Man’s best friend becomes Marine hero
By Mike Householder January 26, 2012 5:30PM
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Article Extras
Updated: March 1, 2012 8:02AM
Mike Dowling fought in Iraq. He was a Marine deployed in 2004, where he served with the battle-hardened Warlords unit that was based in the ultraviolent Triangle of Death. His story isn’t that of the typical Marine warrior, however. Dowling saw plenty of combat, yes, but he and a colleague were charged with saving lives, not taking them.
In Sergeant Rex: The Unbreakable Bond Between a Marine and His Military Working Dog (Atria, $26), Dowling recounts how he and his German shepherd comrade risked their lives on a near-daily basis while laying the groundwork for future K9 teams serving in battlefield units.
Dowling does a terrific job of describing in heart-pounding detail how Rex, despite searing heat and the specter of constant danger, sniffed out scores of the bad guys’ improvised explosive devices, bomb-making materials and ammunition caches.
The real-feel nature of Dowling’s prose is only part of the reason Sergeant Rex is such a compelling read. It’s the relationship between handler and military working dog that really jumps off the page — the whole man’s best friend thing.
Dowling deftly establishes the pair’s symbiotic relationship by tracing back to their first meeting, through training at Camp Pendleton in California and into the hellish war zones in Iraq. “Rex is three years old, and during the last year and a half we’ve spent barely a day apart,” Dowling writes during a passage in which he and Rex are under fire in Iraq. “He has become my life.”
At one point, Dowling wraps his body around Rex to shield him from gunfire. “I’m not about to let anyone shoot my best buddy,” he writes.
Sergeant Rex represents the best kind of nonfiction — an impossible-to-put-down true life story that immerses readers in suspense and sets up a thrilling conclusion at which they cannot wait to arrive. AP
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