War Dogs (31 page)

chapter 7: the fallen

1. I first came across this quotation in June 2012. It was listed as canine handler Sean Brazas's favorite quotation on his personal Facebook profile—he was killed in action in Afghanistan in May 2012.

2. A handler at Camp Lejeune, who wished to remain unnamed, confirmed the events as Josh's father described them to me, relaying the details as they were circulating at Camp Lejeune, II-MEF home station.

3. When the military pronounces someone killed “during combat operations,” it makes for an entirely vague and unsatisfying qualifying of the account of someone's death. It's the description that came with the military death notices for Coffey, Brazas, and Ashley.

4. Mike Joseph, “37th TRG Honors Belgian Malinois: MWD Gets Heroism Medal for Action under Fire,”
Air Education and Training Command
(News), September 27, 2012, http://www.aetc.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123319933.

5. Chuck Roberts, “Working Dog Reunites with Handler During Bedside Hospital Visit,” US Army News, September 24, 2012, http://www.army.mil/article/87806
/Working_dog_reunites_with_handler_during_bedside_hospital_visit/.

6. Andrew deGrandpre, “3 MARSOC Marines, Dog Die in Afghan Blaze,”
Marine Corps Times
, August 3, 2011.

7. “Sgt. Christopher Wrinkle Died Trying To Save Dog,” YouTube post of WGAL Channel 8, Local News Report, August 8, 2011, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ga-qJLi8pmc.

8. Thomas Lynch,
The Undertaking
(New York: Penguin Books, 1997), 21.

9. Email correspondence from Captain Katie Barry sent in early October 2012 from her new station in Germany.

10. Jeff Donn, “Soldiers Find Loyal Companions in War Dogs,” Associated Press, NBC, August 12, 2007, http://www.nbcnews.com/id/20151076/ns/health-pet_health/t
/soldiers-find-loyal-comrades-war-dogs/#.U3GQHC9RHyx. Some records incorrectly state that Bruno was killed in this attack. Master Sergeant (Ret.) Joel Burton confirmed that this was not the case. He wrote to me on September 27, 2012, that three dogs were wounded in this attack—Flapoor, Bruno, and Kevin all survived. The 341st Training Squadron at Lackland Air Force Base is responsible for keeping the records as mandated in The Robby Law. Burton, who was stationed at Lackland for eight years, was responsible for maintaining this document that tracks MWDs (from all branches) as he puts it, “from cradle to grave.”

11. Corporal Micah Snead, “Military Working Dog, Marine Stick Together Through Battle, Injuries,” Leatherneck.com, February 7, 2006, http://www.leatherneck.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-26186.html.

12. Interview with Charlie Hardesty, March 2012.

13. “Five Camp Lejeune Marines Killed in Iraq,” Associated Press, http://www.milit
arytimes.com/valor/soldier/1459367. No publication date is listed, but given that it was a wire story, it was likely January 2006.

14. Mike Dowling, “SGT Adam Leigh Cann—Semper Fi War Dog,” post from his now defunct blog
K-9 Pride
, April 22, 2008, http://k9pride.wordpress.com/2008/04/22
/sgt-adam-leigh-cann-semper-fi-war-dog/.

15. Mike Pitts, “First Marine Scout Dog Killed in Action,” photographer and publication unknown, 1966, at US War Dog Memorial Site, http://uswardogsmemorial
.org/id16.html.

16. “Video: LCpl Ferrell and Zora,” American Forces Network Afghanistan, DVIDS video, 7:54, taken June 25, 2012, http://www.dvidshub.net/video/148955/lcpl
-ferrell-and-zora#.URcd6eh9_K4.

17. Master Sergeant (Ret.) Joel Burton confirmed that this was an accurate statement.

18. I verified this number against two different sites, my own blog posts, and checked it with two different sources who had worked within the 341st at Lackland Air Force Base. This number does not include Special Operations or Special Forces dogs. I believe that if it did the number would increase significantly.

19. The Robby Law, Bill H.R. 5314, http://save-a-vet.org/d7/sites/default/files/docs
/GOV-RobbysLaw-HRBILL.pdf.

20. From my study of these reports dating from CY00–CY11, with few exceptions, when the status of death was qualified as KIA, it was not followed with a notation on the cause of death—bullet, IED, etc.

