Family allowed to adopt fallen son’s dog - Marine Corps News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Marine Corps Times

Family allowed to adopt fallen son’s dog

After more than six months of effort, the family of a fallen Marine dog handler got permission Wednesday to adopt the bomb-sniffing German shepherd who was at their son’s side when he died in Fallujah, Iraq, last March.

The family of Cpl. Dustin Jerome Lee is planning to pick up the 7-year-old dog named “Lex” on Dec. 21 at Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany, Ga., where Lee was stationed.

“Lex will always be a special part of our family,” Lee’s father, Jerome Lee, said in a telephone interview Wednesday. “Lex was Dusty’s best friend and partner.”

The Lee family has been battling bureaucracy for months after the Corps initially refused to release the dog for adoption. Well-trained working dogs are in short supply, and Lex was healthy and able to continue working, Marine officials said.

Lee, 20, spent the final months of his life with Lex at his side. He was killed March 21 on a daily mission when a rocket-propelled grenade exploded nearby. The dog was also wounded but crawled over to his handler, nudged his face, then lay at his side as a corpsman treated his wounds, Marines in Lee’s unit told his family.

Related story:

Family wants fallen Marine’s military dog

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