Original subtitles

( footsteps )

( sighs )

( latch clicks )

"Peppy, I miss you so much.

In this ammo can are some things of yours

that we will bury at your grave site.

We were unable to recover your body,

and I'm so sorry for that.

I put these items in the can

symbolically for you until we meet again--

a jute, a Kong, a leash,

a bag of liver treats, and your brush.

At some point when we meet again,

we can sit together on the green hill

and relax like we used to.

You did what I could not do.

You willingly dove into your only fear, water,

to engage a threat to your pack.

You did what countless rounds of ammunition,

frag and stun grenades could not do--

move the bad man out of the hole he was in.

Once you pushed him out the second time,

he was shot four times.

His body was seen floating down the river later that night.

We'll never know who he was, but this we do know.

He was bad, he intended us harm,

and nobody else wanted to go in after him.

You did.

You're a warrior I hold in the highest regard.

You are selfless love.

God bless you until we meet again.

Thank you."

( music playing )

( chatter )

( gunshots )

( beeping )

- ( dogs barking ) - Trent McDonald: All right, so now we're gonna chase.

Go, psst. Come on, come on.

( man panting )

( barking )

Man: Stellen!

Go on. Oh, good boy!

Oh, yeah!

- Halt! - Man: Good boy!

Hold on, hold on. Give me a second.

- Oh! - Man: Good boy!

All right, pull him off.

Good boy. That's him.

Stellen!

- Good boy! - Oh, good.

Oh, good.

McDonald: Messing with Belgian Malinois

and using them as attack dogs is--

to the untrained person, it's a very stressful thing.

But if you go into it very clearheaded

and you're fair with the animal, it's not...

It actually relaxes me.

We take that dog everywhere.

You load that dog up on a C-17,

you strap it down, and you guys are going to Afghanistan together.

You don't know if that dog's coming back

and you don't know if you're coming back either.

But you guys are gonna fight like hell as a team

to get back at least in one piece.

( dog barking )

Honestly, I decided to be a Ranger to kill terrorists.

That's why.

When they're out there killing your buddies

and you're out there killing them, then that's what it is.

It's not unicorn and rainbow vaginas, you know what I mean?

It's the fucking real deal.

I like the thrill of the hunt.

I like to chase you down.

And I noticed that when I looked at the dog,

the dog kind of had the same mentality that I had.

I had met Benno,

on a professional level, overseas.

Benno had more time in and more deployments than most E-6s

in Ranger Regiment.

Stop and take a look. That's an invaluable person.

That's an invaluable soldier. That's an invaluable asset.

That is something that you cannot go to PetSmart and get.

So, it was April 27th, 2012.

It was actually my birthday.

I think I turned 27 years old.

( music playing )

As we were flying in to the mission, I got the squirter call,

which means we have guys fleeing from the target compound.

Instantly, what that does to me

is that says, "Tonight's gonna be a good night."

I got over to the radio and I started singing "Happy Birthday,"

and the platoon sergeant quickly got on the radio

and told me, "Shut the fuck up."

We landed, and right when we landed,

it was game on.

There was two military-aged males

running up the side of this mountaintop.

We did a callout on them.

"Hey, you, this is us.

Please come out with your hands up.

This is other coalition forces.

We've been doing this for 10 years. You know who we are.

Get the fuck out of your fucking hole."

The two guys refused to, so I sent Benno.

And he followed that guy's footpath to the tee.

Benno bit the guy.

He had a nice, good, full bite

on the back of the tricep.

We started to close the distance on the guy.

The guy wasn't screaming and hollering like he normally does.

That's the first thing that threw a red flag for me.

And I noticed that the guy is not screaming and yelling

because he is actually wrestling with this dog,

and he doesn't care that he has, like--

a bunch of dudes around him.

( gunshot )

And right before I could put

that safety selector switch from "safe" to "fire,"

that guy had already killed my dog.

The guy instantly died. I grabbed Benno.

I don't know if he knew he was exactly there or not

or if he was losing just a massive amount of blood

and he knew he was dying.

He wasn't trying to bite me or anything,

but he was alive and he was blinking.

My finger was actually in the neck wound of Benno.

I looked at the PA and I said, "Hey, man, what can we do?"

And he just looked at me and he said, "There's nothing we can do."

He said, "I'm sorry, man."

( music playing )

When we walked off that target,

you know, I was still covered in blood.

And I picked up the phone,

I called my mother and I called my wife,

and I just let them know

that, "You know, hey, it's my birthday.

You know, you guys"--

you know, I didn't tell them anything.

You know, I just wanted--

I didn't want to talk to anybody about it.

I just wanted it to be my fucking birthday.

( music playing )

When Benno was gonna get cremated in Kandahar,

I came out, and they had a full-blown, like, ramp-side ceremony.

The regular Army, everybody, had gotten together and done it.

And they gave me a toe tag and an American flag.

I put it on an American flag

that I carried for six deployments.

And on the toe tag it says "Staff Sergeant Benno,"

and then underneath it, it says "hero."

And that's kind of when it hit me that, like-- you know what I mean?

Like, these-- it's not only just me

and it's not only these Rangers,

but you have, like, regular Army people

who are, like, crying because a dog's dead.

When I started to think about it,

and I saw that toe tag, I noticed that

they weren't crying at a dog.

They were crying at a soldier.

They were upset because a soldier died.

