Following on the success of her New York Times best-seller, Soldier Dogs, frequent Bay Woof contributor Maria Goodavage has written a new book about military working dogs on the battlefield. Top Dog: The Story of Marine Hero Lucca is a riveting saga about a remarkable German Shepherd and her handlers, Chris Willingham and Juan Rodriguez, who together saved countless lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. Equal parts tense and uplifting, it is a must read for dog lovers everywhere. We are happy to share just a taste of Mariaʼs extraordinary tale with our readers.
– Editors
To Lucca, it was just a walk down a road on a warm afternoon, sniffing for scents that made Willingham happy. He wondered if she thought it was strange that he would become so excited when she responded to certain odors. He was glad she didnʼt know the stakes. If she got distracted, or if the explosives were buried too cleverly, it could prove fatal — to her, to him, to anyone near, including local children.
Theyʼd been working toward this since they met, and he felt a calm exhilaration walking out front with Lucca. The morning of walking point had gone without incident. That was fine with him. He didnʼt need Lucca to find IEDs to know his dog was great. Just so long as she didnʼt miss one.
The soldiers reconvened later in the day, after the sun was less taxing and everyone had rested. They needed to clear a portion of a smaller dirt road off Route Gnat on their way to check some compounds. In sections of the road, tall concrete compound walls jutted close to the road on both sides, so there was no way to get out. People going through would have to funnel closer in. It was still a wide enough road, but Willingham knew chokepoints like this could be deadly.
When they approached the first two chokepoints, he went farther ahead than usual with Lucca so she would have time to investigate before the others got there. No sense in the others being delayed as she searched. The system had worked well so far. They were making good progress.
He saw another chokepoint coming up. “Lucca.”
She looked at him. With his open right palm facing to the left, he sliced through the air while looking at the left side of the road.
“Forward,” he told her. He wanted her to be on the left, since the wind was blowing from the right. That way she could catch scents from the whole width of road. Knowing how to use the wind to the dogʼs advantage is an everyday component of dog handling.
She walked up ahead, nose down, intent on her job. She got to the place where compound walls infringed on the roadside, and her pace picked up. Back and forth, back and forth, tail wagging. Each time she turned, she took fewer steps as she seemed to narrow in on a point of interest. She stopped, her tail went up slightly and she looked at Willingham. He could see she was about to sit to indicate she had found something, but Willingham had seen enough. He didnʼt need her to go through the whole response.
“Come!”
She trotted back, and he praised her. No Kong here, too dangerous. She didnʼt seem to care. By this time the platoon leader had caught up. Willingham briefed him. EOD was summoned, and everyone moved away to a safe distance. The technicians assessed the situation. Since there was a lot of debris on the road—a thick layer of dusty dirt, pebbles, bits of dry vegetation — the techs couldnʼt see any sign of an IED. They decided to use propelled water from special bottles to clear the debris and see if there was anything obvious underneath.
Almost as soon as the water hit the ground, there was a huge blast. Willingham could feel it rumble inside his chest. It left a crater in the middle of the road, twelve feet across by five feet deep.
If Willingham had let Lucca sit, it could have been over for her, maybe for him, too. If she had been a typical leashed bomb dog, or if Lucca werenʼt so good at her job, that could have been the end of the road for at least the two of them.
“Luuuucca! Mama Lucca! Look what you found!” Willingham rubbed the sides of her face, the top of her head, stroked her back.
It was getting dark, so they started back to a compound theyʼd secured for the night. The platoon leader walked up to them.
“Hey, great work. From now on, you two are out front.”
Reprinted by arrangement with Dutton, a member of Penguin Group (USA) LLC, A Penguin Random House Company. Copyright © Maria Goodavage, 2014.
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