Puppy From Iraq Ties Family to Slain Soldier

CONCORD, N.H. (May 25) Associated Press- The family of Army Spc. Justin Rollins feels a little better thanks to a puppy, fresh from a nearly 6,000-mile journey from Iraq , that connects them to one of the soldier’s last happy moments.

Seeing photos of the 22-year-old nuzzling a puppy from a newborn litter the night before his death in a roadside bombing in Iraq prompted Rollins’ family and girlfriend to start pushing to adopt Hero, who arrived in New Hampshire on Friday.

Before going to Iraq, Rollins’ unit was deployed to help disaster victims after Hurricane Katrina. While he was there, he also helped in pet rescues.

“It was the last bit of happiness Justin had,” said Rollins’ girlfriend, Brittney Murray.

Rollins and some other soldiers from the 82nd Airborne found the puppies outside an Iraqi police station March 4 but weren’t allowed to bring them back into their barracks. Rollins was killed the next day in Samarra.

Army Spc. Justin Rollins holds Hero as a puppy in a photo taken March 4, the day before Rollins was killed by a roadside bomb in Samarra.

After Murray saw the photos, she sought help finding the short-haired dog. U.S. Rep. Paul Hodes contacted the U.S. Central Command, which ordered the 82nd to retrieve the pup and turn it over to delivery company DHL.

Hero was named as a reminder of the man who planned to propose to Murray on his next visit home, she and Rollins’ mother said.

Hero

The female pup arrived Thursday night at Kennedy International Airport in New York, visited a veterinarian and arrived in New Hampshire overnight. The floppy-eared pooch – mostly white, with brown spots along the right side of its muzzle and paws still too big for its 15-pound body – was a hit Friday as she sniffed around Hodes’ office, pausing to piddle on the carpet.

Whether the mixed-breed puppy is definitely the one in the photo didn’t matter. Several people claimed credit for the dog’s name, but everyone agreed it was a fitting tribute to Rollins, whose parents said he was always an animal lover.

“We have a dog and three cats at home. When he was little, they all were on his bed,” said his mother, Rhonda.

Rollins was buried in Arlington National Cemetery with a baseball signed by Red Sox player David Ortiz, who met him last summer shortly before Rollins’ unit was deployed.

Rollins was buried in Arlington National Cemetery March 19

“He really did believe in what he was fighting for,” Rhonda Rollins said of her paratrooper son. “I think he’d be thrilled there was a positive story from the negative thing that happened to us. … He was such a happy-go-lucky guy.”
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press.