( music playing )

When I went back to the kennel,

they had a dog named Layka,

and that's when my trainer was, like,

"Well, Layka's really young.

This is her first deployment."

I said, "Yeah, but I want her."

You know, I was like, "I think I can do something with her."

( dog barking )

Come on.

She kind of has rule of the roost, you know?

She doesn't get put in cages and stuff like that.

- They know it, too. - ( dog barking )

They do what they do because they're pack animals.

They're always trying to get above.

They're always trying to move up ahead.

You know, every dog here knows that Layka's the one.

I can bring any one of these dogs out here

and Layka will put them all in their place,

and she has three legs.

( barking )

Puppy doesn't want to play with Layka

because Layka's too serious.

But she's like the mother hen.

She keeps everybody in check.

You know what I mean? She keeps everybody in check.

Ain't that right, girl?

This is the only picture I have of her with four legs.

Everybody always asks me for pictures of her.

This is it.

Four legs. Right there.

( laughing ) That's all you get.

It's the only one I have of her.

And then, you got her.

Look at her. I'm sorry.

Layka, come on, honey. Let's not do that today.

( laughing )

Oh, man. Come on, now.

Make this easy on me. Mm-hmm.

24 hours after I got Layka,

I was running targets with her.

That was my eighth combat deployment.

You know, I had already lost a dog at that point in time.

It doesn't really matter who you're going after

just as long as you get to come home.

- ( explosion ) - ( gunfire )

It was only Layka's sixth mission.

This is all a very new environment.

- ( whining ) - Layka, she's getting

pretty amped up on the noise.

( gunfire continues )

All I did was I just remained calm.

I had been in that situation

way more than she has.

I needed her to calm down,

so what I did was I took a ball

out of my pocket and I told her to sit.

And when she'd sit, I paid her.

So all I was doing

is I was just changing the game for her.

- ( explosion ) - When the dust settles, like,

the whole front of this structure

was pretty much dilapidated in.

I looked at the squad leader and I said,

"Oh, yeah, I feel good about this.

You know, let's go ahead and send her in."

( music playing )

As I'm moving through this dense dust,

I can see Layka's IR strobe flashing.

You can only see it through your night vision.

I knew it was my dog and I went to go investigate what she had.

That's when I saw the outline

of what appeared to be an enemy killed in action.

And I said, "Okay, this guy is-- he's obviously deceased."

I got up to Layka and I remember her tail touching my shins.

And I ran my hands up past her vest.

I remember my thumbs touching her camera,

and that's when I grabbed on to the back of her collar.

That's when the guy rose up.

( gunshots )

It was so loud and it was so hot.

I had never been that close

to the opposite end of the barrel before.

You know, I definitely thought that was it for me.

And when I raised back up,

all the shots had already went off

and Para Green had came up through the window

and he eliminated the threat in about two shots.

That is when I started to recall Layka.

And I could see her, and she actually had

what it appeared-- actually it was.

It was her right limb was in her mouth

and she was trying to pull it off.

That's when we noticed that tricep

had been torn apart by a AK-47 round.

( music playing )

I was like, "Great, again.

You know, another dog. Another dog."

It was a sock in the nuts and and it hurt.

( music playing )

And I remember getting to the CSH

and thinking to myself, like,

"If she makes it through this--

you know, if she makes it through this, I want her."

( music playing )

Announcer on PA: Fans, please direct your attention

to the north end zone as we welcome Layka

to Neyland Stadium.

Layka is a decorated war dog

that saved the lives of American troops in Afghanistan.

- ( crowd cheers ) - In honor of her battlefield heroics,

Layka was featured on the cover

of "National Geographic" in June 2014,

a symbol of the hero dogs

fighting alongside US troops.

Let's give a big Orange round of applause

for the service dog and hero, Layka.

( crowd cheering )

Oh, my God! ( chuckles )

- Hey! - Hey!

- Here she is. - Hi, Layka! Hi!

Hi, baby girl. Oh, my God. ( laughs )

Look how strong she is. Look how strong she is.

It's okay, babe. It's okay, Layka.

Hang on. You remember this place?

Do you remember?

Daddy knows how to make you lay down better than I do.

There you go. Good girl! ( laughs )

- Okay, good girl. - McDonald: I got her face.

( laughs )

That looks so much better.

Yeah, yeah, it looks good.

Easy.

She does not like her feet messed with.

- She never has. - No.

When we first started, we couldn't do this

- without sedating her almost completely. - ( Layka snorts )

She's a pretty lucky dog, for sure.

Those were some pretty nasty injuries.

But I can tell you she's adapted beautifully

because when she was here, we'd play soccer with her toys

and we'd put a ball out there,

and she would take that cast and whack it.

She had great aim.

I mean, she was a great soccer player.

She'd get mad if you wouldn't kick it back to her.

Laura Miller: Oh, God, I love it when she does that.

It's so freaking cute!

After seeing her, I just couldn't stop smiling

because she looked so good

and because I'm so attached to her.

And that's how you get with her.

To be a dog that can attack people

and to be so affectionate and loving

and just create

those kind of feelings in people is amazing.

Good girl. Come on.

Good girl, good girl.

Oh, yes, she is so much better.

( music playing )

Come on. Come on, babe.

Good girl. Good girl. Good girl.

Good girl. Good girl.

Come on in. Go get it, go get it.

Go get it. Good girl, good girl.

Good girl, good girl, good girl, good girl.

Good girl.

