Wounded Sergeant Fights for a 'Best Friend'

Rex was a MWD -- military working dog -- the letter said, with "5 to 9 years of good use" left. It noted: "MWDs are worth about $18K out of training. Consequently, Rex is very valuable to both the unit and the Air Force."

About three weeks ago, Dana saw a change of heart, she said, as she prepared to be discharged from Walter Reed Army Medical Center. She was called to the Pentagon, and Gen. T. Michael Moseley hinted that she and Rex might be together again after all. Later that day, she received a phone call with the news that Rex could join her while she was on leave to see her family in Pennsylvania.

"I was shocked," she said, but she tried not to get her hopes up.

Air Force officials said that as family, friends and members of Congress weighed in on Dana's behalf, Moseley, who was to become the Air Force's new chief of staff, took a strong interest. His view, Holmes said, was that "she's a wounded warrior. They went through this together; they need to heal together."

Dana said it was hard to imagine life without Rex.

A friend brought the dog to see her in the hospital as soon as Dana was out of intensive care. When she heard them coming in the hallway, she whistled -- and Rex made a rush for her, leaping into her bed and tangling himself in her intravenous tubes.

"I just wanted to touch him and pet him and feel him and know he was okay," she said.

Before Iraq, Dana and Rex had been deployed to Pakistan for six months in 2004, sharing a tent and together "24-7," Dana said. Although Rex is skilled at detecting explosives, he is not as aggressive as many of his counterparts, she said -- not naturally inclined to "run after someone and grab ahold of him."

Especially in hostile zones, "you want him to be ready to bite someone," she said. "I never knew if my dog would."

Still, Dana said she was happy to have him in Iraq. They were together on Humvee missions, on walking patrols, at night amid the sound of incoming mortars.

The idea of going to war had been hers. "I had begged for it," she said. "I wanted to deploy. . . . You want to feel like you're a part of it, not watching it on TV." She has no second thoughts, even after nearly losing her life. "I just regret I wasn't there longer," she said. Her injury came three weeks into her deployment.

A farm girl from Pennsylvania who joined the military right out of high school, Dana became part of the Air Force police forces eight years ago and later specialized as a bomb-dog handler. Her husband, Michael, is also in the Air Force.

Now, with her life entirely changed, she plans to become a veterinarian -- and she wants Rex to be with her. "I'm waiting to see what happens," she said. It is hard to count on the legislative efforts, "until I have it in writing that he's mine."