21. Interview with Master Sergeant (Ret.) Joel Burton, January 2013.

22. Obituary for Joshua Brandon Farnsworth, MailTribune.com, July 8, 2007, www
.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070708/NEWS04/307089996&c
id=sitesearch.

23. Phone interviews with Sean Lulofs, September 20, 2012, and October 1, 2012.

24. C. J. Chivers, “Cataloging Wounds of War to Help Heal Them,”
New York Times
, May 17, 2012.

25. Ibid.

chapter 8: wounds and healing

1. “U.S. Soldier Charged with Murder in Iraq Shooting Deaths,” CNN.com, May 12, 2009, http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/05/12/iraq.soldiers.killed/.

2. Rod Nordland, “Report Finds Lapses in Handling of G.I. Accused of Murders in Iraq,”
New York Times
, October 20, 2009.

3. Luis Martinez and Martha Raddatz, “Camp Liberty Shooting: Alleged Shooter's Dad Says Soldier ‘Just Broke,'” ABC.com, May 12, 2009, http://abcnews.go.com
/Politics/story?id=7565251.

4. James Dao and Paul von Zielbauer, “Among 5 Killed, a Mender of Heartache and a Struggling Private,”
New York Times
, May 17, 2009; Ernesto Londoño, “U.S. Soldier in Iraq Kills 5 Comrades at Stress Clinic,”
Washington Post
,
May 12, 2009.

5. William Krol, “Training the Combat and Operational Stress Control Dog: An Innovative Modality for Behavioral Health,”
United States Army Medical Department Journal: Canine Assisted Therapy in Military Medicine
(April–June 2012): 46.

6. Bushra Juhi, “58,000 Dogs Killed in Baghdad in Campaign to Curb Attacks by Strays,”
The Washington Post
, July 11, 2010, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp
-dyn/content/article/2010/07/10/AR2010071002235.html.

7. Nordland, “Report Finds Lapses in Handling of G.I. Accused of Murders in Iraq.”

8. Margaret C. Harrell and Nancy Berglass, “Losing the Battle: The Challenge of Military Suicide,” Policy Brief by Center for New American Security, October 2011. The policy brief's authors got these numbers from the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs. It was of particular interest that the authors made a special note in the report that they intentionally “refrain from using the phrase ‘commit suicide . . .' because the word ‘commit' portrays suicide as a sin or crime . . . [and] contributes to a stigma that prevents individuals from getting help.”

9. Tina Rosenberg, “For Veterans, a Surge of New Treatments for Trauma,”
New York Times
, September 26, 2012.

10. Steve Bentley, “A Short History of PTSD: From Thermopylae to Hue Soldiers Have Always Had A Disturbing Reaction To War,”
VVA Veteran
(March–April 2005; originally published January 1991).

11. Ibid.

12. In 1871, after conducting his clinical study of 300 Civil War veterans, Dr. Jacob Mendes Da Costa wrote a paper outlining that such symptoms were the manifested stress a soldier weathered in the battlefield.

13. Caroline Alexander, “The Shock of War,”
Smithsonian Magazine
,
September 2010.

14. “Beside Freud's Couch, a Chow Named Jofi,”
Wall Street Journal
, December 21, 2010, http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052748703886904576031
63012408736.

15. Ernest Harold Baynes,
Animal Heroes of the Great War
(New York: The Macmillan Company, 1925), 198.

16. Ibid.

17. Dorothy Harrison Eustis, “The Seeing Eye,”
Saturday Evening Post
, November 5, 1927. To no great surprise the Germans, who proved ahead of the canine curve in most instances, were the first to use guide dogs, training them with innovation and then assigning them to soldiers who had been blinded in battle by mustard gas.

18. Most unbelievably, on his voyage over, because he was sightless, the 20-year-old man was deemed not another passenger but a “parcel.” The crew on the ship went so far as to restrict his activity while he was aboard the vessel until the trip was over. “Through Buddy's Eyes,”
Vanderbilt Magazine
,
Fall 2010, http://www.vanderbilt
.edu/magazines/vanderbilt-magazine/2010/12/through-buddys-eyes/.

19. “Guide Dog, at 10, Still Aiding Blind,”
New York Times
,
October 16, 1936.