( music playing )

McDonald: Layka, did you eat all my food?

( panting )

It's really cool to forge that bond and build that bond,

because we're more of a team now than we were

when we were even in Afghanistan.

Where our bond developed and where our team developed,

it was developed when we were out hunting for deer antlers.

And that's what she likes to do now.

She likes to hunt for deer antlers,

she likes pets on her head,

and she likes to watch "Grey's Anatomy"

from time to time.

That's her favorite show is "Grey's Anatomy."

They took it off air, which about killed her.

But, you know, every once in awhile,

we get some reruns, so it's good.

- She likes her "Grey's." - ( thunder rumbling )

( sniffs )

You know, she wasn't big in combat with me,

but she went through a lot of life things with me.

After being blown up in 2009,

I got addicted to my painkillers.

I mean, she helped me through that addiction, man.

It was lonely, you know.

My ex-wife takes my kid and moves all the way back

to Arkansas, 625 miles.

At the end of the day when everything fell apart,

the only person that had me grounded was her.

She couldn't speak to me, she couldn't say,

"Hey, pull your head out of your ass

and get your shit together."

No, she could only look at me,

you know, and console me when I was, you know,

in pain, trying to get the stuff out of my system

or, you know, just an emotional pain

for my-- you know, my ex-wife taking my kid and leaving.

I mean, that was tough.

Zoek.

( music playing )

Good.

Layka really helped me keep my sanity through it all.

( clicking tongue )

She's not a dog, she's her own person.

She's got her own agenda.

She's got her own scheduling.

She does her own thing.

I don't know what it is day by day

what her scheduling is, but I remain flexible

because she is very, very needy.

At the end of the day, I can sit on my couch and I can look at her

and I can put my forehead on hers

and, you know, just take a deep breath and let everything go

and kind of be at my place of peace.

And that's-- you know, that's what feels--

you know, that's what feels good to me.

( music playing )

Reporter on TV: Today some North Mississippi

crime-fighting dogs are being honored in DeSoto County.

North Mississippi reporter, Michael Clark, joins us live

with the "High 5." Michael?

K9 units often keep folks safe in DeSoto County,

but this past week,

patrol units took home first place

out of more than 100 teams in an annual competition

held in Indiana.

The three dogs-- Sammy, Mika, and Max--

- That's her. - appear on our video.

They took home the gold in the 13th Annual

American Working Dogs Canine Olympics.

This is from 2012.

On it, it has the name of the handler.

Paul Leslie, Deputy Paul Leslie, 2012.

( keyboard clicking )

So, there's a good chance that it's still the same handler from 2012

that she's probably with.

( phone ringing )

Woman on phone: Good afternoon. DeSoto County Sheriff's Department.

May I help you?

Yes, I'm trying to get in contact

with someone in the Canine Department.

Woman: Do you need somebody in the Canine Department?

- Yes. - I can give somebody a message for you.

My name is Sergeant First Class John Dixon.

There was a military working dog

that I had worked with, Mika.

A little female Malinois.

- Mika? - Yes.

Okay.

I think I know who actually may have had something to do with that dog.

All right, I will get somebody to give you a call back, okay?

- And you were the owner? - Yes.

- Okay. - All right, bye.

Bye-bye.

- ( phone clicks ) - ( beeps )

( sighs ) Now it's still waiting.

( music playing )

( chatter )

Man: Whoa, Mika! Okay. Whoa, Mika!

- ( chuckles ) - Whoa, zoek!

- ( shouting ) - ( cheering )

Man: Yeah! Yeah!

- Man #2: Yeah, buddy, go. - Hey, get him!

John: In 2006, the command had made a decision

that we'll start our own Ranger dog program

with Ranger dog teams.

I was fortunate enough to be one of the four

that was chosen to go start this program up.

I actually left Afghanistan a little bit early.

They sent us off to the dog school.

And that's where I first met Mika.

As soon as I got there, they took the four of us

and they paired us up with a dog

and they said, "This is your dog."

So, I was a little nervous, actually, when I first met her.

I was like, "I don't, you know,

know how to really approach this dog yet."

You know, our instructions were

just hold the leash and walk around with them.

Wherever they want to go, just walk with them.

It's amazing, just by holding a leash

with a dog attached to the other end,

like, how they can pick up

on any little cue that you have.

You know, even when we weren't

supposed to be working or training,

we'd be working and training,

which for her, it's not work and training,

for her, that's, "Hey, Daddy's here.

We're having time together. It's fun."

And for me it wasn't really working or training either,

to be honest with you.

It was fun, it was enjoyable,

and I loved doing it.

( music playing )

Her being my first dog, we worked so much together

and I spent so much time with her.

We built that-- you know, that...

really, really strong bond.

Whenever she left, there was only--

you know, there was only a handful of things

that I could keep, you know?

I would love to have kept her with me,

you know, forever, but, you know, that's not--

it wasn't possible, so I kept what I could,

and this collar was one of the things that I could keep

that, you know, she had from the time I got her

till-- till the time she left.

And then the other thing that I kept was

a picture of her that-- we had all of our dogs.

We had taken a picture of them and blown it up,

and we put them in little frames

and we had them hanging on the kennel walls

so that, you know, when you came in the kennel,

it'd be all the dogs up there in a row.

And...

I want to get it kind of cleaned up.

During the move, when we were moving,

it kind of got a little damaged.

