Air Force 'soldier' gets a doggone good home

Injured in Iraq, Rex adopted by handler after change in law

Joe Garner, Rocky Mountain News

Published January 14, 2006 at midnight

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COLORADO SPRINGS - Rex made dog history Friday.

Then he growled in faux ferocity and rolled in the grass to jubilate, as only a happy German shepherd can.

His handler, Air Force Tech. Sgt. Jamie Dana, was even happier because a recent change in federal law allowed her to adopt Rex before his military tour was up.

His military discharge Friday, with love and ceremony at Peterson Air Force Base, was the first under the new law.

The bomb-detection dog has been Dana's constant companion through a painful recovery following an explosion in Iraq on June 25 that flipped their Humvee three times and left both with life-threatening injuries.

"Rex was my buddy," Dana said, trying to describe her affection for the dog while commanding him to "stay" or "get it."

Rex played with a blue ball, defending it against interlopers, as Dana explained her love for animals and for this strapping dog in particular.

"We went to Iraq together," she said. "We got hurt together. We almost died together."

For a while, in the chaos of the attack and the fog of her medical treatment, Dana, 27, was told erroneously that Rex had been killed when the bomb went off under their vehicle.

Her family was told her death was imminent, but she stubbornly clung to life despite a catalog of injuries.

"When I was told Rex had been killed . . . it was like being told your child would never be coming home again," Dana said.

Only after she arrived at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., about a week after the attack did the situation get untangled.

Dana was with her family, including her husband, Staff Sgt. Mike Dana, also stationed in Colorado Springs, when Rex arrived to visit, bounding down the hospital corridor.

"It was the best thing you could think of," she said.

Influential members of Congress took up Dana's cause, working for a change in the law that treated bomb-detection dogs like any other weapon in the national arsenal.

That law, and some critics, stood in the way of releasing 5-year-old Rex, trained at a cost of $18,000, from the next five or six years of his expected working career in the military.

"Some people said the government should not be giving up military assets with a war going on," said Maj. Paul D. Cairney, commander of the unit where Dana and Rex were teamed.

The American Humane Association intervened, saying the story of Dana and Rex "affirms the power of the connection between people and animals."

Congress loved their story and President Bush did, too. He signed the law earlier this month allowing a military dog like Rex to be returned, in special cases, to a peaceful, civilian life before his hitch is up.

Dana, who hopes to someday become a veterinarian, and her husband already share their life with a menagerie that includes two other dogs, three cats and four horses. Meanwhile, she's continuing therapy while being evaluated for duty by a medical board.

garnerj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5421

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