A military medal for 'our four-legged heroes'

The drug-sniffing 13-year-old German shepherd, despite his infirmities, was still trained to repel anybody who leaned in too close. “He’s old school,” said Robby’s handler, U.S. Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Ashlea Scully. “He can still be aggressive.”

On Tuesday, Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., settled for a pat on the head. Later on, Robby joined five other military dogs — four still on active duty — and their handlers at the War Dog Memorial here as Menendez announced the passage of his legislation creating a “Guardians of America’s Freedom Medal,” the Department of Defense’s first official commendation for military working dogs.

On a hot, muggy day, as Menendez fielded questions about his challenging re-election fight, Robby, Rudy, Laika, Kkrusty, Kira and O.J. stood panting patiently on leashes next to their handlers, as the senator proclaimed them “four-legged heroes.”

“These dogs endure multiple tours of duty. Some come back having lost limbs and others give their lives in service to their teams,” Menendez said. “Yet until now the U.S. military did not recognize the incredible service and sacrifice of working dogs and their handlers.”

Several hundred active-duty dogs are currently deployed with handlers in the Middle East, said Ron Aiello, 74, president of the New Jersey-based War Dogs Association and a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who served in Vietnam in 1966-67 with Stormy, a German shepherd scout trained to sniff out booby traps.

Aiello’s nonprofit organization got the War Dog memorial — a bronze of a soldier in Vietnam kneeling alongside his canine companion — built in 2006 next to the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans Memorial, on the former state fairgrounds that also house the PNC Bank Arts Center. He and his colleagues find adoptive homes for dogs cycling out of military service, help pay for medical care for retired dogs — including Robby — and donate supplies to active-duty canines.

“If a handler is over in the Middle East and they need a new harness, they requisition it but may take three or four months to get it,” Aiello said. “They could email me and I could have it in the mail tomorrow, and they could have it next week.”

Aiello said more than 700 retired military dogs are enrolled in his organization’s free prescription drug program — an indication that in the military, as in civilian life, dogs are increasingly treated like family.

The handlers said that the dogs’ military service should be recognized, too.

“They do amazing things: finding bombs and finding drugs and saving people’s lives,” said Scully, 33, who, while serving in the Navy, helps train dogs for other military branches at the Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in Burlington County, New Jersey. “I feel like they deserve the same amount of tribute and thanks and honor that we would give to any man or woman who’s gone before and fought to defend our freedom and our rights.”

Air Force Senior Airman Devin Leach, 24, said of his canine partner, Rudy: “He’s the one that does everything — I’m just here.” Rudy, a Belgian Malinois, has a résumé that includes a presidential security detail at Trump Tower in New York City.

“He’s done a lot for the country,” Leach said. “I’m proud of him.”

It is a far cry from the station that U.S. military dogs occupied during the Vietnam War, said Gene Wimberly, secretary of the War Dogs Association. Wimberly, an Army veteran who worked with Argo, a German shepherd scout detailed to his platoon in Vietnam, said military dogs at that time were regarded as “equipment,” and many that served in Vietnam were euthanized or — like Argo — given to the Vietnamese.

Menendez said that under his legislation, which he wrote two years ago after meeting with advocates for war dogs, each branch of the armed services will establish criteria for selecting canine medal recipients and will design the awards themselves. He said the measure has passed both houses of Congress and is on President Donald Trump’s desk, and he is confident it will be signed.

In his remarks, Menendez cited the exploits of Sergeant Stubby, a bull terrier from World War I credited with saving lives by sniffing out poison gas, and Cairo, a Kevlar-wearing Belgian Malinois who was deployed with the elite team that killed Osama bin Laden.

“If we as a nation can strap a Kevlar vest on Cairo and send him on a mission with SEAL Team 6,” he said, “or we can deploy dogs like Kira or Kkrusty or Rudy to dangerous regions around the world, then I think they deserve more than treats and a pat on the head.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.