But it's the only picture-- the only big-frame picture

that I have, so I still keep it up.

These were her call signs that she wore on her vest.

So, she was wearing this one

on the mission night where I was wounded.

And, you know, all that happened

and we got separated.

That actual brownish-red color

is actually blood from the mission.

I just never cleaned it. I just left it the way it is.

I thought about cleaning it or wiping it off,

but it just-- I just left it the way it is.

I just feel like

I don't want to change anything from it, so.

( sighs )

Then this is the kit that I was wearing

on the mission where I was shot with Mika,

and it's got the bullet hole

where it went through there.

On my eighth deployment,

the second deployment with Mika to Afghanistan,

the third weekend, we walked straight into an ambush.

Pretty much the worst imaginable situation you're gonna walk into.

- ( gunfire ) - ( explosions )

It was just a blaze of flashes in front of me,

and so all I can do is hit the ground

and shoot at the flashes.

Mika started going crazy.

The anxiety started to build in her.

She's want-- she's rearing to go.

I'm keeping her attached to me the whole time on a tether

and trying to keep her calm.

( explosions )

( rocket whistles )

And I start hearing the radio traffic

that we're taking mortar fire and rocket fire

from the outlying compounds that we had passed.

( gunfire )

We knew we weren't gonna push through this and fight through this.

We knew we needed to break contact.

We had a AC-130 and a A-10

circling above us, taking turns

hitting this target.

( explosions )

It sounded really powerful.

The explosions looked huge.

I thought the enemy would just stop shooting at that point, you know?

But they didn't.

A few of them broke off with AK-47s

and went down the backside of the hill

and kind of looped around and came to our left flank.

I had one hand on my dog like, you know,

telling her to calm down,

and, you know, bring my other hand up to shoot.

That's when I just, you know, felt a hit.

I didn't know what it was.

I didn't know if it was a fucking rock--

it felt like a rock.

It felt like a huge, like, sledgehammer hit me.

When I fell to the ground, I lost all control over her,

and she was just barking and making a crazy noise

and rearing and jumping up and down.

And, you know, I was trying to get

my dog with one hand and get my weapon back up,

and I could only use one arm.

My other arm just wouldn't work.

And before I could even think too much,

one of my Ranger buddies who was running with me,

just grabbed my carrying handle on my body armor

and started dragging me backwards,

and the dog's trying to run the other direction

towards the people that are shooting at us.

She's trying to run that a-way

and barking and pulling against me,

and that's when

one of my Ranger buddies popped the tether loose

and he took her and walked her over to the side.

( snaps fingers ) Like, just a few seconds after that,

and then a round hits.

( explosion )

That's kind of when I lost sight of her

and, you know, started going in and out of consciousness.

And that's when...

they slid their hand under my body armor in the back,

and they said this-- like, all four fingers

like this went into, like, a big hole.

And then they pulled it back some,

and that's when they noticed, like,

you know, just the massive amount of blood that was coming out.

So, then they, you know, started working on that.

I was tied down to a stretcher,

and I was being carried.

But I do remember intermittently

throughout the exfil,

I'd ask about my family, then I'd ask about Mika,

then I'd ask about my family and Mika.

My main concern with my family

apparently was making sure that

they talked to my wife and she wasn't mad that I got hurt.

( chuckles ) And then-- because I'd always told everybody--

no one, you know, in my family really knew

exactly what I did and stuff.

You know, all the BS stuff that we tell people

to comfort them and make them feel all right.

You know, "I'm not really that important.

I don't really engage with a lot of stuff," or whatever.

Of course, that's hard to hide once you get injured.

( music playing )

You know, I wake up and I'm like, "All right,"

you know, "Where did all my Ranger buddies go

and where's Mika at?"

You know, they talked to me.

They're like, "Hey, we've already notified your family.

And, by the way, we flew Mika here. Do you want to see her?"

And I'm like, "Yes, I want to see her. Of course."

And as soon as she came in there

and she seen me, she tried to jump on my bed.

And the doctors, they didn't like that very much.

They're like, "Ah," but we're like, "Whatever."

She didn't jump all the way on the bed,

but, you know, she-- halfway up on the bed.

It made me feel so much better.

And they had also taken her out

and they had explained to me, like, "Hey, she's gonna stay here"

while I was medevaced back to the U.S.

'cause they felt that,

you know, she could still serve the mission there

if they paired her up with somebody else.

The kennel master and handler came and picked her up

to take her to work, and she wouldn't.

She quit.

She would just run back

behind everybody, cower behind their legs,

whatever the case, even when there was no danger.

You know, she was suffering from PTSD from that

and from the separation, I think.

If the last thing that you saw

was stuff blowing up,

and then all of the sudden you don't see

your partner anymore, you know,

there's all kinds of things that go through your mind.

At that point, it becomes the liability

to the dog and the handlers.

As they realized, you know,

I was gonna be able to recover

and get back to handling dogs

and get back to doing the Ranger mission,

they decided that it'd be best

to retire her out to a police department.

They felt that she was still a pretty young dog

and she could be useful in the civilian police sector.

For the first time, it was explained to me,

you know, everybody gets their first dog back.

You're gonna get this dog back.

That was the ease that I had.

That was the only comfort that I had,

knowing that one day, you know, I would get that call.

I mean, obviously, she didn't know

that she was leaving to go somewhere else.

There was no way to explain that to her.

Like, "Hey, Mika,

you're-- I'm not gonna see you again

for a long time, if not ever."

