Family Adopts Slain Son's Military Dog

December 21, 2007 12:21 PM

"Lex has had two tours in Iraq," Jerome Lee said. "He's been through a lot, and we just want to get Lex home to our family and let him have a happy life." It is the first time a working dog has been granted retirement to live with a handler's family.

Memorial website for Corporal Dustin J. Lee
Retire Lex blog

posted by miss lynnster (19 comments total)

That's sad.
Also, I think your "Retire Lex" blog link is broken.
posted by GuyZero at 12:24 PM on December 21, 2007

That's weird. It worked before. Let's try again.
posted by miss lynnster at 12:26 PM on December 21, 2007

Thanks for making me cry at work.
posted by fiercecupcake at 12:30 PM on December 21, 2007

Cool, Lex's head is still attached.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 12:31 PM on December 21, 2007 [1 favorite]

In spite of his injuries, the dog didn't want to leave Lee's side after the attack, according to the Marine's father. Other Marines reportedly had to pull the dog away from the young man's body so medics could reach him.

I was fine until this part in the CNN article.
::off to find kleenex::
posted by hecho de la basura at 12:36 PM on December 21, 2007

Holy bittersweet. I'm glad that Lee's family got to have Lex, but wow. What a lot for one dog - and one family - to go through.

Here's wishing him a long life full of rawhide bones and sniffing out squirrel-bombs.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 1:10 PM on December 21, 2007

That's a nice story. All the best to the family and their hairy new companion.

While reading the "retire Lex" blog, though, it became apparent that the military should maybe not try and give everything an acronym. First of all "PTSD" doesn't sound as painful as "shellshock," and I don't think that's an accident.

But secondly, Military War Dog - MWD - scans just a little bit too close to WMD. Thanks to my mild dyslexia, my brain kept getting alarmed when it thought it was reading about "WMD adoption."
posted by EatTheWeak at 1:38 PM on December 21, 2007

Those interested in war dogs and their handlers should check out the non-profit US War Dogs Association. They're accepting donations to send unique dog & handler care packages to Iraq, as well as to build a war dogs memorial at the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Their web design is kind of painful, but it's still worth going through their site, as they have many moving life stories of the dogs and their handlers.
posted by vorfeed at 2:25 PM on December 21, 2007 [2 favorites]

EatTheWeak writes "First of all 'PTSD' doesn't sound as painful as 'shellshock,' and I don't think that's an accident."

George Carlin did a whole bit about this years ago. Someone has typed it out here.
posted by krinklyfig at 3:41 PM on December 21, 2007

Great story miss lynnster. I just hope the dog doesn't have post traumatic stress disorder.
posted by JaySunSee at 4:38 PM on December 21, 2007

I had a dog named Lex. I stole his name from the Lex of a girlfriend who’s dog got busted for walking by himself without a person after dark. She didn’t have the thirty bucks for his bail so we hit the compound at midnight and I scaled the six foot chain link fence and razor wire, etc. I had it made then until I called his name in the dark and every dog in there started barking. So I took off thru the front door.

The next morning she went to bail him out and everyone was arguing about who had left the door open.
posted by Huplescat at 4:58 PM on December 21, 2007

Good boy, Lex. Good boy.
posted by infinitywaltz at 8:22 PM on December 21, 2007

krinklyfig writes "George Carlin did a whole bit about this years ago. Someone has typed it out here."

That's just the beginning, more complete version. I've always loved the bit about sunshine units and, well, some of the other bits.
posted by Mitheral at 12:56 AM on December 22, 2007

Little respite for Iraq’s children in 2007
posted by homunculus at 10:40 AM on December 22, 2007

homunculus, what does that have to do with anything?
posted by Snyder at 11:22 AM on December 22, 2007

Well, his family probably should've adopted some hairy little Iraqi children instead.
posted by miss lynnster at 12:18 PM on December 22, 2007 [1 favorite]

I put it here because this is the most recent thread about Iraq.

But you're right, it is a derail. I'll flag it as such and put it in my last post about Iraq.
posted by homunculus at 12:20 PM on December 22, 2007

I put it here because this is the most recent thread about Iraq.

But you're right, it is a derail. I'll flag it as such and put it in my last post about Iraq.

Fair enough, no biggie. You link to good articles in your comments, it's just that sometimes they're a bit...tangential, maybe, to the actual thread. Anyway, no worries.
posted by Snyder at 12:57 PM on December 22, 2007

That'll do, Lex.
posted by The Monkey at 2:42 AM on December 23, 2007