Memorial to fetching soldiers

They’re lean, they’re mean, they’re highly trained fighting machines.
               And they like to play fetch in their down time.

Now, even though I'm definitely more of a pootie person, I thought these cooperative programs for dogs and humans working in military service were great.

Dogs have served our country since Pearl Harbor, as sentries and messengers, as detectors of mines and bombs. But under these two new programs, dogs are supporting troops in a whole new way – therapeutically.

sboucher’s note: I post this diary in the spirit of Woozles-meet-Memorial Day, and not to generate a discussion of whether or how dogs should be used by the military. Please?

"Dog Tags" is a partnership between the Washington Humane Society and Walter Reed Army Medical Center; its mission brings together recovering, injured soldiers and homeless dogs to teach and learn from one another.

Volunteer soldiers learn the basics of dog training, plus the therapeutic benefit of spending time with animals and helping others. By the end of the certificate program, they have a foundation for a future career with dogs in animal training, care, and welfare.

  I'm a very happy customer.

The shelter participants contribute their expertise as dogs. Meanwhile, they get a break from the shelter and learn the skills they need to find the loving adoptive homes they deserve – training and socialization. This in turn increases their adoption and retention rates.

By tapping into the power of the human/dog bond,
together pets and people jumpstart the healing process.

"One of my real beliefs in this work is that in addition to adopting animals out and protecting animals from cruelty, it's important to have programs that bring people and animals together in meaningful ways," says Lisa LaFontaine, the WHS's president and CEO.

Understanding the power of such a strong connection, all instruction is based on humane, motivational methods of training, and WHS absorbs all financial related costs for this program. Now there's a waiting list for the program.

Army Staff Sgt. Matthew Foster, a 25-year-old from Wichita, Kan., whose right leg was amputated below the knee, connected with a black lab at the shelter after losing his family's dog, the one he grew up with. Calling the course "an awesome opportunity," Foster says he'd like to eventually work with special needs children while using the experience he's getting.

I would love to work, if I could, in a canine unit in any police department in the country that wants to hire a one-legged guy. Children with special needs will be able to relate to me better than a person who's whole. They'll see me and think, "He's got only one leg and he did it."

Not to mention the physically therapy that is working with a big, energetic dog. Says Foster, "It goes along with the therapy I'm doing — it's another challenge."
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A new Army program sends "therapy dogs" to war zones to help troops combat stress.


In December, two black Labrador Retrievers named Boe and Budge made history when they were deployed to Iraq as the first skilled therapy dogs. They were donated and trained by America’s VetDogs. Recognizing a growing need for specialized service dogs for America’s fighting forces, VetDogs initiated the therapy dog concept with Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind, which has been helping provide guide dogs since the 1940s.

Boe and Budge have been instructed to provide comfort and relaxation through physical interaction, whether it’s a game of fetch or just a peaceful few minutes of petting.
...I can do that!

Sgt. 1st Class Boe is the newest member of the 85th Medical Detachment Combat Stress Control unit at Contingency Operating Base Speicher. And here’s Boe on the job, already earning rave reviews.

Ever had a Sergeant 1st Class lick your face?  


"I felt more relaxed after being able spend some time with her," said Sgt. 1st Class Brenda Rich, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) Medical Operations.

"For a few minutes it was just me and the dog
and nothing in this environment seemed to matter."

Photos by Christopher Appoldt, courtesy of VetDogs
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There's lots of ways to support Military Working Dogs.
Learn more about the Washington Humane Society’s Dog Tags program and find out how to help.

If you would like to adopt a military dog, you can e-mail MWD at info@militaryworkingdog.com and they will send you the additional information you require to contact the MWD Center. [problem with homepage?]

Operation Baghdad PupsS.P.C.A. International, a Washington-based charity, began "Operation Baghdad Pups," an initiative created to provide medical care, clearance and transport for the animals our U.S. soldiers have come to love (and that have helped them cope) during deployment in the Middle East.

America’s VetDogs, a subsidiary of the Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind, offers guide and service dogs to veterans of all eras. The program provides service dogs to members of the military recently wounded in combat and deploys therapy dogs to Iraq to help relieve combat stress of soldiers in the field.
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UPDATE: In a commentbelow, vzfk3s asked about cool-packs that are made for dogs serving in Iraq.

Imagine working outside all day in arid desert conditions where the temperatures rise to 145 degrees-without the comforts of air-conditioning. Now imagine wearing a full body suit of one-inch thick fur.

