Volunteer Highlight: Kim Roberson

The team at US War Dogs is almost completely made up of retired, honorably discharged or current serving members of K-9. Kim Roberson is the trainer at Eielson Air Force Base in Fairbanks, Alaska. She takes excellent care of our social media and we are blessed to have her as part of the team. We chatted with Kim to learn more about her military service and experiences and why she chose to dedicate her precious free time to US War Dogs.

Kim always had a strong pull to military service: “I always wanted to join – my grandfathers served in WWII and my dad and uncle served in the Vietnam War. Dad wanted me to go to college for four years, but I didn’t complete my Classical Studies and Philosophy major. The only thing I wanted to do was join, so I quit and went to a recruiter. I kind of surprised everyone with that!” 

Kim explains that as well as her family’s history, she had spoken to several combat veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, and they had brought K-9 into her field of vision. “The recruiter and the veterans I talked to made me research all of the jobs available. I liked the sound of the Aerial Gunner position, but my research led me to K-9. Guns and dogs was the one for me! The recruiter wanted me to do something else but I had my heart set on K-9, so I needed to join Security Forces.” 

Kim joined in June 2013 at the age of 23 and graduated basic training in August of that year. “I went to the Security Forces Academy directly after basic and graduated in October of that year, at Lackland Air Force Base. We didn’t interact with the MWDs at that point, but I’d seen them once on a demo. I knew they were there and that was the dream I had my eyes on.”

Expectation vs Reality

Kim admits that her first few years in the military were different to what she’d expected: “There wasn't as much action, more just sitting at a gate. Which is expected of a brand new A1C. However, I also had to wait my turn before I could join K-9, which is where I really wanted to be. I PCS’d to Edwards AFB in Cali – it was four years before I could go into K-9. “I was not a stellar airman and the current Kennel Master could see I needed room to grow. I finally got to apply to K-9 in 2016 but shortly after I was approved, I was deployed to Kuwait. I was in Kuwait from January to July 2017, which was a really great experience as I got the chance to see the handlers in action over there.” Returning home from Kuwait, Kim’s waiting paid off and she went straight to K-9 school at Lackland in August of 2017. “I loved every minute of it. The wait was so worth it and after graduating on Halloween, I returned to Edwards as a handler”

Rotten Luck

Two weeks into Kim’s assignment at Edwards, disaster struck. “I was decoying for one of the dogs and she blew out my ACL. I knew straight away that it was bad and of course, it was going to mean significant recovery time. All this before I’d even been assigned a dog.” Kim had surgery in December to repair her damaged knee, which needed plenty of recovery time before she could return to work. “I was off work for a month and then on light duties, so no field time out with the dogs for me. I started working with MWD Ggreta V243 in July 2018 and that’s when I finally felt like I was back on track.”

Kim and Ggreta

It just so happened to be Ggreta who had been involved in the incident that had busted up Kim’s knee, but Kim didn’t hold grudges against her. “She was the sweetest dog so we were all good. She was a push button dog and very well behaved. Ggreta could demo everything and she was very capable.

 “We went on a mission together in support of POTUS. It was a fundraiser at some fancy mansion in Beverly Hills and she did great. We also entered a K-9 competition where we took home first place in the Military Working Dog Team category and second place in Area Search – out of 80 teams!

“I felt blessed to have Ggreta as my first dog. We worked together from July 2018- October 2019 before she was assigned to another handler. She retired in 2021 and the handler that adopted her recently sent me a video of me working with her: I remember that exact demo. I love to stay in touch with her in retirement – she’s doing really well.”



Kim and Sony

Kim lived in Japan through the entire COVID pandemic, which made home feel even further away. “Travel was impossible and we were totally confined to Okinawa but in spite of everything, Sony and I had the time of our lives on the night shifts.”

Levelling Up

After spending a year working with Sony, Kim was ready to take her career to a new level and was selected to be a trainer and attended Trainers’ Course back at Lackland in 2021. “Coming back as a trainer was a strange one for me. Nobody is really for that transition and it’s not always an easy position to be in. I am grateful for the opportunity, but it was a tough challenge to come back and train handlers with the same amount of time on leash as me. 

“I really wanted to stay with Sony as we were a great team. We didn’t have to think – we were so in tune. I wanted to stay with her but my new role didn’t allow for it, so she went to another handler. Sony changed my whole view of K-9 – she taught me how to be a great handler and I owe a lot of my skills to her.” 

