National: Congress acts to let wounded soldier keep her on-duty dog By ANYA SOSTEK
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
29-NOV-05

This is the story of a soldier and her dog, and the act of Congress required to keep them together.

It began in July, when Air Force Tech. Sgt. Jamie Dana woke up, confused, in a hospital bed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.

Her last memory was riding in a military convoy in Iraq after she and her bomb-sniffing dog, Rex, had searched a village. She remembered being in extreme pain. And she remembered asking frantically about Rex, eventually being told that he had not survived.

But she didn't know that the military had told her husband, fellow Air Force security officer Mike Dana, that she wasn't going to survive her injuries.

She didn't know that, after a bomb exploded under her Humvee, she spent more than a week in military hospitals in Iraq and Germany before arriving in Washington.

And she didn't know that Rex had survived the bombing with only a minor burn on his nose.

It was partly for the love of animals that Dana, 26, joined the Air Force after graduating from high school. Growing up surrounded by cows, horses and pigs on a farm in Hazel Hurst, Pa., she knew that she wanted to be a veterinarian and that the Air Force had a canine handler program.

She handled a few other dogs first, but about three years ago, she was paired with Rex, an 80-pound German shepherd.

She and Rex were deployed to Pakistan, where they spent nearly every minute together, doing walking patrols, riding in armored Humvees and searching vehicles and houses. She had pet dogs growing up, but her bond with Rex was different.

"We depend on each other as a lifeline," she said.

After six months in Pakistan, she and Rex returned to Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colo., where she was stationed. And even though she wasn't scheduled to be deployed again, Dana wanted to go to Iraq.

"I pretty much begged to go," she said.

The bomb exploded under her Humvee three weeks after she arrived in Iraq. The explosion collapsed her lungs, fractured her pelvis and her spine and sent her into hemorrhagic shock.

Her husband flew from Colorado, where he was stationed, to Germany and then to Washington to be by her side.

When she regained consciousness at Walter Reed, she immediately thought of Rex. "He was always on my mind," she said. "From the moment I was actually starting to become coherent again, I started asking about him."

When Rep. John E. Peterson, R-Pa., visited her in the hospital, she enlisted his help in adopting Rex. "For her to go through all that trauma, all that pain, it seemed to me that if Rex was her first love, Rex should be at her side," he said.

When Rex came to the hospital for the first time, Dana whistled when she heard him coming. He immediately ran down the hallway and jumped into her hospital bed, tangling himself up in her tubes.

"We were both pretty excited," she said. "Just to see him, to know that he remembered me."

But the long-term adoption process wasn't as simple as Dana had hoped.

Peterson sent an official request to the Air Force, only to receive a letter telling him that adopting a military war dog was prohibited by law until the dog reached retirement age because of the $18,000 training expense.

It would take congressional intervention for the adoption to go through. And although the Air Force initially was opposed to the adoption, the agency eventually was instrumental in getting the ball rolling.

A spokeswoman for Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., said the secretary of the Air Force contacted his office and asked the congressman to insert language on Dana into the defense appropriations bill. Murtha agreed, although the final language is still pending.

Last week, Sen. John Warner. R-Va., agreed to insert similar language into the Senate defense appropriations bill.

When Peterson told Dana that the adoption looked likely, she cried.

Dana was allowed to take Rex home with her to the family farm in Hazel Hurst, where she spent most of November on leave. As she continued her recovery, Rex adjusted to a civilian lifestyle.

Dana is now walking with a cane, though she faces extensive rehabilitation. The Air Force has awarded her the Purple Heart.

Friday, she flew to Colorado, where she will take a desk job while the military medical boards evaluate her case. She plans to take a few remaining science classes and apply to vet school.

http://www.shns.com/shns/g_index2.cf...ERDOG-11-29-05

The Tale of St. Dana and her dog, Rex By BERNIE ABRAMS
Contributing Writer
PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, COLORADO

The tally is now final. The score is love 1, bureaucracy 0. Life two, death zip.

Technical Sgt. Jamie Dana, late of the 21st Security Forces Squadron and a military working dog handler, is together for good with her much-loved German Shepherd Rex.

After six months of service in Pakistan, their tour of duty was dramatically shortened. They were deployed to Iraq. In their third week, Sgt. Dana and Rex were in a vehicle that rolled over a roadside bomb. It exploded. The two were brought back to the United States for treatment.

“I was out of it for weeks,” Sgt. Dana informed The Animal Companion. “When I woke up, they told me Rex was dead.”

Believing it didn’t help her recover from her wounds, including a pelvis shattered into three parts, and, according to squadron liaison Stefan Bocchino, “the fact that the doctors had to just about rearrange her internal organs during surgeries.” But she made it, and was later informed that Rex had also been injured but survived. The five-year-old dog, Dana’s partner for three of those years, reportedly sustained some burns but recuperated fairly quickly.

Undoubtedly being back with his handler helped that recuperation. It did just as much for her. And helped her make up her mind that she wanted to adopt Rex.

Standing between Sgt. Dana and that dream, open to every American citizen who wants to adopt an animal, was a congressional resolution passed during Bill Clinton’s presidency. The rule was a military dog must be nine or ten years old and retired from active duty before a handler can adopt.

Even that was an improvement over procedures in previous wars, when an end to combat meant the war dogs would be killed or abandoned when they were no longer needed.

