month. The Taliban has begun to target these soldier dogs because of their amazing bomb-sniffing skills in an attempt to…
Pfc. Steven Olson, a dog handler with 1st Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, and his dog, Alex, take a moment to enjoy an abundance of tennis balls. The Tactical Explosive Detection Dogs are calm and collected until they see a tennis ball. The balls, nearly 3,000 of them,…
SAN ANTONIO — Dogs suffer from post-traumatic stress, too. Years of war and frequent deployments have affected military working dogs just as they have humans, and Dr. Walter Burghardt is trying to do something about it. Burghardt is chief of behavioral medicine for military working dog studies, assigned to the Daniel E. Holland Military Working…
Navy Master-At-Arms 1st Class Ekali Brooks had reason to thank the crowd as he crawled inches at a time in full gear, adjusting his helmet while trying to reach the finish line. “Come on, Brooks!” a woman cried. “Come on! You’ve got it!” On a day when low crawl was high drama, he needed the boost. Brooks and…
Picture a sprawling grape field, row after row of low-leaning mud walls blanketed with dry leaves. It’s winter in Helmand, Afghanistan. In the middle of the field are 20 U.S. soldiers crouching for cover; they’ve just endured an insurgent attack. Now that the gunfire has quieted, K-9 handler Staff Sgt. Justin Kitts and his working…
FT. BLISS, Texas & WASHINGTON, D.C. (WUSA) – “I lost who I was. I lost all feeling. I lost the ability to love,” says Pfc. Brandy Dagle, fighting back tears. Dagle, stationed at Fort Bliss, Texas was so depressed she says she was near suicide. The PTSD she developed while serving in Afghanistan was too…
In spring 2010, the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, which has officially employed canines since 1942, established the 1st Military Working Dog Regiment, a new unit that consists of “284 soldiers and officers and about 200 military working dogs.” These teams have supported operations in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Iraq, Kosovo, and Northern Ireland, according to the British…
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Of the 4,000 military service dogs who went overseas during the Vietnam war, only 273 returned. And Farmington Hills resident Ken Reynolds wants to see that they – and all other service dogs – get the recognition they deserve. Reynolds still remembers spotting a photo of the War Dog Memorial located in South Lyon Township, published…