As well as taking charge of the night shifts with Sony, Kim also seized the opportunity to showcase the incredible work coming out of K-9 in Kadena. “I set up the Instagram page while I was a handler but when I returned as a trainer, I was really able to show off what our teams were doing. Our handlers were awesome and I wanted them to take pride in what they were doing.” 

Kadena’s Instagram page quickly gathered momentum as audiences enjoyed seeing the dog teams take on new challenges and training exercises, which included Jungle Warfare Training with the Green Berets, Navy SEALs and MARSOC. “We were doing something special and sharing our journey on social media really energized the teams. It instilled a real sense of pride.”

Kadena’s social media presence caught the attention of the K-9 community, including the team at US War Dogs. 

The organization’s president, Chris Willingham, said: “The Kadena guys were crushing it with regular posts and incredible content. They were repping for the community and our team really enjoyed seeing their content. We reached out to introduce War Dogs to the Kadena team and let the kennels know about our care package and specialized gear request program. We were honored to support the teams’ efforts with our gear.”

Chris also reached out to see if the social media team at Kadena might be interested in supporting US War dogs with its online presence. Kim recalls: “I was at Jungle Warfare Training at the time but we connected when I got back and I jumped at the chance to join the War Dogs team.”

Sony

North Pole

Kim’s start date with War Dogs was scheduled around the move to her next duty station, as she prepared to leave Japan and move to Alaska. Of course, leaving what had been home for three years was made even harder because Kim had to say goodbye to Sony. “She had

more time left to work but it had been agreed that when she retired, she would come and live with me. This made it slightly easier to leave her, but not much.” Kim’s move to Eielson AFB in Fairbanks gave her the opportunity to really establish herself as a Trainer. “Being promoted above your peers is tough, but moving to a new place as a trainer provided me with a totally different dynamic.”

Of course, the biggest adjustment that Kim would have to make in Alaska, was connected to the weather. “Winter is rough here. It’s a harsh place but it can be so beautiful. Seeing the Northern Lights for the first time was incredible.”

As Kim settled into life in North Pole, Alaska, her role with War Dogs took off too. “Balancing War Dogs volunteering was a thing to figure out, but I wanted to do it. I try to complete my tasks before I go to work in the morning, but my unit is extremely supportive of my role with War
Dogs. Many of us have retired dogs that are supported by the program. 

“I have the War Dogs flag hanging in my office and it gives me a lot of pride when people recognize that I am part of the team. I get the warm and fuzzies – it’s nice to get the recognition and people are getting to know us better as an organization.”

Kim’s social media skills don’t stop at War Dogs – she also set up a page for the Eielson K-9 section on Instagram to show off the incredible work of the dog teams at her base. “Other kennels are following us now too so I can rep for War Dogs on Eielson’s page as well!”

Dreams and Ambitions

Kim’s ambitions to continue progressing in the military have been realized as she is promoting to Tech Sergeant on October 1st. “I am an ambitious person. I’ve made it over eleven years in the military and I would like to further my career and do other things.”

Kim was promoted to tech sergeant in 2024

But as well as realizing her ambition and climbing another rung of the ladder in her career, this year also saw the reunion of Kim with her beloved Sony, who was flown back to the US from Kadena.

“It was an emotional day but it felt wonderful to have her home. My friend Lex flew home with Sony – they both did so well after 26 hours of travelling. She is joining my other retired MWD, Jocky at home here in Alaska and is already settling into the couch life beautifully.

“Both Jocky and Sony are signed up to the Rx Program, which just makes my volunteering for War Dogs even more special. 

Chris and Kim with Sony and Jocky

“War dogs is one of the best organizations I’ve ever encountered. Last year, the volunteers all got to come together for our K-9 Veterans Day event in D.C., which was so special. Meeting the Gold Star families who came out and spending time with the team was one of the best moments of my life.

“I’ve found a great friend and mentor in Chris too, who recently came out to run a training package for the team here at Eielson. The team were stoked to meet him and they learned a lot. It was also amazing that he could be a part of MWD Anton C215's retirement ceremony and was able to present him the Service Award in person. It was a memorable event for our whole team.

“For me, US War Dogs is a family away from a family and I am so proud to be a part of what we’re doing for the K-9 community.”

The team from Eielson kennels with War Dogs president, Chris Willingham