20. Perry R. Chumley, “Medical Perspectives of the Human-Animal Bond Within the Department of Defense,”
The United States Army Medical Department Journal
(April–June 2012): 18–20.

21. Clayton G. Going,
Dogs at War
(New York: The Macmillan Company, 1945), 164–65.

22. Fairfax Downey,
Dogs for Defense: American Dogs in the Second World War 1941–1945
(New York: Dog for Defense, Inc., 1955), 114–115.

23. Ibid.,117.

24. B. M. Levinson, “The Dog as Co-Therapist,”
Mental Hygiene
46 (1962): 59–65.

25. Mark Thompson, “Bringing Dogs to Heal,”
Time
, December 5, 2010.

26. Major Arthur F. Yeager and Captain Jennifer Irwin, “Rehabilitative Canine Interactions at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center,”
The United States Army Medical Department Journal
(April–June 2012): 57–60.

27. Thompson, “Bringing Dogs to Heal.”

28. “Franken-Isakson Service Dogs For Veterans Act Passes Senate: Legislation To Help Wounded Veterans Included In Defense Authorization Bill,” press release, July 24, 2009, http://www.franken.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=592.

29. Janie Lorber, “For the Battle-Scarred, Comfort at Leash's End,”
New York Times
, April 3, 2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/04/us/04dogs.html.

30. Phone interview with Harvey Naranjo, January 27, 2013.

31. James Dao, “After Duty, Dogs Suffer Like Soldiers,”
New York Times
, December 1, 2011.

chapter 9: the never again wars

1. Clayton G. Going,
Dogs at War
(New York: The Macmillan Company, 1944), 3–4. This is a selection shared by Going but is excerpted from
The National Humane Review of the American Humane Association;
no author is noted.

2. Phone interview with Justin Harding, January 30, 2013.

3. Dan Lamothe, “Dogs Become Essential in Fight against IEDs,”
Marine Corps Times
, March 25, 2010.

4. Michael G. Lemish,
War Dogs: A History of Loyalty and Heroism
(Washington, DC: Brassley's, 1996), 240. Lemish has compiled this number from after-action reports, which he notes were “spotty at best” and not filed by Marines.

5. Airman 1st Class David Owsianka, “SFS Handler, MWD Receive Bronze Star,” 56th Fighter Wing Public Affairs, August 12, 2011, http://www.luke.af.mil/news
/story.asp?id=123267984.

6. Peter Maass, “Professor Nagl's War,”
New York Times
Magazine, January 11, 2004, http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/11/magazine/professor-nagl-s-war.html.

7. From an in-person interview with John Nagl, June 12, 2012.

8. Dan Lamothe, “Afghanistan Drawdown Keeps Logistics Crews Busy,”
Marine Corp Times
,
June 11, 2012, http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2012/06
/marine-logistics-afghanistan-equipment-leaving-061012/.

chapter 10: home again, home again

1. James Fallows, “Mike the Cat,”
Atlantic
,
December 11, 2013, http://www.the
atlantic.com/personal/archive/2013/12/mike-the-cat/282238/.

epilogue: what we talk about
when we talk about war dogs

1. Mark Derr,
A Dog's History of America
(New York: North Point Press, 2004), xvi.

2. Albert Payson Terhune,
The Book of Famous Dogs
(New York: Triangle Books, 1937), 240–241.

3. Phone interview with Mark Derr, June 21, 2012.

Index

The index that appeared in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your e-book. Please use the search function on your e-reading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.

5-and-25,
113

Afghanistan

Bagram Airfield,
85
,
168
,
170
,
174
,
201
,
239
n29

CPTSD and,
201
–2

EOD in,
67
–71

Forward Operating Base Castle,
146

Haji Rahmuddin,
121

IEDs and,
112
,
114
,
152
,
207

Korengal valley,
87

military fatalities in,
111
–12,
177
,
179

military injuries in,
112

MWD in,
3
,
5
,
56
,
80
–81,
85
,
121
–22,
125
–26,
140
,
143
,
145
–46,
155
–57,
165
–71,
173
–74,
201
–2,
207
,
210
–11,
213
–14,
216
–22,
228

