Private First Class Gavin Colburn, a Reservist who joined the Army Reserve for the opportunities it afforded. He wanted to marry his girlfriend and go to collage to study law. Before he left for deployment, Gavin and his 17-year-old girlfriend got engaged. “They had a plan,” said his mother. “She would graduate a year early, they […]
The date was April 15, 2008. In the lawless southern provinces of Afghanistan, about 100 Marines left their military base at Kandahar Airfield as part of a supply convoy comprised of dozens of vehicles. Marine 1st Sgt. Luke J. Mercardante, the battalion sergeant major for Combat Logistics Battalion 24, was assigned to sit in the lead Humvee […]
On this day five years ago, Lieutenant Florence B. Choe and her shipmate Lieutenant (junior grade) Francis Toner, were out for a Friday afternoon run. They were jogging on a frequently used path around the perimeter of Forward Operating Base Shaheen in Afghanistan, an area guarded by Afghan Army soldiers who had been trained by U.S. Forces. Suddenly, […]
When I first started my project with Warrior Canine Connection’s Honor Litter, I set four goals I hope to achieve, and laid them out in my first blog post Focusing On Service – It Can Be Life Changing. To move toward these goals, this is the first in a series of individual spotlights on each […]
This evening I would like to take a moment to remember a true American Hero. When I first started this blog and project with the Warrior Canine Connection Honor Litter, I introduced the dogs one by one. If you’ve been following along, you probably also recall that each of these amazing animals is named for […]
I hope you all had a FANTASTIC Christmas and New Year’s, and that as you read this, 2014 is the BEST year yet! Our holidays were outstanding, but it’s time for the BGP blog to get back to work! I want to start off 2014 with a remembrance: When I first started this blog and […]
In my last blog entry we talked about some of the puppy training. Much of their training will be formal instruction at Warrior Canine Connection Headquarters, but equally important are the weekly field trips to expose the puppies to many diverse situations; after all, they will likely experience all sorts of uncertainty when escorting their […]
Now that you have met the Honor Litter and their namesakes, I’d like to give you a glimpse into their training and shaping – a topic I’ve always been very interested in. There actually was a time when I gave serious consideration to going back to school and becoming a dog trainer, but ultimately decided that […]
Hello one and all, and welcome back to the third installment of my introduction to Warrior Canine Connection’s Honor Litter! Are you ready to meet the last three puppies? I have to say that these introductory blogs have been rather difficult to write; photographing the puppies is (of course) an absolute joy, and I LOVE […]
Introducing the Honor Litter! In last week’s post, I introduced you to Cody, Luke, Stanley, and their namesakes. As I mentioned, in the Honor Litter there are three yellow Labrador retrievers and six black. Well, this week I would like to introduce you to the three yellow puppies and their namesakes! They all have incredible […]