You're a good ol' dog, Sergeant Rex

I was at Barnes and Noble and (as is my wont) stopped to look at their bargain book shelves.  A picture brought be up short: a picture of a German Shepherd Dog sitting on a tank.  That's Sergeant Rex.

As you can imagine, I grabbed a copy.  After all, who doesn't like German Shepherds, or tanks, or Marines?  This is a trifecta of win, even without the markdown price.  That's just icing on the cake.

Rex is a Explosive Ordnance Detection dog, and his story is written by CPL Mike Dowlin (with Damien Lewis as co-author).  The story is that of handler and Working Dog, and their adventures in the combat zone that was Fallujah in the spring and summer of 2004.  "Hot" didn't just describe the weather then.

Rex was the first Combat Dog (Devil Dog, indeed: oohrah!) in the US Military since Vietnam.  All that had once been known about military dog handling had been forgotten, and had to be rediscovered.  For example, the M-16 was too big a weapon, and would bounce off of Rex's head when Dowlin and Rex were running towards the objective.  There was learning that went on the whole time of deployment.

The Marines, as you'd imagine, loved having and EOD Dog.  They were taking it left and right from IEDs, and so Rex was seen not as a mascot, but as a comrade.  Well, a bit of mascot, anyway:

Rex gets his front feet up on the sandbagged guardhouse, and barks furiously at anything suspicious.  The marines love it, and the love Rex - just as people do everywhere I've taken him.  He's such a good-looking dog that the marines have nicknamed him "Sexy Rexy".

But it's all fun and games until the RPGs fly:

This second RPG blows me off my perch, and Rex with me, the massive blast wave punching us into the earth.  I must've blacked out for a second, for I came to with Rex on his feet, eyes white with fear and searching wildly in the smoke and dust to find me.  Then he's on top of me, madly licking at my face.  If Rex could talk, I know what he'd be yelling right now: Wake up! Get up! Show me you're alive!

 Highly, highly recommended.  If you pass this up at the Barnes and Noble discount shelf, then you and I can't be friends anymore.  Sorry, that's just the way it is.

As a postscript that is not in the book, one of Rex's subsequent handlers got custody of him after Rex was done with his service:

By the time Rex turned eleven, Megan had enlisted the help of the public and Senator Charles Schumer to push through the adoption papers.  After supposedly being diagnosed with facial palsy, a disease that causes the left side of his face to be droopy and numb, Rex was retired and adopted by Megan on April 6 of this year.  She noted, "I had not seen Rex in three or four years, and as soon as I took the leash, we just picked up where we left off.  It seemed like no time had passed between us."

Unfortunately, dogs do not receive veteran benefits, so Megan would have had to pay for all of Rex's vet bills.  However, she told American Thinker that guardian angels by the names of Mindy and Randy Levine, the Yankees president, came forward, paying for her trip to pick up Rex in California, as well as paying for all of the veterinary bills, both current and future.  She plans on taking Rex to the best vets in New York, where she resides, to get a second opinion about his condition.  Meanwhile, Rex is adjusting well to his new environment, living with his special person and her two other dogs -- Patriot, a Chocolate lab, and Rocky, a Shiba Inu.

It is very obvious in speaking to Megan that she and Rex have a unique bond.  "I love Rex.  We almost died together.  He helped me get through the hardest time in my life. In his last few years he can relax, play with his toys, and we are together."

This is probably the first feeling of approbation I've ever felt for Sen. Schumer, or for the owners of the New York Yankees.  But it was well done.  Well done, indeed.