In Sgt. Dana’s quest to make Rex her pet, the Internet turned into her best support and worst enemy, with the exception of the person who planted the roadside mine. As word leaked about her intentions, three entities converged to help make them reality.

One was the American Humane Association in Englewood, Colorado, which became involved in a petition to Congress. AHA’s president Marie Belew Wheatley cited her organization's role in protecting animals and children from cruelty, abuse and exploitation as the reason for taking up Sgt. Dana’s cause. The other two are AOL Friends and earth.care2.com, the latter of which failed to respond in a timely manner to inquiries by The Animal Companion.

Even so, the upshot of the campaign was an Internet petition to Congress, circulated between last Thanksgiving and Christmas, to obtain 25,000 signatures. Within days, more than 29,000 people signaled their support. Congress, in a rare bipartisan showing, passed a bill permitting military dogs to be adopted under exceptional circumstances.

Quickly, the President signed.

Back on the Internet, opposing this act, were a reported several hundred people, some arguing that the procedure allowing adoption of retired older war dogs shouldn’t be changed. And some people with other agendas. One, who described himself as a veteran, suggested “letting women into combat zones, or the military entirely, was a bad idea…Stay home and cook please, and let your hormones do the thinking.”

Sgt. Dana admits to mixed emotions since the bill’s signing. “I was so happy on one hand that Rex and I could stay together, but on the other hand I’ve heard very hurtful things from several people.”
She notes that members of the 21st wing’s leadership have told her the replacement for Rex was on his way to Iraq, and that there is no shortage of dogs ready to assume their critical roles with their handlers.

“They told me they wouldn’t support my request if they thought letting me adopt Rex would cost” one soldier’s life. “I wouldn't want to put anyone at risk either.”

And so on Jan. 13, at a special base ceremony, Sgt. Dana signed a certificate of ownership transfer with her squadron commander, Maj. Paul Cairney, while AHA’s Marie Wheatley looked on. The major then turned Rex on his leash over to Dana.

“We at American Humane know there is a powerful bond between people and animals that has already played a role in Sgt. Dana’s recovery and now can continue to do so,” Wheatley noted.

Sgt. Dana, recalling her thoughts when she first saw Rex during her recovery, said “My best friend is okay. We lived, and we’re gonna be okay.”

Noting that she comes from a farming family “where my father raises black Anguses” in northwestern Pennsylvania, Sgt. Dana tells The Animal Companion she has been moving around the country visiting some veterinary schools, and is considering training Rex in search and rescue when she is back to full strength.

She and her husband, Staff Sgt. Mike Dana, 721 SFS system flight chief, are together again as she continues to recuperate from her wounds.

“The therapy was long and stressful for both of us,” she says. “I’m glad to be back with friends and family.”
First published March 18, 2006 in The Animal Companion.

Source: http://www.animalcomp.com/SgtRex.html



The American Kennel Club Awards for Canine Excellence (ACE) 2006 The American Kennel Club Awards for Canine Excellence (ACE) 2006

The American Kennel Club (AKC) is proud to announce the recipients and Honorable Mentions for the 2006 Awards for Canine Excellence (ACE). Established in 2000, ACE has become a valuable public-outreach program for the AKC as well as a source of pride among the fancy and the dog community.

A photograph and story about the recipients in each of the five categories; Exemplary Companion, Law Enforcement, Search and Rescue, Service, and Therapy are shown below along with photos of this year's Honorable Mentions. The five recipients will receive their engraved silver collar medallions and $1,000 cash awards at a presentation ceremony at the AKC/Eukanuba National Championship in Long Beach, California, on December 2-3, 2006.

A local presentation will also be held for each recipient at an AKC dog show near their hometown. This information will be posted on our Web site when it becomes available.

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Law Enforcement Dog: Rex
German Shepherd Dog
Owner: Jamie Dana of Colorado Springs, Colorado

Rex is a retired military working dog. With his partner Tech Sgt Jamie Dana, Rex served in the United States Air Force as a bomb detection dog. The pair worked for three years on assignments in the US and abroad before Jamie volunteered for a tour of duty in Iraq.

Months passed and Rex saved countless lives by detecting bombs planted by insurgents. One day on the way back to base, Rex and Jamie's humvee was hit by a roadside bomb. It was demolished by the sudden blast and Jamie suffered life threatening injuries. Barely clinging to life, she was rushed to a field hospital. When she asked about Rex, she was told that he did not survive the blast. Little did she know, the faithful canine had been thrown clear of the wreckage and narrowly escaped with only minor injuries. Soon afterwards, it became apparent that the insurgents real target had been Rex.

Rex was sent to Walter Reed Hospital to comfort Jamie as she recovered. She asked if she could adopt Rex, knowing that they would soon be separated by Rex's obligations as a military working dog. The Air Force declined her request because Rex still had another 5 years to work. As a result of this devastating news, Jamie's family and friends went to Congress and successfully urged them to pass legislation that would allow Jamie to take Rex home.

Passage of Sec. 599 of Public Law 109-163 now allows handlers who wish to adopt their dogs to do the same.

Award Presentation:
Rex was honored at the Catonsville Kennel Club show on Saturday, October 14, 2006.

Source: http://www.akc.org/news/ace/2006/honorees.cfm

I don't know if this should be in news... Heart Warming Stories is more like it. ;-)