The enemy used a detonator to set off the bomb, hurling Corporal Leavey and Rex backwards through the air. The insurgents targeted K-9 teams for the obvious reason that they uncovered their explosives. The enemy had marked the spot of the IED with a large white boulder. Unbeknownst to the two of them, insurgents had been watching from a nearby rooftop. As she approached the intersection there was a violent explosion. In the distance she could see a few houses and farms. The road led to an intersection where several vehicles had passed by. They had to walk ahead of the Army convoy to evaluate the safety of the road. It was a challenge to keep Rex under control. Stray dogs ran loose everywhere between the cattle in the fields. The terrain was rural farmland criss-crossed with dirt roads, with tall reeds and streams on either side. The soldiers were to clear an area which had not been visited by our forces for a long time. Leavey was asked to do a patrol with an Army unit. It often took a while for the team to arrive, so Corporal Leavey would mark off the spot with a glow stick, called “chem lights.” This also ensured that the vehicles following the K-9 Unit would know where a bomb was hidden. Whenever they discovered a bomb, Corporal Leavey would call in to an Explosive Ordinance Disposal Team, or EOD, giving them the coordinates of the explosive. The two of them were highly successful with this, and they exposed many previously hidden threats. Her job was to walk with Rex ahead of the convoys or patrols to uncover buried Improvised Explosive Devices (IED’s). The dogs are trained to sniff out the presence of explosives. It is not obvious where they are hidden or which object they encounter is deadly, due to all the rubble along the roads. You have to entrust your life with him.” The enemy relied heavily on roadside bombs. “I just couldn’t sit on the sidelines as a spectator watching the fight for freedom unfold on television.” And, “if I’m going to join the service, I’m going to aim for the highest and the best: the Marine Corps.”īy the time of her second deployment in Ramadi in Anbar Province in May 2006, “I felt more confident with my dog…you learn to trust your dog. The terrorist attack on The World Trade Center Septemmotivated her to volunteer to enlist. Her Uncle Jimmy was an Army Green Beret in Vietnam. Both grandfathers were on active duty, one in the Air Force, another in the Navy. Working full time, she began to sort things out.Ĭorporal Leavey’s family has a proud heritage of service for their country. Unable to find motivation at a college far away from home, she convinced her parents to let her return home. Her parents, knowing the value of college, persuaded her to go to SUNY Cortland. She enjoyed high school, making lifelong friends however, she initially did not want to go to college. Some of her favorite activities during her high school years included cheerleading and softball. She attended a local Catholic school until the 7th grade, and then went to nearby Nyack High School. She grew up in Valley Cottage, in Rockland County, New York. Megan Leavey was born on October 28th, 1983. Thanks to the caring generosity of the Yankees and Levine, who paid for their round trip flight to California and back, Corporal Leavey’s quest had a happy two-year ending. “It took an army of people to make this happen,” a radiant Corporal Leavey marvels, taken totally by surprise by her warm welcome at the airport replete with a fife and drum band furnished by a retired captain and television cameras and lights. Corporal Megan Leavey is shown after landing at JFK with her German shepherd Rex, after being reunited thanks to the efforts of Randy Levine, president of the New York Yankees, his wife Mindy Levine, and New York Senator Charles Schumer.įinally, five years after her injury under enemy fire and Rex’s retirement from the K-9 anti-bomb squad, the decorated Marine was allowed by the Corps brass to adopt her beloved canine buddy and bring him home with her from his kennel at Camp Pendleton, California to her apartment in Valley Cottage, New York. The Fox News Clip is one of her cherished souvenirs.
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