Friday, November 14, 2008

In Remembrance of Our Former Navy Dogs

My name is MA2 Chris Urias…I am a Navy dog handler…both my kennel supervisor and myself wear our Memorial Bracelets in remembrance of our former dogs.  I was deployed to Kuwait with my Military Working Dog in JAN 2007.  During that deployment I was scheduled to leave in JULY 2007 along with my partner back to our home station.  Shortly after my replacement arrived on station, his partner passed away and I was forced to leave my partner with my replacement.  I soon transferred duty stations after returning home never seeing my partner again.  I have since learned that he has returned home safely and will not be going on any other deployments in the near future.

My kennel supervisor wears his Memorial Bracelet also in remembrance but under different circumstances.  His Military Working Dog was from a different program all together.  They had teamed up in 2004 and went through 6 months of training before reaching their ultimate duty station.  Shortly thereafter, his team deployed to Iraq for 7 months. Upon return from his deployment him and his partner were assigned to numerous high level security details in and around the U.S. for high level dignitaries such as Heads of State…former Presidents…and other guests of the U.S.  Around FEB 2007 his partner was diagnosed with cancer and again he was tasked for another deployment to Iraq.  Unfortunately his partner was too sick to go along for the deployment so he was partnered with another MWD and continued on his deployment.  Shortly after deploying his 1st partner was put to sleep due to his illness. My kennel supervisor wasn’t notified until after his return to the states about his former partner.

I felt that this was a good way to remember both of our former partners.

Thank you.

Respectfully,
MA2 Chris
NAS Fallon Security Det.
K-9 Section

No comments: