ความคิดเห็นที่ 4
War dog back with his human
By LISA HOFFMAN Scripps Howard News Service
The Pentagon called it "Operation Free Fluffy" and, thanks to dogged determination by the Army and others, the decidedly unconventional rescue mission now ranks as another win in the war in Iraq.
Fluffy, the once-malnourished commando canine who protected a U.S. Special Forces unit in northern Iraq, was reunited over the weekend with the Army handler who could not bear to leave the loyal dog behind in Iraq.
"People pulled together for a dog who supported us the whole time we were in Iraq and put himself on the line for our country," said Sgt. 1st Class Russell Joyce, an Army Special Forces soldier and Fluffy's handler.
Fluffy is now ensconced in Joyce's North Carolina home, where he is enjoying the best living ever in his estimated two years of life, including a new doghouse Joyce built -- decked out with a marble floor, courtesy of leftover construction materials -- and nutritious American dog food, a far cry from the scraps he had barely subsisted on.
The saga began when Joyce's unit in northern Iraq needed extra security for their efforts at toppling Saddam Hussein's regime. Trained to improvise on the battlefield, these elite troops asked local ethnic Kurds to find them a dog. The Kurds sold them Fluffy, who was badly underfed by the Iraqi army, missing several teeth and scarred on his head and legs.
Joyce, 35, gave the good-natured dog his improbable name and took over his training and care. Fluffy protected the commando team while they slept and performed admirably as the soldiers fought for control of a mountain north of Mosul.
When it came time for Joyce to return home to his wife and two children in Fort Bragg, N.C., he scrambled for permission for Fluffy to accompany him. But although immunized and checked out by Army veterinarians, Fluffy was barred from going because he was not an official military working dog.
From virtually the moment he returned home on May 11, Joyce fought to find a way for Fluffy to be sprung, fearing the dog might be euthanized or abandoned in a country not fond of canines.
The Army led the charge for Fluffy, coordinating the trek through the byzantine bureaucratic requirements of, among others, the Agriculture Department, U.S. Customs, the Air Force and Army. To conform to regulations, Fluffy was officially deemed an "honorary military working dog with honorary war dog status."
With final approval from Rumsfeld's office, Fluffy was assigned a human major and sent on a three-day journey home via Air Force transport. The only hitch last week came when a firefight close to the U.S. airfield near the unsettled city of Kirkuk in northern Iraq delayed their takeoff for three hours.
http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2003/06/06/news/national/c6bbeb763c0d45a15a9a0d22fe647279.txt
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