US War Dogs In Conversation With… National Service Animals Memorial Founder, Chair and Sculptor, Susan Bahary

Q1 2025: US War Dogs Highlights Our 25th birthday year has gotten off to a flying start and our president, Chris Willingham, has compiled a look back over the last three months’ activities and what our team has achieved, in service to the K-9 community. What’s going on, K-9 fam?! I hope that the first quarter of 2025 has treated you and your families well. We are so excited to finally be in our birthday year, which we knew was going to be one of our biggest and busiest yet, as we have been planning some epic ways to celebrate this incredible organization’s milestone. We weren’t wrong – it’s been a great start and we are pumped for the next chapter in this journey to the big 25. But along with all the birthday preparations (more on that shortly), our business-as-usual work to support military working dogs – active and retired – continues at a pace. We were thrilled to sign 31 new retirees up to our Rx program – giving them access to the medications they need – and all funded by US War Dogs. Overall, we provided meds totaling over $35,000 .

A Final Update for 2024! The last three months of 2024 have been action-packed, with US War Dogs’ suite of programs providing well-deserved support for our K-9 community. A busy final quarter means that the overall care we’ve been able to provide this year has been incredible! Let’s dig into the details… Supporting Our Retired K-9 Heroes We’ve signed up 91 new retired MWDs to our Rx program and spent over $167,000 on treatments through our Emergency Care program. We are particularly proud of this program, as it was developed in response to the need arising from within the community and through conversations with handlers and adoptive families about the challenges they face.  Since rolling out this program last year, we’ve not seen a single Go Fund Me page for retired MWDs, needing support with treatments. This is something we are exceptionally proud of. Read more about some of the recipients of care through the program, like Rex, SSeneca and Gunner.

In Conversation With… US Army dog handler and Purple Heart recipient, Alec Alcoser

War Dogs Turns 25! As our big birthday year fast approaches, we have some very special dates for your calendar in 2025, as we look forward to celebrating our quarter-century in epic style.

War Dogs Summer Our president, Chris Willingham, takes a look back at our work and our impact across July, August and September.  The last three months have been super busy for US War Dogs. Our vital support for the K-9 community continues to increase as word spreads further about who we are and what we do. We love nothing more than signing up new retired MWDs to our Rx Program and providing vital support when dogs and their families need it most, and this last quarter has been no exception. We were thrilled to welcome 18 new dogs to our Rx Program this quarter, including US Navy patrol and explosive detection dog (PEDD) Ivo, who retired with his former handler, Dan. Notorious as being the most aggressive dog in the kennels at NAS Lemoore, CA, six-year-old Ivo has become the model house dog in retirement, lounging and enjoying meeting new people. Ivo was retired with lumbar-spinal stenosis, so the provision of medications through the Rx Program will really help alleviate the financial burden for Dan and his family. Welcome to the pack, Ivo!

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.

Supporting our K-9 Heroes – Q2 Update, 2024 An update from our president, Chris Willingham Our mission to provide practical support to MWDs, their handlers and families, has been in full swing during the second part of this year and we are thrilled to share with you some facts and figures about the kind of care we have provided, by means of your generosity. Veterinary Care Take-up of our care programs has continued to grow this quarter, as word spreads about our mission and the kind of help that we provide. From April to June, we received 21 Rx Applications and spent over $35,000 on medications for dogs on the program.

Memorials and Memories The second portion of 2024 has been significant for many reasons. Alongside the delivery of service to help retired MWDs in practical ways, we have also been busy supporting the K-9 community in other ways too. Our president, Chris Willingham, reflects on three special events this quarter that War Dogs has been proud to be a part of: the dedication of the K-9 memorial at Fort Drum, NY, the US Army’s Annual MWD Symposium in Michigan and the fourth annual US Marine Corps K-9 handlers’ reunion at Camp Pendleton, CA. Memorializing our K-9 Heroes When retired US Army colonel Christine Stark contacted US War Dogs to ask for help with a memorial that the K-9 team at Fort Drum had spent a decade working on, the board and I were intrigued to hear more about the project. As you may have read in our interview with Christine, the memorial took on new life when the Eddy family wanted to make a financial donation to the K-9 section on base, in memory of their late father, William Eddy. When Christine volunteered to act as conduit between the family and the Army – utilizing her years of military service – plans were set in motion to connect the family with their aspiration to honor the MWDs that had served out of Fort Drum. US War Dogs has a long history of supporting the dedication of monuments to honor K-9. It is part of our mission to raise the status and awareness of what our MWDs bring to the table and how their service has been pivotal in protecting our nation’s freedom. A monument has the power to do that and we are honored to have played a part in bringing this poignant tribute to life.  I was fortunate to attend the dedication ceremony of the monument in May, which was attended by base personnel and the Eddy family, who were both proud and emotional to see a permanent tribute to their father unveiled.