( music playing )

- Paul Leslie: Make her sit. - Boy: Zit.

Blijf. Blijf.

- Now throw it. Throw it. - Blijf.

- Blijf. Blijf! - Throw it.

Go!

Bring it, girl! Come on.

Your turn, Pops.

- ( barks ) - Leslie: All right, hey.

Let's chill with the ball throwing.

- She's moving kind of slow. - Hey.

- Boy #2: Mika, search! - Grab the ball.

Leslie: I really don't have a whole lot of details

that I know about her past

other than she came from the Army Rangers

and she was involved in some combat situations

that ultimately caused her to, you know, shut down

as far as working.

I knew that she had had a handler that had gotten shot

and that she had had some problems

as far as turning the light back on

and getting back into work.

- ( tapping ) - Boy: Come here.

- Boy #2: Come on. - Hey, come here.

Mika, here.

Leslie: I had her about three weeks

before we started dog class.

We'd come home, we'd play ball,

and I'd give her a bath and brush her,

and just slowly starting to build that friendship,

that bond where she would trust me enough

to when I call her, she'd come.

You know, 14, 15, 16 hours a day--

I mean, a lot of people don't spend that

even with their wives.

You know, they wouldn't even want

to spend it with their wives that long.

Mika, hey.

- Blaffen. - ( barking )

- Leslie: Good girl. - Woman: Love on her.

- Say, "Good girl." - Good job!

Leslie: It's not like we're baking cookies here.

You know, we're going after bad guys.

We're trying to get, you know, drugs and explosives off the street.

She is just one of those dogs--

she's one in a thousand, you know?

You very rarely find

a dog that has the temperament that she does,

the social ability that she has,

you know, the ability to come in here

and lick on the kids' faces

and then turn around and go outside.

And if we had to bite somebody,

hey, we're all in.

- Boy: Mika. - I love her like one of the kids.

It is that strong.

( phone rings )

Hello?

Leslie: This is Paul Leslie. How are you doing?

Oh, Paul Leslie. I'm SFC Dixon.

I was Mika's handler

when she was with the Ranger battalion.

- Oh, yeah. How you doing, man? - Good, good.

- Good. - I'm doing good.

I was trying to track her down

and find out what her status is

and how she's doing, and...

She's doing good.

Obviously, she's all up there

and she can't-- she moves around kind of slow,

but she's been doing pretty good.

She's been doing pretty good.

- So, she is retired? - Yes.

Okay. So, how long has she been retired for?

We just retired her last month

as far as paperwork goes.

- Just last month? - Yeah.

'Cause I was told that I'd have the option

to pick her up when she does retire.

I understand, well...

We give the handler the option

when we adopt them out, obviously, to keep them.

And I've taken that option

and that's the option I'm gonna stay with.

The way I've always seen it is, you know, that was--

you know, that was kind of like a promise

with the sheriff department.

And then, you know, one day, you know, like, when--

and especially now, you know, like...

now I'm not deploying and stuff

and, you know, we'd be able to be reunited and so...

I'm just really struggling with...

with a lot of that right now.

I'd be more than happy to get you some pictures of her

or anything like that.

If you would be willing to take the pictures.

( sniffles )

- Are you there? - Yeah, I'm here.

I'm sorry, I just, you know, like I said,

I'm going-- you know, I'm just thinking about this

really hard right now and...

uh...

I mean, I got pictures of her.

I'm not trying to turn down your pictures,

I'm just saying...

I just feel like I need more than just pictures.

- I understand. - Uh...

Well, Mr. Dixon, why don't you give me a call back tomorrow?

I've gotta take care of my little ones here in just a minute.

Shoot me a call tomorrow.

Okay, well, I'll call you tomorrow.

All right, Mr. Dixon.

- Okay. All right, bye. - All right, bye.

( phone beeps )

( sighs )

John: You know, even if I could pick her up

to go camping here and there, whatever, you know, like,

I just want that relationship back with her

and I want to be able to help care for her.

I mean, that would mean a lot for me if I could just...

Even if Paul doesn't need the help,

I mean, if he would just let me help care for her,

that would mean a lot for me,

'cause I feel that I owe her that.

And, you know, I'd love to do that for her.

Thank you.

Carlin Dixon: So, John has this way of...

things about him where he doesn't--

he doesn't like to show if something hurts,

or he doesn't like to show if something's bothering him,

so he just kind of compartmentalizes

and he deals with it on his own.

So the picture that people see on the outside

is happy John, funny John, levelheaded John,

but... in his sleep

or in those moments where it just spills over...

you see it, I mean, the hurt or the guilt

when he talks about her or when he goes back

and looks at those pictures.

There's one picture we have of the day that she left.

It was the last day we spent with her,

and you can just see it on his face

and you see it on her face where her ears are just laid down sideways

and he's holding her like a baby.

And... that's where the hurt comes out.

And it spills over.

Most of the time, he just pushes it down

'cause he doesn't want everybody else to see.

'Cause, for him, it's like weakness

and Mr. Big Ranger, tough guy.

They don't show weakness.

They don't want you to know that something hurts.

- Dang! - ( John chuckles )

- What's up? - Hey, buddy. How's it going?

- Good. - Woman: Hey!

- Hey, man. - Hey.

Haven't seen you in 100 years, man.

Yeah, I know, right?

...later. You want a beer?