An organization called Space Coast War Dog Association SCWDA is working with military.com to send every MWA a space-age cooling vest. Check these links for info on how to participate.
Thanks, vzfk3s!
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VISUAL POLL!
These are pics that didn't make it into the story. Vote for your favorite!
   
1.Deuce                     2. Charlie                                    3. Ratchet
             

4. Unnamed only cat in program       5. Dog tags

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My choice in the visual poll is

	1
21%	8 votes
	2
7%	3 votes
	3
42%	16 votes
	4
21%	8 votes
	5
7%	3 votes

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Art works healing broken kids in Uganda

In which a painter travels to Gulu, Uganda,
to work with children who have been
abducted by terrorists, to serve as soldiers and sex slaves,

and the healing begins.

       Art is a wound turned into light.
                    Georges Braque (1882-1963)

Don't miss the slide show of the paintings, linked below.

You've probably never heard of Ross Bleckner. He's a painter who became famous in the 1980s; he's considered an "important artist," and has works in museums all over the world. But he’s not exactly a household name, and here's why I hope this will change.

Earlier this year, Bleckner went on an official mission to the Gulu district of northern Uganda. Gulu has been terrorized for many years by the rebel force known as the Lord’s Resistance Army. Formed in 1987, the LRA continues to rove around Northern Uganda and the Southern Sudan, abducting and conscripting thousands of children, who are forced to become killers and sex slaves.

Bleckner worked with a group of 25 children ages eleven to nineteen. The former abductees and ex-soldiers – many of them orphans – had all experienced horrific trauma, and some had been forced to kill or maim other children or adults before they escaped from, or were released by, the rebel movement.

Using donated paint, brushes and paper, Bleckner spent several days teaching them rudimentary painting and drawing skills.

Then the children began to open up to him, and to create work that powerfully expressed their experiences.

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Bleckner is the first visual artist named to be a Goodwill Ambassador since the position was created by the United Nations in 1954.*

[W]hen United Nations officials first approached him, they asked whether he thought art could perform a useful role in drawing attention to the plague of human trafficking.

And I said to them that if art can’t perform a role like that,
then it has no role at all.

The children made 200 paintings that will be sold at a benefit at the UN headquarters tonight, Tuesday, May 12, when Bleckner will be officially installed. He plans to return to the area early next year to enlarge the painting project and that — in his role as ambassador — he hoped to enlist many more artists to become involved in efforts to fight child enslavement and trafficking.
Says Bleckner:

What this mission accomplished is what  is called microcreativity.

It is a personal interaction which gives someone the tools to create something that they can be proud of, and which can help them on the arduous path to restoring their dignity and sense of self-worth.

In an interview with big think, Bleckner talks about how he intends to fulfill his new post (site offers both video and transcripts).

[W]hat they were trying to do was essentially go to Northern Uganda and re-socialize, and have the story be told through art-making to see if that was a viable way of telling the story ...
They asked me as the first [visual] artist to go...and start a program at a refugee camp, a very large, internally displaced person camp, an IDP it’s called, where people from Uganda actually live in this refugee camp that they could keep them under guard essentially so that the kids don’t get kidnapped.

I basically painted with the kids. And there’s going to be an exhibition at the United Nations...of all the work. And it’s going to be for sale and the money will go to help them reconstruct their lives and essentially send them back to school. So that’s a program that they want to get going around Africa

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimates that human trafficking generates $32 billion a year in profits, third only to drug and arms trafficking.

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Please take a moment to view the Slide show of works by the children in the project, which is attached to "For Child Soldiers, a Chance to Wield Brushes, Not Arms," NYT, April 28, 2009, the primary source for this diary.


*Audrey Hepburn , Harry Belafonte , Roger Moore, Angelina Jolie,  Susan Sarandon, Danny Kaye, and Mia Farrow are but a few examples of previous ambassadors.

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Visual Poll!
These are paintings by Ross Bleckner from various times in his career. Vote for the one you like best.
         

My favorite painting is:

	In Replication, 1998, oil on linen, 84 (upper left)
7%	4 votes
	Middle Brother, 1997, oil on linen, 84 (upper right)
11%	6 votes
	Memorial I, 1994, oil on linen, 96 (lower left)
33%	17 votes
	Time and Meditation (The Leaves and The Birds), 2008, oil on linen, 84 (lower right)
41%	21 votes
	Wayne Thibaud
5%	3 votes