Dogs are a source of emotional and spiritual support for the Marines. After being apart and away from their dogs for many years, US Marines have now had a chance to reunite with them. These dogs are highly trained and are explosives-detecting dogs who were trained by K2 Solutions, Inc in North Carolina. These dogs served the US military and Marines greatly and helped them find explosives in the battlegrounds of Afghanistan and Iraq, later on with the growth in technology the services of these dogs were no longer required therefore they were taken away from the Marines and returned to K2 solutions, Inc.
In an interview with media, the CEO of K2 Solutions Lane Kellsen also said that after the dogs were no longer required, the US allowed K2 solutions to offer the last 12 dogs to their original Marine handlers for adoption.
Sgt. Mark Slocum was also present at the interview and said that he became very excited when he got the call from K2 Solutions two weeks ago. Sgt. Slocum has now officially adopted his dog name “Tug”, he is now a 7 year- old Labrador.
Sgt. Slocum saw Tug last time in 2011, when he was sent to Afghanistan Tug used to stay by his side and go and search buildings and cars to search for any dangers and make sure that everything was safe. He also said that Tug had saved their lives a couple of times, once Tug and Slocum were searching of IEDs and Tug found someone. When he continued to stiff he indicated that they were all homemade explosives. Here the platoon was forced to give up that route because there were too many explosives and because of Tug many Injuries were prevented.
Tug provided a healthy companionship, as there were no computers or phones that’s why Tug proved to be an important member of the platoon. Slocum added that after being adopted, Tug would no longer be a war dog and would have to learn to live like a pet and do normal things that an indoor dog would do. Other than Sgt. Mark Slocum, Sgt. Chris Jaramillo was also awarded his war dog named Shooter for adoption on the same day as Sgt. Slocum.