- Woman: Yeah. - Yeah, sure.

- Drink a beer. - Woman: You're not in the government now.

- Yeah. - Where's the Nukes dude at?

Woman: He's in the backyard.

- John: Yeah? - Donovan Hunter: Loving it.

He's an old-- retired old man.

But he'll still bite you. He'll still bite you. Come check him out.

- He's like superdog. - John: That's awesome.

- Yeah. Boom, the sneak attack. - Hey!

- Yeah, see? - Look at that.

He probably remembers you. Come out, come on.

- John: Hey, buddy. - Woman: Millie.

And you didn't become a snack. That's good. ( laughs )

- Hunter: Yeah. - Woman: No.

Trying to get Mika back.

- And then, which-- - Mm.

We'll see how that goes.

- ( yelling ) - Hunter: Yeah, Dixon,

he was just a pioneer in his own right.

I'd say he's got the demeanor that works with handling.

You can't be a guy that shoots off

and gets frustrated.

He's just a real kind, patient, quiet kind of guy

that worked well.

Sit.

- Good boy. - ( laughs )

Good boy. Af.

Good boy. Yes.

- Rout. - ( barking )

Good boy. Yeah.

- Yeah, that's a good boy. - He's still good.

Still good. He's like, "Everything's coming back to me."

- Yeah. - ( both laughing )

- I am a war dog. - Yes.

( groans )

Hunter: We have the lame sleeve.

Mm. The "I don't want bruises on my arm" sleeve.

Yeah.

And we have the fun sleeve.

And the "I'm for sure gonna have bruises on my arm" sleeve.

So, whichever one.

Pick your poison.

Very nice, and I know he knows the smell.

He's probably, like, right there, like, "Where is he?"

- Yeah, so he'll-- - Where's that guy at?

He is right here. ( laughs )

( whispers ) What is he doing?

Oh.

- You ready? - Yeah.

- ( thumping ) - ( grunting )

Hunter: Watch him. Watch him.

( barking )

- ( screaming ) - Good boy!

- ( screaming continues ) - Yeah. Good boy.

- ( screaming ) - Good boy.

( Nuke howling )

( laughing ) There we go. There we go.

Good boy. Good boy.

He did not want to release that.

Yeah, that was good. He's still got a strong bite.

Still got a chomp. Good!

Once he got his mouth full on it...

Good boy, good boy, good boy.

That's pretty good.

( laughs ) Oh!

He's like, "I want more."

"There's more! I still see the sleeve!"

Good boy! Good boy!

Hunter: I think Dixon is still kind of where I was,

just waiting on the word.

He's in the waiting stage.

Getting Nuke back...

he's that final thing that's bridging and making

what I used to do an actual reality.

And he lives in my backyard.

And I get to see him every single day

and remember all that-- everything we did.

( music playing )

Hunter: When I look at him and know

that he did every single thing that I did

for the last three years of my career and--

he Rangered up just like everyone else did.

And his transition-- he could care less.

Like, he's a dog.

He's not struggling with it.

It's like if he's not struggling,

like, I don't have to struggle with it.

John: It's awesome coming here to see Nuke with Donovan.

It really kind of drives it home

that, like, this is the way it should be.

It should be like this for every, you know, dog team

that serves the country.

It should be us out there, you know, on the grill,

tossing little pieces to Mika and Nuke, you know?

But Mika's missing out of that equation,

and I believe that she should be here with us.

( music playing )

Woman: Are they all in?

No. Oh, okay.

Hold on, hold on.

Oh, hold on.

Part of yours fell out.

Okay.

No, Rollo. Get where you're supposed to.

Leslie: At first, it was shocking.

You know, we've had her this long

and I didn't know anything about John.

And then to tell us that, you know,

"I was promised her. I want her."

- That's the first we had ever heard of it. - Yeah.

- Well, that's a promise we never made. - Yeah.

I have never talked to John Dixon

up until recently on the phone.

I don't look at it as we were stuck being babysitters.

No, I don't look at it like that.

We absolutely got the better end of this bargain.

- Come on. - ( chatter )

- Bye, hon. - Bye. Hey.

- ( boys yelling ) - Woman: Quit fighting! Shh!

Woman: And we don't even look at her as she's a dog.

We don't consider her a dog.

- I mean, she's... - Yeah, I mean, she's--

- She's a human to us. - Yeah.

Woman: And then to say you want her,

"I was promised her," that was...

I'm not gonna lie, I cried. That was upsetting.

I'm like, "Is this true?

Are we gonna lose her?"

Well, I'm not gonna lose her,

'cause she's a-- you know,

- she's a part of the family. - Yeah.

It'd be like, you know,

one of my kids were gone.

( grunts )

Carlin: Most nights,

you can tell that he's dreaming about something,

whether it's trigger squeezes in his sleep,

and if he's got his arm on mine,

then I feel his finger squeezing triggers.

But a lot of nights it's still

calling out her name when it's that scenario

of getting-- the night that he got hit all over again,

so he'll, "Mika, Mika."

Or just one big shout of "Mika."

( tree thuds )

There's a lot of things that, you know--

that I never want to forget.

But at the same time, I don't want to think about them ever either.

And some of them thoughts, you know, they just--

are hard to go away.

And it's not that you want to completely, like,

pretend that it never happened.

I mean, you kind of do, but it's impossible.

But what you can do is take your mind off of it

by doing things, you know?

