Dogs of War: Lex

In the news this week is the story of two Marines, Cpl. Dustin Lee and Lex the war dog.

Lex was an explosives sniffing dog, and his and Cpl. Lee’s job was to smell out IEDs and save Marines' lives.

On March 21st 2007 Cpl Lee and Lex were on patrol in the Fallujah area.

They had six weeks left on their tour.

During combat operations that day, Cpl. Lee and Lex were wounded by shrapnel from the same blast. Lex survived, 20 year-old Cpl. Lee did not. He would have turned 21 on April 7th.

Rachel Lee, Dustin’s mother, believes her son’s spirit lives on through Lex because of their close bond, because they were wounded together and because Lex was there as Dustin died.

The Lee family wanted to adopt the 8 year-old war dog, but Lex still had two years of military service left.

 In the history of the Marine Corps War Dog program, no dog had ever been retired early so he could be adopted out. 

That did not deter the Lee family.

  The Lees lobbied the Marine Corps for months, getting their congressman involved. Their efforts paid off and on Friday, December 21st, exactly 9 months after Dustin was killed, Lex was retired from the Corps and adopted by the Lee family during a ceremony at MCLB Albany, GA.

Requiescat In Pace, Marine

There'd be a lot more than 50,000 names on the Vietnam Wall without these dogs, and I don't think the average American even knows the role they played." - Dr. John Kubisz,  a veterinarian who served with the 764th Veterinary detachment in Vietnam.