Free No Buddy Left Behind: Bringing U.S. Troops' Dogs and Cats Safely Home From the Combat Zone by Terri Crisp; C. J. Hurn Page B

body as if determined never to let him go away again. In the morning the two of them went for a walk around the D.C. monuments before they headed back to Ft. Bragg in North Carolina. Eddie walked Charlie past the military memorials and down the tree-lined streets of Washington, humbled by the realization that until he came to America, the only places Charlie had known were the streets of Baghdad's slums. People kept stopping to say hello to the soldier and his handsome dog, and they were intrigued when Eddie told Charlie's story. The dog loved all the attention he was getting. Any worries Eddie had felt about Charlie adjusting to people in the States were eased. After a couple hours of sightseeing, they returned to the car and began their six-hour journey back to base.
    Some of the guys in Eddie's unit knew that he had gone to collect Charlie. They, too, couldn't wait to see their old buddy again. One of the men, named Smith, didn't know that Charlie was in America or even that Eddie had been trying to get him out of Iraq. Smith was one of the guys who had helped to take care of Charlie when the men first found him as a pup. He had doted on the puppy as much as Eddie did.

    Back in October, Smith had taken a round through his knee. It was the kind of injury that knocks a soldier out of the war. The Army had sent him back to Ft. Bragg, where he'd been undergoing a painful recovery and grueling physical therapy. But now the soldier from the 82nd Squadron was up and about and glad to be reunited with his platoon. He certainly never expected to see Charlie again.
    When SGT Watson got back to the base, he stood in the parking lot next to Charlie, talking with one of the guys from the unit about what a surprise it was going to be for Smith to see Charlie again. Sure enough, when Smith walked across the grounds and saw SGT Watson from the far side of the lot, he caught sight of Charlie, shook his head and his jaw dropped several inches.
    "Charlie?" he shouted.
    After all that time, the dog remembered Smith as if he'd just seen him yesterday. Charlie started flipping in circles on his leash, barking, and acting as crazy as when he was reunited with Eddie. SGT Watson unclipped the leash, and Charlie sprang forward as if someone had filled him with rocket fuel and pushed the take-off button. Eddie and the other soldier got all choked up as they watched Smith's big grin, and how he kept shaking his head. He couldn't believe it; here was Charlie, the dog that had made all the difference in Iraq, together with his buddies again-together in America.

    Eddie wrote to me after he and Charlie had settled in for a few days. I had been as eager to hear about Eddie and Charlie as a mother who misses her children when they go off to summer camp, and though she's glad her kids were able to go, she needs to know how they're doing.

    Relief flooded over me when Eddie's words confirmed that everything I'd worked for had been worth it:
Coming back from war isn't easy for anyone. In many ways it's as strange as going to war in the first place. But when the dog that smelled fear on your body after you returned from an ambush, and made you laugh when you were war-weary and fed up, comes home with you, it makes a big difference. He knows where you've been and what you've seen. He understands like no one else could. That feeling is too big to put into words.
Charlie earned his place in our unit. All of us just wanted him to be safe and not to think we'd left him behind. Thanks to you, Terri, and SPCA International, this soldier's buddy came home.
    Charlie tries to get the hang of baseball. Terri Crisp

     

K-Pot on play duty Matt McDonough
    uring the six-week wait for SGT Eddie Watson's unit to redeploy, I had hoped to spend much of my time with Charlie, but that was not what fate intended. Three days after Charlie and I arrived in the States together, I received an e-mail that gripped my heart.
    To: Terri Crisp, SPCA International
    From: Danielle Berger,