THREE CAPES: Sally - Now a long way from Kabul Afghanistan

Sally

November 2009 - March 2010

This dog has been with us for 14 years because, amidst all the violence of war I was dealing with in the spring of 2010, and the combat ops I had conducted myself, I wanted to chance to save save a life.

Bringing her home was an outrageous thing to do.

It was one of the best things I ever did.

I wanted to give this amazing dog a great life.

Instead, she gave me a great life.

I became attached to Sally during a deployment to Kabul Afghanistan at the NATO ISAF joint headquarters at the Kabul International Airport. As a young puppy, she always seemed to find me as I was running the camp perimeter road or having a slide of pizza at the Pizza Hut trailer in our camp.

Sally and a few other dogs were a huge morale boost to the whole camp in what was otherwise a very grumpy wartime headquarters on the south side of the Kabul airport.

I started calling her Silly Sally because she always seemed to find me to play when I wasn't on shift in the headquarters or traveling around Afghanistan, and I thought she was the most playful and joyful of all the Kabul pups. Everyone loved her. And she loved Everyone. I literally ran with her every morning at sunrise, and she always materialized out of the dust by the junkyard to appear and trot along by my side somewhere on that perimeter wire run.

It was impossible not to love her.

She was ordered to be killed by a NATO general after she a few others barked at a trash truck by the dining hall early one morning. An entirely reasonable order for him to give. But...

We couldn’t let that happen.

A wonderful person named Carey Neesley (a hospice nurse in Detroit) used her insurance funds from losing her brother Peter in Iraq to save Sally and a few other dogs. Here's how:

Todd and Laura Schroeder helped orchestrate it all, (Todd was a Navy Master Chief Intel leader in the HQ and loves animals more than anybody I have ever known. He had named Sally his own name (Wajma) and we argued strenuously over what to call her as we rounded up Sally and the other dogs in the middle of the night.

We arranged for a doctor in Kabul to give shots, get them microchipped, and we paid ridiculous prices for kennels from Pakistan, etc. Carey funded almost all of the effort - plane tickets etc etc. Carey then flew from Detroit to Dubai as we put her on a plane from Kabul. Carey landed, immediately went to the other end of the airport, boarded a return flight and took the dogs back to Detroit though Amsterdam, (during the Volcano ash delay period). Truly a long journey around the world and back.

Carey Neesley is a Saint.

Then - the awesome Schwartz family generously and kindly drove to Detroit to pick Sally up. Janet Schwartz fostered and cared for her as a member of their family in Dayton Ohio until my deployment was over with Junior's in June. Junior Schwartz was in the Air Combat Coordination Element with me at ISAF Headquarters and was an amazing guy. I knew his family would be too - and they definitely were.

Here’s where Sally came from:

Those are fighter drop tanks over there. In the 'junkyard'. We kept her and the other pups there as we figured out how to get her to the states.

She's now a long way from Kabul in Raleigh NC.

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Sally has caught 10,000 frisbees and fetched countless tennis balls for me.

She’s come a very long way. Here are some pictures of Sally as a pup in Kabul.

2010

Outside the Dining Hall

Playing with her best friend in Kabul

This is how Sally would sleep as a pup in Kabul.

Sally as a stray pup

Another great dog in the pack.

The night we collected all the pups.

We kept them in a junkyard in fireman lockers with a fire blanket over top for the heat

We used a rifle sling for a leash. Sally wasn’t much interested in a leash. More videos of that far below.

Todd Schroeder and his awesome wife Laura orchestrated the whole rescue.

The morning we put her on the plane to Dubai.

Putting her on the plane at Kabul Intl

Kabul Airport

Army Specialist Delarco was part of our group.

Great guy.

This is in Dubai at the airport when Carrie Neesley picked her up after flying all the way from Detroit

And-

This is the Saint who saved all the dogs.

Carey Neesley paid for the dogs to fly home, flew herself to Dubai to get them from Detroit and then immediately went to the other end of the airport and flew all the way home with no break. It so honors her brother whose Service loss insurance funds funded these great pups’ rescue.