Kamen Jeff - Warrior Pups: True Stories of Americas K9 Heroes

Military Working Dog Team Support Association. Inc. (mwdtsa.org)

MWDTSAs mission is to support current and retired deployed Military Working Dog Teams, veteran dog handler events and causes, war dog memorials, and educational opportunities.

Mission K9 Rescue (missionk9rescue.org)

Mission K9 Rescue is dedicated to rescue, reunite, re-home, rehabilitate, and repair any retired working dog that has served mankind in some capacity.

Support Police K9s, ProjectPawsAlive (projectpawsalive.org)

Project Paws Alive is dedicated to providing customized ballistic stab and bullet-protective K9 vests, K9 first aid field trauma kits, K9 cooling vest, K9 vehicle heat alarms and other vital K9 equipment to law enforcement, fire, search and rescue, and military K9s throughout the US who cannot otherwise afford this equipment.

US War Dog Association (uswardogs.org)

Dedicated to former and current Military Dog Handlers and supporting members committed to promoting the long history of Military Service Dogs, establishing permanent war dog memorials and educating the public about the invaluable services and sacrifice of these canines to our country. They assist in the process of adopting retiring military and police canines. They established Operation Military Care K9 that sends care packages to Military Working Dog Teams (handlers and K9s) overseas.

Alpha K9 (alphak9.org)

Always Faithful Dogs (alwaysfaithfuldogs.org)

Americas VetDogs (vetdogs.org)

American Humane Association (americanhumane.org)

Assistance Service Dog Educational Center (servicedogcenter.org)

Canine Companions for Independence (cci.org)

Canines with a Cause (canineswithacause.com)

Freedom Dogs (freedomdogs.org)

Freedom Service Dogs of America (freedomservicedogs.org)

Hawaii Fi-Do (hawaiifido.org)

K9s for Warriors (k9sforwarriors.org)

New Horizons Service Dogs (newhorizonsservicedogs.org)

Patriot PAWS Service Dogs (patriotpaws.org)

Paws for Purple Hearts (pawsforpurplehearts.org)

Sam Simon Foundation (samsimonfoundation.com)

Save-A-Vet (save-a-vet.org)

Service Dog Project, Inc. (servicedogproject.org)

A Veterans Best Friend (servicedog4ptsd.org)

Warrior Canine Connection (warriorcanineconnection.org)

An imprint of Globe Pequot

Distributed by NATIONAL BOOK NETWORK

Copyright 2017 by Jeff Kamen

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Kamen, Jeff, author. | Stone-Kamen, Leslie, author. | Deltuva, Janet, photographer.

Title: Warrior pups : true stories of Americas K9 heroes / Jeff Kamen with Leslie Stone-Kamen ; with photos by Janet Deltuva.

Other titles: True stories of Americas K9 heroes

Description: Guilford, Connecticut : Lyons Press, [2017]

Identifiers: LCCN 2017009950 (print) | LCCN 2017012812 (ebook) | ISBN 9781493029662 (ebook) | ISBN 9781493029655 (hardcover)

Subjects: LCSH: DogsWar useUnited States. | Belgian malinoisUnited States. | Lackland Air Force Base (Tex.)

Classification: LCC UH100 (ebook) | LCC UH100 .K57 2017 (print) | DDC 355.4/240929dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017009950

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

These pups were bred by the Defense Department to protect American troops. First, they have to be raised by loving volunteer civilian and military foster families. PHOTO BY JANET DELTUVA.

D ogs, family, God, country, and storytelling are the great passions of my life. Ive always been especially inspired by the lives of Americas Military Working Dogs (MWDs) and their heroic handlers. So, when I was asked to write the book now in your hands, it was the dream assignment of a long journalism career that has taken me around the world. It took months to negotiate our way into Lackland, the US Air Force base whose inspiring K9 team raises and trains almost all of Americas Military Working Dogs. But in the end, the Air Force welcomed my photojournalist wife Leslie and me. We were given a full month to go everywhere and talk to everyone with no governmental effort to spin or otherwise control what we saw. They didnt need to. Lackland turns out to be a jewel in the crown of US military achievement. There are more than two thousand MWDs deployed around the world. Almost all of them started at this one base in south Texas. Warrior pups with names that have double first letters like WWick, SSharif, PPatriot, and PPershing were born at Lackland and account for about 20 percent of our military K9s. The other 80 percent are purchased at about 13 months old from dog brokers in Europe. The US Defense Department pays more than four thousand dollars per pup. No matter where they are born, they all get their basic training at the Dog Training School inside Lackland.

Fosters with their new puppies. PHOTO COURTESY LACKLAND FOSTER COMMUNITY.

Dog Training School and Handlers Course instructors begin their day with Guard Mount staff meetings in the building behind this fighter plane from a bygone era. PHOTO BY JEFF KAMEN.

Once we were allowed on the base, we dug into the Defense Departments Military Working Dog Breeding Program (also known as the Breeding Program and the Puppy Program), the Puppy School, the Dog Training School, the Handlers Course, and the vast kennels system of Lackland K9. All those elements are supported by the superb staff of Holland Memorial Hospital for Military Working Dogsthe only one of its kind in America. Wherever we went at Lackland, we had a great time.

As you turn the following pages, you will meet warrior pups and the people who transform them into war dogs. First, we introduce you to the maternity ward, then to some of the inspiring foster families who raise the puppies. Then, its back inside Lackland to the Puppy School, the Dog Training School, the Handlers Course, the kennels, and Holland Hospital. Well also be taking you from Lackland into the fieldfrom Alaska to the Middle Eastto gain insights into the lives of our Military Working Dog (MWD) teams. You will encounter the greatest living American Military Working Dog, who survived a devastating bombing to enjoy his retirement, and you will also witness the precious last hours of another Military Working Dogone who lost his fight to cancer.