Don't know if this is true or false but it put a tear in my eyes, a member put it in our community
Jackie
>
> Puppy dogs of war lift spirits of troops in Iraq
>
> By ART HARRIS
> For The Journal-Constitution
>
> NASIRIYAH, Iraq -- After one firefight on the Euphrates River, the acrid
> smoke cleared and a U.S. Marine handed Staff Sgt. Nelson Hidalgo two
> casualties of the war and poverty in Iraq.
>
> The mother was dying of hunger, unable to nurse her young, who were on the
> verge of starving, too. The "barbarians," as Marines with the 2nd Light
> Armored Reconnaissance unit are called, were about to become proud
parents.
>
> "We scooped the babies right up," said Hidalgo, nodding at the white puppy
> chowing down on a military MRE (Meals Ready to Eat) of pasta and
vegetables
> beneath the gun turret of the armored vehicle.
>
> "She only eats Italian food."
>
> Hidalgo's platoon was fresh from fighting its way out of an ambush 80
miles
> south of Baghdad.
>
> The Marines got out, and so did Mary Jane, an all-white fluff ball, and
her
> twin brother, Nas, named after the southern Iraqi city where the unit has
> been fighting. He is black with white paws.
>
> Consider them two very lucky pups of war.
>
> "Makes you feel good they are not living like other dogs in Iraq," said
> Hidalgo. Mary Jane rides with him and his crew. Nas rides with
tough-talking
> Gunnery Sgt. Russell Strack, whose post-puppy personality change has
stunned
> some of the Marines.
>
> In the last week, Strack and Nas have bonded.
>
> Nas travels on Strack's vehicle and curls up at night in Strack's sleeping
> bag. He bites Strack's ear and yips when he needs to get out.
>
> "He's one smart dog," said Strack.
>
> When Nas was missing in action one morning, Strack and his fellow Marines
> scrambled to find him. He was nowhere.
>
> Then one Marine said, "Gunny, did you check the sleeping bag?"
>
> Sure enough, when Strack shook the sleeping bag, there was Nas.
>
> "He wasn't very happy with us," said Strack, "but we gave him a beef and
> mushroom MRE, and he got over it."
>
> "Gunny is hard-core, a real tough Marine," a lance corporal said. "Ever
since
> he had the puppy, he's like a little kid. He doesn't yell as much."
>
> "I never yell," said Strack. "I just motivate."
>
> Indeed, he's motivating Nas as part drill instructor, part adoptive dad,
> taking pride as the pup parades about the 17-ton LAV as if it was a giant
> doghouse on eight wheels.
>
> Both Nas and Mary Jane love to be petted, and the Marines can't seem to
keep
> their hands off the unit's unofficial mascots.
>
> The pets have perked up spirits, many Marines said, at a time when no one
has
> had showers in three weeks and soldiers sleep on the rock-hard ground.
>
> "It helps your morale. It gives you something to play with at night when
you
> are on watch, instead of smoking a cigarette. You can play with a dog,"
said
> Caleb Green, 18, of Tupelo, Miss. He loves dogs, and said he grew up with
a
> German shepherd and a golden retriever.
>
> "It kind of makes Iraq feel a little bit like home."
>
> Strack did not think the dogs would survive, given their condition when
they
> were found.
>
> "I didn't think Nas would make it at first," he said. But after several
> feedings of Similac mixed with water, Nas quickly graduated to MREs --
> high-cal, high-protein Marine Corps food.
>
> "I've got a big back yard near Camp Lejeune" in North Carolina, said
Strack.
> "I've told all the guys Nas can run around there and live with me until
he's
> ready to go home with one of my Marines."
>
> But first the Marines have to try to figure out how to get Nas and Mary
Jane
> home.
>
> And that could involve quarantine and fighting a war with bureaucracy that
> could be tougher than the one on the ground in Iraq.
>
> "We've brought back all sorts of things before," said one Marine. "If I
have
> to, I'll smuggle Nas and Mary Jane back. We ain't gonna leave them here to
> die in Iraq."