You know, I spent a lot of time on deployments,

a lot of time doing things that, you know--

that aren't normal.

And... this is very normal.

Very simple, very normal.

You know, it's not like I'm trying to run

from my feelings or anything, like I said.

It's like, you've just gotta get away from it sometimes.

( panting )

Like the pressing thing, like, even with Mika, you know?

I can't stand giving up on things.

I just keep fucking whacking it.

Oh, yeah, this one's a monster.

( deep breathing )

Carlin: One of my biggest fears

and one of his biggest fears

is that she's older

and...

the thought of her passing before he gets to see her

and have that guilt lifted off of him

and have that release of knowing that she's okay

and that she's happy and that she's healthy.

And that that will--

that pain will stay with him forever

is like hell.

Because if he can't

find a way to let that go,

then it'll always be there.

You know, like that hole forever.

'Cause it doesn't matter how many new dogs

come in and out, she's there.

And if he can't know that she's okay,

then it's...

he's not okay.

( music playing )

John: To finally pinpoint, like,

I found her, this is her, this is where she's at,

and then get shut down and turned away again,

it's just all that comfort is just gone.

I mean, you know, I was still holding on

to this little bit of hope, this little bit of hope,

but every time, it gets a little harder and a little harder.

And, you know, I'm just trying not to let it completely crush me,

but, you know.

And that's why I gotta keep going at it,

and, you know, it's gonna happen, so.

John and Carlin: I pray the Lord my soul to keep.

Let angels watch me through the night

and keep me safe till morning light.

- Amen. - Amen.

- All right. - All right.

Give Mom a kiss. Good night.

( kisses ) Love you.

Dave Nielsen: There's the war after the war

that you don't know is coming.

You might hear about it.

I heard about it

from my Vietnam friends.

But you don't know it's coming until you're in it.

For a lot of years I was angry at myself

and at a lot of things and confused.

Because it may be just a dog, but she was my best friend.

( Nielsen clapping )

So, after Pepper died, you get to where

you realize you have to move on with life, and you do,

and it's a process to figure it out.

At this point, 10 years later,

I want to talk about this.

( sighs )

Basically, I got home after my last rotation.

I put it all in a box and haven't looked at it since.

This was her.

Sort of first photo as she first got to the unit.

This is a-- just a map of where she died.

I think I fed her out of this napkin.

Or brought some steak down from the chow hall for her

the night before she was killed,

and then it was still in her kennel,

so I just wrote her name on it

and tacked this up somewhere.

This is a letter I wrote to Pepper

that I forgot about till just now.

"Peppy, I miss you so much.

In this ammo can are some things of yours

that we will bury at your grave site.

We were unable to recover your body,

and I'm so sorry for that.

I put these items in the can

symbolically for you until we meet again--

a jute, a Kong, a leash"...

So, while I can't say what the unit is,

I can say that I tried out for it and I made it.

And it was the absolute greatest day of my life

when I made it.

My daughter hadn't been born yet,

but getting selected after selection was amazing.

I asked if I could be a canine handler.

Went over to the kennels. I was shown around.

I was shown all the dogs.

All of them were males

except for one dog named Pepper,

this Belgian Mal who just sat there

in her kennel and looked up at me.

And, you know, I could look down and see her,

and she looked at me, and-- just a cute little dog.

And I asked, "Why is this dog here?

Is she somebody's pet?" ( chuckles )

"No, she's a working dog. She'll dirty up just fine.

Don't worry. We've seen her bite."

And I still didn't believe it. She was small.

She was 50 pounds, if that.

She also had a hyperintelligent look in her eyes.

That she would tilt her head

but look at you, and you could--

I could tell she was thinking and feeling.

I don't know why I fell in love

with her instantly, but I did.

We're trained in a dog handler's course

to not turn them into a human being,

but it's so hard not to.

I mean, the dog hugged.

She hugged me.

She came up, put her arm around me,

and put her head against my neck.

( chuckles ) I don't know

how dogs do that, but she did.

She was hilarious.

I mean, I could tap my shoulder right here

and she would jump up,

spring up in the air and land in my arms,

and then just sit there and look at everybody.

It was almost like she was trying to get laughter.

She was a lapdog

who became a beast of fury on target.

I wanted to establish a bond between us

'cause I knew we were getting ready to go to war.

It was coming within months.

I didn't really know what I was doing either, to start out.

Nobody does with a new job.

You learn each other's movements and voices

and just-- you learn each other's subtle cues.

And I learned hers and she learned mine.

If I turned left, she would move back and left.

I mean, we just-- the more we worked together,

the more we got in sync.

I taught her to bark. There's a command in Dutch to bark,

which most people don't do.

Why would you want your dog to bark

if you're going to a target and you're trying to be quiet?

I taught her to bark because I wanted to give her

the counter command to be quiet.

Stil, which is "zip it, be quiet."

Saturday afternoon, she came up next to me

and just flopped her head on my chest.

And I laid back and we--

she fell asleep, and I just let it happen.

And...

she would lick my face or nuzzle my ear.

And that's really what I was going for,

was that bond that couldn't be broken.

It was really like having a sister

or just a great friend at my side

all the time in war.

It was a very special bond that happened with us.

When we would lose a man, when somebody would get killed,

and it's real quiet in the house

and nobody wants to talk and they can't sleep anymore,

and people are sad,

then Pepper comes out and sits in their lap

and makes it a little easier.

I would just hear people laughing down the hallways.

