Laughlin K9 retires to Florida

  • Published
  • By Joel Langton
  • 47th Flying Training Wing Public Affairs
LAUGHLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  Monday morning's 47th Security Forces Squadron's defender's retirement ceremony was a little different than your typical military retirement.

There was no retirement speech by the retiree, no flowers for the spouse, no retirement pin and the retiree never saluted anyone.

However, despite his 'indifference,' this retiree was shown complete respect by his comrades in arms and was retired with full honors at the end of the day, although Military Working Dog Lee 418 will never receive a retirement check or even get his medical care paid for.

But like many retirees, what he does have is a cushy retirement home in Dunedin, Fla. waiting for him.

The 9-year-old Belgian Malnois went through basic military working dog training at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas.

That was in 2006, when action in Iraq and Afghanistan was heated. Afghanistan quickly became a second home to him, serving three deployments at Kandahar Air Base.  When he wasn't in Afghanistan, he was patrolling Laughlin Air Force Base with one of his two recent handlers, Tech Sgt. Sean Foster, who he deployed with, or supporting Presidential missions overseas with Senior Amn. Melissa Goodhile, both members of 47th SFS.

Even though Goodhile and Foster said they hated to see him go, they knew it was time for him to retire.  "We'd do a search and he'd go up and down a lot on vehicles and afterwards, he'd be limping for awhile." The limping was caused by severe arthritis in his hips.

Lee supported local law enforcement on several occasions, and one night when there was a bomb scare at an expensive gala at the Del Rio Civic Center, his handler discovered that Lee had a serious thing for cordon bleu. "He just snuck it right off the table when we took a break," said Goodhile.

He also has a thing for leather, chewing through more than one leather leash, she said.

His handlers swear he's got a better personality than many of their two-legged partners. "While traveling we'd get to a motel and he'd always pop up on the bed and look at me like, 'Hey Dad, this is nice, where are you sleeping?'" said Foster.

After a symbolic retirement ceremony with military working dogs from different agencies in attendance and military working dog handlers past and present giving him a final salute, his leadership honored him with final words.

His boss, Maj. John Farmer, 47th SFS commander, lauded military working dogs, saying they were in action "at least 500 years BC, and probably earlier."

Afterwards, a teary Goodhile recalled some good, and not so good times with Lee, but said she had some concerns as her 4-legged partner headed into retirement. "The couch with his name on it is leather," she said, recalling all the car seats and leashes he'd destroyed.