AISERSLAUTERN, Germany — It was a warm, sunny day in July when Tomi sprang from the back of a van like a jack-in-the-box.
He’s a bomb-sniffing dog, a high-energy Belgian Malinois. The only obvious sign of the shrapnel wound he had suffered the week before in Afghanistan was the red, white and blue cast on one of his hind legs, which thudded on the pavement as he bounced around to check out the people who were here to meet him. They were all surprised. They thought he’d come in on a stretcher.