An Airman, Her Dog, and Congress

[Ben]

How the heck does Congress get involved in the retirement of a dog? My dog is people to me, but legally she is property. How would this dog be classified as anything different than say a jeep or a desk? You don't go to Congress to retire those things, you go to DRMO.

They need to give her the gall dang dog.

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10339690/

An airman, a dog and an act of Congress
The story of Tech Sgt. Jamie Dana and her bomb-sniffing canine
By Chip Reid
Correspondent
NBC News
Updated: 7:11 p.m. ET Dec. 5, 2005

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - They had worked together for three years  Air Force Tech Sergeant Jamie Dana and her bomb sniffing dog, Rex  when, last June in Iraq, a roadside bomb exploded under their Humvee.

Sgt. Dana, with massive internal bleeding, a fractured spine and collapsed lungs, had one question for the doctors.

I said, Is my dog dead? And they said, Yes. And that just breaks your heart, she recalls.

Dr. Paul Morton was one of the doctors. Last Friday, he and Dana met for the first time since that day.

We were all worried about you that day, he told her. We thought you were going to die.

But through it all, Morton says, Dana never stopped asking about Rex  refusing to believe he had died.

The news finally came weeks later while she recuperated at a military hospital.

They told me he was coming down the hall, Dana says. So I whistled at him and he came running into the room. He jumped up on the bed with me and got tangled up in my IV line.

Now Dana wants to adopt Rex, and she has the support of the Air Force.

She and Rex went through that together, says Air Force Brig. Gen. Robert Holmes, And I think our leadership feels that they need to heal together.

But there's still a problem. It takes an act of Congress for a military working dog to retire early. If Congress does not act, Rex will be taken away from Dana and brought to a military dog training facility at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs.

Dana's injuries will probably force her to retire from the military soon. While she waits, she volunteers at an animal sanctuary and dreams of becoming another kind of vet: a veterinarian. She wants Rex to be a part of whatever she ends up doing.

I pray every day, she says, that Rex will be a part of it.

He's not just her best friend, she says, but the key to her recovery.

Now it's up to Congress to decide if they stay together. Currently, Rex's retirement is attached to the Defense Appropriations Bill. A spokesman for Rep. John Peterson, R-Pa., who represents Dana's district, says "it's not a matter of whether the act passes, it's a matter of when."
© 2005 MSNBC Interactive

[TarpleyG]

If you ask me, Congress is involved in WAY too much stuff that they should not be involved in--baseball and steroid use for example.

[Azrael256]

Congress is involved in WAY too much stuff that they should not be involved in

Agreed.  This decision should be left to the Air Force, and I think they've made the right call.

[Harold Tuttle]

and who is liable when Rex has a bad day and eats the UPS man?

[Guest]

This isn't a fighting dog, it's a bomb-sniffer.  They never combine that function with assault training, so in civilian life the doggie in question will be no more violent than any normal pet.  Probably less so as it's very well trained and disciplined.

There's no risk here.

If it was assault trained, that would be a different story!!!

[Azrael256]

and who is liable when Rex has a bad day and eats the UPS man?

Whoever was supposed to be holding the leash.  This idea that there is some sort of inherent liability in creating something, living or nonliving, that has the potential to be dangerous but not actually having ownership or control over it is silly.  It's the same logic as the product liability lawsuits against gun manufacturers.  So what if the dog is an attack dog?  The handler, of all people, would know that, and would be responsible for the conduct of the animal.  Responsibility for the (mis)use of anything transfers along with posession.

[Harold Tuttle]

yes, but is an Air Force dog
it prolly has awesome bo staff skills

[HForrest]

I love dogs, and I'm really affectionate with mine. He sleeps on my bed every night, is completely loyal, and is a really great pet as far as I'm concerned. I love animals, moreso than most people.

Geez, though. Sometimes you just have to say "It's just a dog" . The level of honor and importance they get in police and armed forces is just downright silly sometimes. When you pull Congress into it... wow. That's just insane.

[SalukiFan]

Good grief!  I was always told that in the Air Force, there is a waiver for everything.  I agree that it seems ridiculous that they have to go to such lengths to give a wounded vet her dog...

[Chris]

Gee, and for once, I thought this was an issue that was just perfect for the intellegent men and women in Congress to debate, instead of whether a black gun with plastic parts is more dangerous than one with wooden parts.