Welcome home, Sergeant Rex!
Every dog has his day, and today belonged to Sergeant Rex.
Rex, a German Shepherd military working dog, returned home to New York this week and was greeted with open arms this morning by Marine Corporal Megan Leavey.
Leavey, a Rockland County resident, served alongside Rex in Iraq, where the two of them worked together to find and disable improvised explosive devices during two tours of duty. Both were severely injured in 2006 after an IED exploded.
Leavey was awarded the Purple Heart and retired from the Marine Corps in 2007, but Rex continued to serve. Once he was deemed too old, it took Leavey months to be able to convince the U.S. Army to let her adopt Rex, with the help of a petition started by U.S. Senator Charles Schumer that was signed by 21,000 people.
Schumer now wants to streamline the process of adopting military working dogs once they are no longer needed in the field.
“After serving their country in the way Rex and hundreds of other military working dogs have, they should be able to enjoy a dog’s life once their service has ended,” said Schumer.
