War Dogs (29 page)
Authors: Rebecca Frankel
Acknowledgments
When I was a kid I had a habit of “rescuing” animals (though some might have called it kidnapping). There were the neighborhood dogsâthe Chinese chow across the street who always needed a cold drink or the beagle from down the block who used to follow me to the bus stopâand the litter of kittens living in the woods at my summer camp. My mother endured this, and whatever strange dog or wounded bird I had brought into the yard, with good-tempered exasperation while my sister, in a show of sibling solidarity, championed my efforts. But if my affinity for animals comes from anywhere it is from my father, a Connecticut farm boy who taught me how to befriend a dog, how to hold a cat, and how to love animals and treat them with dignity and respect.
He also told me (often) to count my blessings, so here they are: my mother, Sheila; my father, Meyer; and my sister, Gail.
When it comes to this book, however, offering thanks must begin with Tom Ricks. For while I found the photo that set me on the war dog path, the journey that followed would not have been without Tom's encouragement. He recognized a good idea and then gave me full reign over it, and for this, I'm forever in his debt. If it was Tom who opened the reporting door, then it was Chris Jakubin who shepherded me through once I was on the other side. As my war dog mentor, he not only gave me his time but also his trust, going above and beyond to make sure I was connected with the best in the business, linking his reputation to mine.
After more than four years reporting on war dogs, I feel privileged to be a part of the military working dog community and all the
communitiesâprivate, professional, and familialâthat surround it by extension. I will always admire their fierce commitment to the dogsâit is selfless and without end. I owe thanks to so many people, among them: Bill Childress, Mike Dowling, Master Sergeant Kristopher Reed Knight, Captain John Brandon Bowe, Antonio Rodriguez, Sean Shiplett, Joel Burton, Sean Lulofs, Ron Aiello, and Richard Deggans; Bill Krol and Lisa Yambrick of American Vet Dogs; and the handlers who run the Military Working Dogs Facebook page. And for the men and women, some of them handlers, who for various reasons couldn't take credit by name for the help they gave me but offered it anyway, I'm grateful. In many ways I feel as though they gave me pieces of themselves around which I simply put words.
I do not know where this book would be without the creative and wonderful team at Palgrave Macmillan, though I do know how lucky I am to have had the erudite and discerning Elisabeth Dyssegaard as my editor. She appreciated what I appreciated about these dogs and their handlers, and with kindness and knowing saw how to best bring their stories full circle. Special thanks to Donna Cherry for organizing the many facets of this book's production, and to Bill Warhop, who copyedited the manuscript and whose line-by-line comments gave me much-needed encouragement in the last and most grueling phase of editing this book. I also wish to thank Lauren Dwyer-Janiec and Christine Catarino for their amazing work getting
War Dogs
out into the world.
Whatever challenges this book brought with it, I never took them on alone, for I had the counsel of Esmond Harmsworth, my brilliant and uncompromisingly lovely agent. I will always be thankfulâand better offâfor the guidance and support he offered.
Thanks to Ali Rhodes, Jared Mondshein, and Rick Carp, who all contributed their time and talentâfact-checking, transcribing, hunting down the most reluctant of contacts and most obscure details of military historyâhelping to guard against error, ultimately ensuring this book was better and smarter.
I amâand will always beâeternally grateful for the friendship of
David Rothkopf. He was always there to remind me that the sky was not
falling after all. I don't know where I would be without his humor and unflagging support. The crew at
Foreign Policy
magazine, a brilliant and wickedly funny band of creatives who are still relentlessly encouraging of my war dog endeavors, will always have my admiration and adorationâchief among them my friend Ben Pauker and my colleague Ty McCormick.
Thanks must be paid to Karin Tanabe, Jeremy Berlin, and Jennie Rothenberg-Gritz, who are not only among my dearest friends but are exceptional writers. Each of them provided insight, reassurance, and edits when I truly needed them most.
Book writing was, at least as I experienced it, a sometimes terribly solitary exercise. But because of these friends, I was never lonely: Rachel Wozniak, Chris Wozniak, Michal Mizrahi, Jessica Pavone, Claire Bohnengel, Brandon Van Grack, Sarah Longwell, Erica Sandler, Molly Smith, Kyle Kempf, Nick Vilelle, Mitchel Levitas, James Fallows, Deborah Fallows, and, of course, Mike Fallows, and most especially my Great Uncle Benny, who was the very best kind of friend.
Notes
introduction: dogs in the time of war
1. “Dogs of War in Conflict,”
New York Times
, February 21, 1915.
chapter 1: when dogs become soldiers
6. When Lulofs and Aaslan left Iraq, the bounty on their heads had been upped twofold to $20,000.
7. Tony Perry, “Snipers Stalk Marine Supply Route,”
Los Angeles Times
,
December 28, 2006.
chapter 2: the house of misfit dogs
2. Ibid., 65.
4. Almost all domestic adult dogs have 42 teeth: 4 canine, 10 molars, 12 incisors, and 16 premolars.
chapter 3: the trouble with loving a war dog
1. Alexandra Horowitz,
Inside of a Dog
(New York: Scribner, 2009), 57.
4. Marc Bekoff,
The Emotional Lives of Animals
(Novato, CA: New World Library, 2007), 125.
6. Phone interview with Marc Bekoff, September 10, 2012.
15. Ashley Balcerzak, “How Your Dog Helps Your Health,”
Men's Health
, November 7, 2013, http://www.menshealth.com/health/how-dogs-make-you-healthy.
18. Phone interview with Marc Bekoff, September 10, 2012.
21. Konrad Lorenz,
Man Meets Dog
(London: Methuen & Co. LTD., 1954), 139.
chapter 4: beware the loving (war) dog
4. Albert Payson Terhune,
A Book of Famous Dogs
(New York: Triangle Books, 1941), 6. Terhune writes that the Museum of Pompeii keeps “two distorted figures, side by
side, amid the horde of other gruesome casts”âa child and a dog. Found on the inside of the dog's collar is the following Latin inscription: “Thrice has this dog saved his little master from death: once from fire, once from flood, once from thieves.” How they gathered this information, or if Terhune traveled to the museum to read the dog's collar for himself, is a mystery I was not able to solve.
5. Mark Derr,
How the Dog Became the Dog
(New York: Overlook Press, 2011), 33.
8. Derr,
How the Dog Became the Dog
, 25â28.
9. Jan Bondeson,
Amazing Dogs
(Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2011), 11.
11. Terhune,
A Book of Famous Dogs
, 84.
13. Terhune,
A Book of Famous Dogs
, 78â100.
20. Mark Derr,
A Dog's History of America
(New York: North Point Press, 2004), 257â58.
21. “Dogs and Horses Often War Heroes,”
New York Times
, October 17, 1917, http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F20F14FB385F1B7A93C3AB178B
D95F438185F9.
