Sergeant Rex will be adopted…soon

After being on the road since Friday, I finally have time to address all the issues regarding military working dog(mwd) Rex E168 getting adopted by his former handler Megan Leavey that has been ALL over the news recently.

As well intentioned and supportive that people are, there is NOTHING that anyone can do to speed up this process that hasn’t already been done. No petition, no phone calls, no letters, or anything else. The letter from Senator Charles Schumer to Air Force Secretary Michael Donley was more than enough to put enough pressure on getting Rex adopted out as fast as possible.

Lots of false information about the situation has been reported in the media. For example it has been reported that Rex is still in Iraq and isn’t allowed to come home, that the military wants to put him to sleep, that he is dying, and that they won’t allow Megan to adopt him and lots more false info.

Rex will be 11 years old in April 2012. He has faithfully served the Marine Corps for 10 years and has been assigned 10 handlers throughout his career. I had the honor of being his first handler and took him on his first combat tour in 2004. After being Rex’s handler for 2 and a half years I was discharged from active duty.

Megan Leavey then handled Rex for 3 and a half years taking him on two more combat deployments. They were wounded together in 2006 but fully recovered, and Megan was awarded a Purple Heart.

Rex never deployed again after his third deployment, however, he continued to work for the Marine Corps at Camp Pendleton after Megan discharged from active duty.

The average military working dog serves about 7 to 8 years in the military, Rex has done 10. He officially was taken off full duty a couple months ago and began the process to be retired and get adopted out after showing symptoms of facial palsy and hip dysplasia. Rex is NOT dying, he is just slowing down.

Before an MWD gets adopted out it has to go through evaluations to ensure the safety of the public as well as the dog when it finally enters the civilian world because THESE DOGS ARE NOT TRAINED TO BE PETS.  They can become great dogs to adopt however they have been trained to attack their entire lives and therefore thorough evaluations must be conducted before they get adopted.

The problem is that these evaluations can take up to several months especially when there are several other mwd’s at Camp Pendleton that are retiring and going through the same process. Rex will be 11 next month, old for a German Shepherd, and with his developing medical conditions it doesn’t help him to sit in those kennels when he should be at a loving home.

A  military working dog would only be put down if it had a serious medical condition or was extremely aggressive making it unsuitable for adoption. Both are very rare occasions and the military would NEVER put down an mwd unless it had exhausted every option and effort to help the mwd. Rex is not suffering from a serious condition nor is he too aggressive so it is just a matter of time at this point. The Marine Corps wants to see Rex get adopted.

I have been in touch with Megan through all these years as we both have built extraordinary bonds with Rex and have stayed updated on his health and progress throughout his entire career. He is very dear to our hearts, in fact I wrote about my experiences with him called “Sergeant Rex: The Unbreakable Bond Between A Marine and His Military Working Dog.” Hopefully Megan will be able to have a book published about her experiences with him as well one day.

As much as I would love to adopt Rex, I fully support Megan’s efforts as they were wounded together and she ended up handling him longer than any other of his handlers. I told her I would support her in any way I could and all she asked of me was to give her an endorsement letter supporting her adoption of Rex which I did last week. Senator Shumer’s office asked for that endorsement letter. The below is what I sent them:

“To Whom It May Concern,

Marine Corps military working dog Rex E168 is currently retiring after having served 10 faithful years to the U.S. Military and will be eligible for adoption. Rex has been assigned 10 handlers throughout his career, completed 3 combat tours, located dozens of explosives/weapons caches, provided presidential security, and thousands of detection and patrol support hours. During Rex’s 3^rd and final deployment he was wounded in combat and has since been diagnosed with mild PTSD.

Rex has experienced traumatic events and spent his entire life as a military working dog and thus requires his adoptive handler to have a great understanding of his background and training. Being Rex’s first handler, and having written a book* detailing our experiences together, I want to see Rex fully enjoy his much deserved retirement to the fullest extent. Therefore I fully endorse Megan Leavey to adopt MWD Rex E168.

Megan handled Rex for three and half years, more than any other of Rex’s other handlers, and took him on two of his three combat deployments. Megan and Rex were wounded by the same IED explosion that Megan was awarded a Purple Heart for. Rex is a combat wounded veteran and it makes sense to allow him to be adopted by another combat wounded veteran that shared in his experiences. Megan provides the added bonus of currently working as a professional dog handler and therefore has never lost touch with the mentality and temperament of a working dog.  When she adopts Rex, they will reunite a bond that forged in combat years ago and provide therapy to one another for the rest of their days.  There is no telling how many lives MWD Rex has saved throughout his distinguished career, but it has certainly been many. In return for his faithful and often courageous service, it is right to allow him a speedy retirement and adoption process so that he can reunite with Megan Leavey and enjoy the rest of his days in her loving home.”

Mike Dowling
Sergeant, USMC (OIF 04)
* Author of  ”Sergeant Rex: The Unbreakable Bond Between A Marine and His Military Working Dog”

Like all retired mwd’s Rex has earned his retirement. He will get adopted out and it will be soon. You can’t fault Megan for trying to speed up the process because as handlers, we look out for and love our dogs more than anybody else. Before he finally leaves Camp Pendleton and the Marine Corps once and for all I will visit him to say good bye as I currently live 2 hours from him. In fact, I have been able to visit him to check on him throughout his entire career. Megan has been in New York unable to see him as easily as I have.