She was making her rounds. She would go and see people.

She would make-- she would visit the guys.

About once an hour, she would just come up

and I could feel her nose on my hand.

She would just come and nudge me a little bit.

I'd pet her a little bit. She'd lay back down.

She served way more of a purpose

than helping to find bad guys

or sniffing out a bomb.

"Eternal."

That's a strong word.

( whispers ) Hey, Pep-Pep.

Hey, Pep-Pep.

The more I think back on it now, the more I...

really think there was

an element that can't be explained.

Just a link between man and dog...

that special doesn't do it justice.

I mean, it's a profound thing

going on there between handler and dog

that's nearly impossible to explain.

( music playing )

It was a rough night

because my friend had just died the night before

and we had been woken up early

to plan for this huge thing,

so we didn't have much sleep, both of us.

We landed, and Pepper and I got out.

It was on the bank of the Tigris River,

and it sloped down steeply.

It was a muddy slide down into thick brush

where the person was hiding.

There was houses right there,

and kids live in those houses.

It was too close to level it.

( explosions )

We tried for hours and hours.

I was getting close.

I wanted more than anything

to be able to shoot the guy

and not have to send Pepper.

So, she's in drive. It's pitch-black at night. You can't see anything.

She's running up to the other teammates, her pack.

She knows it's them.

She's almost going to them

for permission to go after this guy.

She's going up to each guy.

I sent Pepper once.

She went after this guy, disappeared into the brush.

( music playing )

10 minutes, 15 minutes later,

she came back to me up the hill,

sort of sluggish and all wet.

And she didn't like to swim.

She didn't like water, so I knew she had been in the water.

I'm checking her.

I had been trained medically

to search the dog for any issues.

She sort of comes back to life.

You know, she gets the pep back in her step and she's okay.

I tried to love her up a little bit,

but she didn't want that.

She wanted to go work.

She knew where the guy was.

I knew that she knew because she was pulling on me

and she wanted to go there.

She wants to bite like nothing else.

After hours of trying,

I decided to send her again.

And she sort of sprung through this high grass a little bit

and turned back and looked at me, which she didn't do.

She just had this look that I hadn't seen in her.

She was thinking.

She was looking at me and thinking something

and she was feeling something as well.

And I'm looking at her through my night vision, and it was just,

"I love you and I'm doing this for you,

and see you later."

She went over into that brush,

into the spider hole where this guy was hiding.

After she pushed the guy out of the hole,

and he moved to the right down south on the riverbank,

- the team went after him. - ( gunfire )

Now it's time to find Pepper.

And she wasn't coming back to me.

I asked everybody on the ground

to start looking for her.

There was a lot of people there that night.

Everybody's searching.

After five minutes, they said, "We found her."

And so, oh, I was relieved.

And then they said, "Oh, I'm sorry,

it's just her marking device,"

her light that had come off of her somehow,

and it had to be in a struggle

because it was secured to her working vest.

So, we knew that she had been in a struggle.

These teammates and these brothers of mine

and these uncles to her,

already cold and wet, but they got colder and wetter

by searching in just nasty, wet,

swampy holes that nobody would want to go into.

It was her family.

Her family was looking for her.

Her brothers were gonna do everything

they could do to find her, recover her,

and help her just like she had done for us.

There was just a...

a sadness that came over everybody.

I could feel it.

And, at one point,

I loaded up with another guy on a helicopter

and we were just flying sideways

looking for her on the bank of the river.

We did everything we could to find her.

Nobody gave up.

We had to be told, and more than once,

to abandon the search.

The call came that the sun's up.

It's light.

We're gonna get people killed

if we stay here.

And it started to set in that I'm not gonna get her.

( music playing )

The helicopters picked us up.

We flew five minutes back to our house.

Then when I hit the ground there,

the sun was up by that time,

and I knew that was it.

And I had her kennel, her empty kennel,

and I just took it out and threw it

and walked back to the house.

No, but I started to have that dream

that night and many nights after

where I'm looking down

and she's running back and forth

where she's supposed to be picked up,

where the helos came and picked us up.

She's looking for me, and I can't--

you know, I can't get there.

I wonder if we love each other as much as they love us.

This is the strobe light.

So, when they said,

"We found your strobe-- we found the dog,"

this is what had come off.

You know, it blinks. I thought they found her.

And then the look back is what really--

why I really question everything.

I still think about it.

I'm still very much bothered

and tormented by my decisions.

And I don't think without the rapport that we had,

without the relationship we had,

I don't think she would've done it.

Mm.

Oh, there she goes.

( sighs, crying )

And it was just clear to me that...

my daughter has a daddy because of Pepper.

Yeah. It made sense.

- Girl: Go! - Nielsen: What does yellow mean?

- Slow down! - "Slow down," that's right.

"You're almost there. Stop at that tree.

Climb the ladder to... a dog party."

Look at the dogs' party with cake.

I would have put myself in harm's way

or sacrificed anything that I would

for a human being for Pepper.

We don't fight because we hate the bad guys.

We fight because we love who and what we love.

And she was the same way.

Both: ♪ She touched the sky, sky, sky ♪

♪ And didn't come back, back, back ♪

♪ Till the 4th of July-ly... ♪

I have my personal spiritual beliefs.

I think I'll see her again,

so I know one day, we're gonna meet up.

And I just want to thank her, and my daughter does, too.

( music playing )

( music continues )