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Wounded Sergeant Fights for a 'Best Friend'

By Donna St. George
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 20, 2005; Page A01

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?"

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/19/AR2005111901449.html

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> gee what an article. It would be great if she got to keep the dog.......hope she does.

I've mixed emotions on this, It would be nice and sweet if she got to keep her "issued" K9 along with her pension and Purple Heart. But right now we are at war and I'm sure we don't have a surplus of detection dogs we can retire out as house pets. Some where there is a unit in Afganistan, or Iraq or Naval Station Norfolk who desperately needs a detection team.

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I've mixed emotions on this, It would be nice and sweet if she got to keep her "issued" K9 along with her pension and Purple Heart. But right now we are at war and I'm sure we don't have a surplus of detection dogs we can retire out as house pets. Some where there is a unit in Afganistan, or Iraq or Naval Station Norfolk who desperately needs a detection team.

yep got a good point there. I wonder how this will turn out....if there is a follow up to this in the papers there will someone post it please. It would be nice to know the end result of this.

Dennis,
Your right, Our emotions tell us (mine also) to let her keep the dog, but in the military and in combat you cannot let emotions make your decisions, it has to be policy, doctrine, and professionalism that you execute. The fact is I have a buddy whom I was really close to he lost his leg from the thigh down, I was ok it would not be right for me to travel home with him to aid in his recovery. Thats what he has doctors and family for. The military still needs me and has great use for me. The same with this dog. That dog is a soldier working as a team, if one goes down the other has to drive on and finish it's mission (however long it takes <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />. That dog will serve her much better detecting explosives that could potentially kill her other comrades still there, she should be thinking about that, but I can understand her emotions right now.
It's my belief the airforce is considering it because the airforce due to their type of missions don't loose people anywhere near the scale of Army and Marines. Their Chief of staff could probably name all his Airmen whom have been killed, so it makes something like this easier for them to say, ok, we can do this, but they better watch out because they will be setting a precedence for the future and emotions aside, this isn't a good one.

What I'm going to say here may not be very popular, but after served in the Military for over two decades ( with four Purple Hearts ) I am both appalled and embarrassed by this Airman's unprofessional conduct.

This Canine could go on to possibly save many Soldier's lives, but this selfish woman wants it as a companion instead. How incredibly selfish and petty.
Not to mention the fact that she jumped the chain of command and involved civilian politician's ( the vast majority of whom are idiots ) and the media in her personal quest ( which is to the detriment of her fellow soldiers )

Sorry, she ought to be ashamed of herself. And I'm saying this as both a Soldier *and* a dog trainer. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />

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What I'm going to say here may not be very popular, but after served in the Military for over two decades ( with four Purple Hearts ) I am both appalled and embarrassed by this Airman's unprofessional conduct......Sorry, she ought to be ashamed of herself. And I'm saying this as both a Soldier *and* a dog trainer. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />

I definitely don't have the background and the right to speak to this issue that Will Rambeau and Chris Duhon have. I just want to say that I sure do agree with them and that they both said it very well.

I sure don't have the strength to put it in those terms although that is the way I would like to look at it.

I suppose even though several of us have served & made sacrafices though most not to that degree that she has.

Just another way to look at it.

Mixed emotions

Robert,
Had I not sustained life-altering combat injuries, maybe I'd be easier on her. But I laid in a hospital bed in Walter Reed for enough months that I don't feel very charitable to her for her dumb statements.

And after watching individual acts of heroism many times by my fellow Soldiers to save their team members ( and often innocent civilians ) , I just deeply feel that for some dim whistle to put her desire to have a dog before the life and safety of a Soldier is just ridiculous. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />

Had the dog physically saved her life and was injured in the process, I could maybe see her point. Then again, probably not. The thing that nags at me the most is the way the military treated the dogs in Viet Nam when the war was over. Aparently they didn't have a problem leaving an expensive animal to be devoured by the locals. Be that as it may, we are still at war and the dog is still usefull in saving others.

Howard