He only has so much time left and he deserves to fully enjoy his final years with all the love and attention he has given to all his handlers, and the Marine Corps, throughout his life. He will have that when he is finally assigned his last duty station…Megan Leavey’s  loving home.

Semper Fi,

Mike Dowling

Why I Wrote “Sergeant Rex: The Unbreakable Bond Between a Marine and His Military Working Dog”

I am very proud to announce the release of my book “Sergeant Rex: The Unbreakable Bond Between a Marine and His Military Working Dog” on Tuesday, December 13th, 2011. I’d like to share in my own words the feeling of gratification in completing this project and how it all came about.

I received an email from a British author named Damien Lewis in the early spring of 2010 saying he is interested in writing about military working dogs and asked if I can assist. He sent me links to his previous books and awards he accumulated as an author. We ended up speaking and he asked about my experiences as a dog handler. I responded by saying I think it would be great if he could write a book about the 12 Marine Corps dog teams that deployed to Iraq from March 2004- September 2004 in which my dog, Rex, and I were a part of. Those 12 teams were the first Marine Corps dog teams to operate on the front lines of combat since Vietnam and were sent to figure out how to best train future dog teams to be deployed in today’s combat environments.

He said that could be far too much to research and that he wanted to focus the story on one team. He said he was fascinated in doing Rex’s story with me because he enjoyed how passionately I spoke of Rex and the fact that we operated in an area called The Triangle of Death. He also enjoyed how I described Rex as a huge comfort to me while deployed dealing with the potential loss of my father at the time, who was passing away from cancer.

I was hesitant to do the story for two reasons.

1. I had incredibly demanding hours during that time working with the Marine Corps Wounded Warrior Battalion-West assisting wounded Marines during their recovery. I didn’t know if I was going to have the time to do this.

2. I felt uneasy putting my life on public display like that and felt all of our dog teams were worthy of having their story told.

I mentioned these two concerns to Damien and the following conversation took place…

Damien: “How much do you love Rex?”

Me: “I love him to death”

Damien: “Do you think Rex’s story is worth telling and how would you feel if the book brought more awareness to how great military working dog teams are?”

Me: “Rex’s story is definitely worth telling, I tell it all the time because I love him so much and I think it would be great if more people knew about how amazing these dogs are.”

Damien: “Well when do you think you will ever get a chance again to tell his story for all to read and have people love him like you do?”

The rest was history.

Since Damien was on European time and I was in sunny San Diego, Ca. I would wake up almost everyday around 5am and Skype for a couple hours before heading to work. After receiving instructions from our publisher and what they were asking, I took a leave of absence and flew to see Damien to work day and night on the story ensuring he had all of my photos/videos of Rex until we ended up with the final version of the story.

The whole process was very cathartic for me and I am extremely grateful to Damien for his patience and enthusiasm on working on the project. I am also very grateful to Peter Borland of Atria books for falling in love with Rex’s story and giving us the opportunity to publish with them.

At the time of writing this post, Rex is now 10 years old and still serves as a military working dog in the Marine Corps at Camp Pendleton, Ca. There are dozens of working dogs at Camp Pendleton and he is currently the oldest and longest serving dog there.

A military working dog will go through several handlers throughout their career. I had the privilege of being Rex’s first at Camp Pendleton. He is now on his 12th handler. “Sergeant Rex” is only about my experiences with Rex. It doesn’t cover the rest of his amazing career in which he completed two more combat deployments with his then handler Megan Leavey. Like Rex’s first deployment, his next two would be in very hostile areas. During his third tour, Rex and Megan would be wounded in action when Rex located an IED but it detonated before they could escape it. Fortunately the ground took most of the force and the two recovered from their wounds.

It is now proven that dogs can suffer from PTSD just like veterans do and Rex was diagnosed with a mild case of it after being wounded in action and never deployed again. He continues to be very effective at Camp Pendleton as a working dog.

He is one of the most gorgeous looking German Shepherds you will ever lay your eyes on which is why we nicknamed him “Sexy Rexy.” He is also VERY protective of his handler and can become aggressive which earned him the nickname “Tyrannosaurus Rex.” In fact, he is notorious for almost biting powerful people including General James Mattis, former commandant of the Marine Corps General James Conway, President Obama, and even the pilot of Air Force One, among several others.

The reason the book is titled “Sergeant Rex” is because as handlers we are trained to address our dogs as one rank higher than our own rank at the time we are handling them so we treat them with respect at all times. I was a corporal during the time of our deployment in 2004 making Rex a sergeant.

Military dogs have saved thousands of lives in every war they have served in. There are many incredible stories about these heroic dog teams but very few have been told. I have two goals with the book “Sergeant Rex”. (1) I hope everyone who reads it grows to love Rex as much as I do (2) That more handlers will be encouraged to come forward and tell their own amazing stories of their experiences with their dogs.

Until all those stories come, I hope you all enjoy “Sergeant Rex: The Unbreakable Bond Between a Marine and His Military Working Dog”

Semper Fidelis,

Mike Dowling & Rex E168