Patrol Base Tar,
88
–89

PTSD and,
190

suicide bombings in,
76
–77

Taliban and,
132

therapy dogs and,
186

Urzugan Province,
152

U.S. and,
4
–5,
111
–12,
132
,
177
,
190

see also
Operation Enduring Freedom

Albright, Keegan,
218

Alexander the Great,
75

American Air Forces Convalescent Hospital,
195

America's VetDogs,
186

Amos, James F.,
208

Anderson, Mike,
116
–17

animal-assisted therapy,
186
,
195
–96

Animal Heroes of the Great War
(Baynes),
53
,
93

Ashley, Joshua,
149
,
157
,
160
–68,
175
–76,
214
–17,
229

Attila the Hun,
3

Bagram Airfield,
85
,
168
,
170
,
174
,
201
,
239
n29

Balboa, Vasco Nuñez de,
104

Barbero, Michael D.,
113
–14

Barker, Sandra,
196

Barr, Brady,
49

Barry, Katie,
169
,
170
–71,
174
,
201

Baynes, Ernest Harold,
53
,
93
,
192

Beauchamp, Phil,
153
–54,
160
–64,
217

Behan, Kevin,
40
,
43
,
86
–87

Bekoff, Marc,
57
–59,
62
,
66

Blanchfield Army Community Hospital,
180

Blue Cross Society,
79

Boe (Labrador Retriever),
183
–91,
199

Boland, Shea,
89
–90,
218
–19

bomb-sniffing dogs,
3
–4,
15
–17,
97
–99,
115
–20,
129
,
167
,
179
,
206
–7

Brandy,
115
,
117

Cezar,
116
–17

Chaney,
218

Dyngo,
123
–24

Eli,
220

Ginger,
36

Haus,
93

Lex,
136
–37

Rex,
116
–17

Sirius,
215

Teri,
120

Bowe, John Brandon,
140
,
148

Brave Men
(Pyle),
11
,
183

Brazas, Sean,
167
–68,
175
,
243
n1,
243
n3

breeds of dogs

Belgian Malinois,
49

Belgian sheep dogs,
109

bird dogs,
105

Bloodhounds,
99
–100,
103
,
239
–40n9

Bullmastiffs,
49

Collies,
109
–10

Dachschunds,
100

Doberman pinschers,
109

Fox terriers,
105

German shepherds,
25
,
34
,
37
,
45
,
48
–49,
68
,
100
,
109
–10,
130
,
166
–67,
172
,
193
,
195
,
200
,
213
,
224

