Dragon: the Marine Veteran war dog

I received a fun request a few weeks ago. The following story is about Dragon, a dog who was adopted by Marines in the work of the Iraq war, came back to the US with the troops. Today they lives a quiet retirement as a happy house pet in Pensacola Florida. I was one time proud to donate this painting in his honor for his owners.

Mischievous recruit dogging Marines on flight line

Submitted by: MCB Camp Pendleton

Story by Cpl. Matthew S. Richards

Reprinted from this story: http://tinyurl.com/7y6eprk

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- Dragon is not the most disciplined member of Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 268. He is been known to steal food. They runs around Camp Pendleton's flight line like they owns the place. & they cannot maintain his bearing, always bowing his head & folding his ears back. Get him excited & he'll even leave a puddle on the floor.

But his Marines love him. It is hard not to. The lovable mutt is that -- a stray the squadron's Marines came to call their own in the coursework of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Dragon has migrated from the streets of Kuwait to the squadron's hangars & he is seldom looked more at home.

His breed- "Persian camel shepherd," quipped Capt. Matt G. Robinson, his unofficial caretaker, now the quality assurance officer for Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron (Training) 164. Ten-month-old Dragon took the name from the squadron that adopted him in Ali Al Saleem, Kuwait, over nine months ago.

"We found him hanging around the British tents," Cpl. Shaun Kelly, a crew chief for HMM-268, said while playfully scratching Dragon's head.

The squadron dubbed the adoptee Dragon after their mascot, a giant red dragon.

Dragon wandered around the tents, begging and stealing scraps. It is a habit he is had a hard time breaking. Robinson is still tugging Dragon by the leash away from some of the Marines' lunches.

"It was weeks before everyone entered Iraq," Robinson explained. "He was a malnourished small thing and they had been beaten and abused. They had a immense gash on top of his head."

The Marines immediately took a liking to the pup and began to nurse him back to health.

"We fed him parts of (Meals Ready-to-Eat) at first; his giant thing was peanut butter," said Robinson, who was HMM-268's officer-in-charge of the flight line in the coursework of OIF. "After the first couple of meals, they slept for days straight.

"We were worried about him," they said. "We didn't think they would make it."

Dragon, retired and enjoying life

Dragon soon became accustomed to the flight line. The constant whine of the engines & chopping of the rotor blades soothed him to sleep.

Dragon's new relatives joked around about how they first behaved under their care. "For the first month they would bury half his food in the sand," Kelly said. "Then after they fed him , they forgot about that & ate every bit."

"At first they was terrified of the (CH-46s)," said Staff Sgt. Marcus A. Gomillion, maintenance control chief.

They said the dog learned to live with the helicopter noise without fear of the noise.

The dog was a natural Wing Marine, a fact made apparent after his arrival at Los Angeles International Airport.

"It was funny, because after my wife (Bethany) picked him up at LAX and took him out of the kennel, he ran right to the flight line where the planes were," Robinson said. "She had to chase him down."

Dragon was all fun and games, but the lengthy process to bring him into the Unites States wasn't. He had to be on a civilian airliner at a cost of more than $2,100.

"We're still paying for the cost to ship him from Iraq," Robinson said. "My wife had to hunt down the only veterinarian in Kuwait City, and (she) really went out of her way to help us out."

The Robinsons weren't the only ones to pitch in for Dragon's journey home. More than $1,100 came pouring in from Marines and their families to keep the pup with the squadron.

Dragon was quarantined after he got all his required shots. Then all his paperwork was checked and double- checked at U.S. Customs in Los Angeles.

"After we had been through so much with him, I knew there was no way we'd leave this guy behind," Robinson said.

After all, to his Marines, he's part of their family ?much to the chagrin of some in the squadron. Mail even seemed more regular for Dragon than for the Marines.

"That dog would get packages before I would," Gomillion said. "Everybody loved him."

Dragon gave as much as he got, too.

"He was a definite help through hard times, because we lost some Marines out there," Robinson said. "He was something the Marines didn't have out there. He was something they grew attached to and took care of."

Dragon's not going anywhere soon either. Marines at HMM-268 made him part of their family. He even has his own Service Record Book.

"When he sees the uniforms he starts going crazy," Robinson said. "The flight suits or the cammies ... he loves being around Marines."

Just because the squadron treats him like part of the Marine family doesn't mean he's completely given up his wily ways. The little pup is mischievous, even around Robinson at home.

"One time I was cooking hamburgers and I had five out in a glass bowl on our table," he said. "I turned around and when I looked back there were only two left. The bowl hadn't moved at all."