WASHINGTON – Severely injured when her Humvee was bombed in Iraq, Air Force Tech Sgt. Jamie Dana awoke in a hospital and cried out for Rex, her bomb-sniffing dog.
Rex was dead, she was told. Later, Dana found out that wasn’t true. But her joy turned to sadness when she was told she couldn’t adopt the German shepherd.
Now, after action by House-Senate negotiators, it appears that Rex will join Dana on her Pennsylvania farm, where she is recovering from the bombing this summer in Iraq, which destroyed her Humvee and burned Rex.
“I just feel overwhelmed,” said Dana, who plans to become a veterinarian.
The Air Force had said it spent $18,000 training Rex, and he needed to finish the remaining five years of his useful life before he could be adopted.
The effort to adopt Rex was accelerated by Rep. John Peterson, R-Pa. “I can see so much therapy in having her friend Rex there to heal with her,” Peterson said.
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