Giant schnauzers,
109

Greyhounds,
104

hounds,
3
,
89
,
99
–100,
103
,
104

Huskies,
108
,
110

Labrador retrievers,
80
,
88
,
115
,
183
,
242
n3

Mastiffs,
78
,
104

Pit bulls,
49

Scottish-Irish terriers,
78

Skye terriers,
75

British War Dogs
(Richardson),
38

Brodsky, Michael J.,
167
–68

Bronco,
81
–86,
88
,
239
n29

Browning, Elizabeth Barrett,
240
n25

Burghardt, Walter E.,
201

Burton, Joel,
177
,
243
n10

Bush, George W.,
15

Camp Baharia,
13
,
19

Camp Dwyer,
211

Camp Huskers,
4

Camp Kaiser,
173

Camp Leatherneck,
146
,
165
–66,
173
,
202
–3,
217

Camp Lejeune,
24
–25,
160
,
213
,
243n2

Camp Liberty,
183
,
189

Camp Pendleton,
12
,
172

canine posttraumatic stress disorder (CPTSD),
201

Cann, Adam,
171
–72,
179

Carlson, Ted,
48

Chaffetz, Jason,
118

Chauvet Cave,
74

Chips (dog),
109
–10

Churchill, Winston,
110

Civil War,
78
,
106
,
111
,
191
,
208
,
240
n25,
245
n12

Coast Guard,
16
,
109

Coffey, Keaton,
167
–68,
243
n3

Colin (Lieutenant),
195

Columbus, Christopher,
104

Combat and Operational Stress Control (COSC),
184
,
186
–90

combat fatigue,
191

combat tracker dogs,
100
,
132
,
135
–40,
146

Connally, David,
115

Corinthians, dogs and,
3

Cortés, Hernán,
104

counterinsurgency,
137

Counterinsurgency Field Manual
(Nagl),
208

Creamer, Zainah,
174
–75

Curtis, Sabrina,
200
–1

Custer, George Armstrong,
105
–6

Da Costa Syndrome,
191
,
245
n12

Dangerous Encounters
(TV series),
49

Davidson, Robyn,
213

Davis, Benjamin,
115

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency,
119

Department of Defense (DOD),
77
,
112
–13,
177

Department of Homeland Security (DHS),
117
–18

Detection Canine Team Program,
116

Derr, Mark,
74
,
96
,
227
–29

“Dog as Co-Therapist, The” (Levinson),
196

Dogs at War
(Going),
205

Dog's Best Friend
(Derr),
96

Dog's History of America, A
(Derr),
227

Dog's Nose Program,
119

Dogs for Defense Program,
3
,
38
,
108
,
110
,
195

Dogs of War
(Behan),
40

Donovan, Jimmy,
78
–79

Doughty, Alyssa,
169
–70,
174

drone strikes,
5
,
137

Dyngo,
122
–26,
157
–58,
174
,
207
,
217

Egypt, dogs and,
3
,
160
,
190

Eisenhower, Dwight D.,
110

Erlanger, Arlene,
107
–8

explosive ordnance disposal (EOD),
15
,
68
,
71
,
81
,
120
,
124
,
158
,
164

Facebook,
80
,
174
–176,
243
n1

Fallujah,
13
,
19
–20,
22
–23,
178
–79

Farnsworth, Joshua,
13
,
15
,
19
–22,
179

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA),
115
–16

Ferrell, Kent,
166

Fido,
119
–21

FINEX,
152
,
161
,
164

Frank, Morris,
193
–94

Franken, Al,
196

Franklin, Benjamin,
104
–5

Freedom of Information Act,
177

Garcia, Eddie,
149
,
160
,
217

Going, Clayton C.,
205

Greyfriars Bobby (dog),
75

Guide Dog Foundation,
186

Gutierrez, Pascual,
55
–56,
58

Hachiko (dog),
75

Hamilton, Alexander,
105

Hardesty, Charlie,
129
–40,
149
,
151
,
153
,
155
,
158
–61,
163
,
168
,
200
–1,
215

Harding, Justin,
205
–7,
211

Hatala, Matt,
88
–90,
217
–20

Holyfield, Evander,
49

homemade explosives,
97

Hook, Sara,
198

Horowitz, Alexandra,
54
–55,
102

How the Dog Became the Dog
(Derr),
74

Howe, William,
105

Hussein, Saddam,
13
,
16
,
18

Hyrkanus,
75

II-MEF,
165
–66,
175
,
217

improvised explosive devices (IEDs),
3
,
15
–17,
20
,
82
,
88
,
99
–100,
112
–14,
119
,
124
,
133
–35,
138
,
152
,
165
,
167
,
177
,
180
,
206
–8,
210
–11,
215

Improvised Explosive Detector Dog (IEDD) program,
206
–7,
211

Inter-Service Advance Skills K–9 (ISAK),
2
,
127
–29,
140
–41,
150
–52,
165
,
168
,
172
,
174
–75,
180
,
200

Iraq

COSC and,
184
,
186
–90

IEDs and,
111
–14

Iraq War,
11
–13,
15
,
197
–99,
208

Marine Corps and,
12
–13,
15
–23,
67

MWDs and,
3
,
5
,
14
,
17
–23,
67
,
156
–57,
171
–72,
176
–79,
201

Navy and,
16

training for deployment to,
135
,
143

see also
Fallujah; Operation Iraqi Freedom

Isakson, Johnny,
196

Jakubin, Christopher,
31
–37,
41
–46,
48
,
50
–51,
53
–55,
62
–65,
93
–95,
100
–1,
103
,
157
,
201
,
217
,
231

Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO),
113

Jones, Raymond,
160

Junger, Sebastian,
87
,
157

Kaminski, Juliane,
59
–60

Kartune, William,
13

Keilman, Christopher,
141
–42,
150
–51,
155
–56

Keller, Helen,
183

Kilburn, Roland,
108

King Lysimachus,
75

King, William E.,
194

Kitts, Justin,
121
–26,
142
–43,
150
,
157
–58,
160
–61,
163
–64,
167
,
174
,
207
,
217