and the Hairy Thunderer forbid that these fine young men and women carry a scar with them forever because of a stupid policy.
It's against the rules for U.S. soldiers in Iraq to have pets, but the skinny black puppy that wandered up to the Florida National Guard soldiers at a base in northern Iraq wouldn't go away.
So the soldiers from Alpha Co. of the 2nd Battalion of the 124th Infantry Regiment adopted the mutt and named her Apache after their radio call sign.
...
While affectionate with the 130 or so soldiers in the company, Apache could spot a stranger instantly and would bark and growl menacingly. She seemed to especially dislike officers, and in September nipped at a captain from another company who got too close.
But Apache would happily greet the soldiers when they returned from patrols, then roll over to have her belly rubbed and chew playfully on their arms.
Still, the soldiers were warned repeatedly that they were flouting the rules and that they had to get rid of the dog.
Maggie Ford said her husband was researching how to bring Apache back when the soldiers come home in February, but commanders last month gave the soldiers a deadline.
...
Iraq, after all, is a place where life is hard enough for people, let alone animals.
Kim Alfonso said her husband recently had her mail him some clothes their 3-year-old daughter had outgrown so he could give them to children in the local villages, who often wear little more than rags.
"You have to keep things in perspective," Kim Alfonso said. "It's not like one of our guys was shot. We're talking about a dog. But it is sad."
Well, they allowed a Mad Turkey in on Thanksgiving with out the benefit of quarantine. I'm sure that getting one dog out of Iraq could have been facilitated by someone with half-a-brain...the Army does still travel with Commissioned Officers who are Veterenarians, and horses are not overly prevlalent in the well-ordered companies of Bradley's and Hummers. Poor little guy...he was just looking to survive and thought he had found it...Merry Christmas, yo.
posted by Jo Fish on 12.15.03 at 12:01 AM
Comments:
"[S]oldiers were eventually forced to obey orders and have the dog killed."
[...]
"Their morale dropped," said Linda Wood of Sumterville, whose son Spc. Seth Wood is in Alpha Co. "There were some guys who were very, very attached to that dog."
Sickening!
Am I the only one who thinks it's fucked to let these guys marry into Iraqi families during an insurrency crisis, but kill the animal that dared to look after them in her own way? Christ.
Incidentally, I happen to think my dog (hell, every dog I've ever had, for that matter) was kinder, more courageous and infinitely more loyal than roughly 98% of the people I've ever known. There's your "perspective"...
If they had contacted the guys from AF Special Ops the dog could have been "teleported" to Hurlburt Field at Fort Walton to be picked up by someone in the unit. This was very "doable" on a trade basis.
We had a dog on Shemya, a 2 by 4 mile island at the end of the Aleutians. It had to have come in by aircraft.
They are using dogs for search missions in Iraq which is one of the reasons for Vets, the other is that Vets are required to approve of any locally purchased meat.
posted by: Bryan on 12.15.03 at 05:23 PM [permalink]
