K-9 VETERANS DAY – Friday, March 13th. Phil Quigley with the Mobile Bay Area Veterans Commission will interview four K-9 War Dog Handlers.

Lloyd Pursley, Andy Earl, Cody Aloi, and Eric Carney with K-9 Mayhem.

The interviews will be held at 1:00 p.m. at the War Dog Memorial on USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park.

The public is invited:

Lloyd Pursley served in Vietnam and had a four-legged friend looking out for him. His name was Draco, and he was a tracker dog. But when Vietnam was over, Pursley couldn’t bring him home.

Thanks to Mission K9 Rescue, decades after he had to leave Draco behind, he received a war dog stateside, K-9 Hank. Draco’s name is etched on the War Dog Memorial at Battleship Memorial Park. After 18 months with his loving owner, Hank contracted lung cancer and died on March 24. His ashes are now buried beside the memorial. Hank is the only K-9 buried at Battleship near the Alabama War Dogs Memorial. Hank represents all military working dogs, past, present, and future.

Vietnam Veteran, Lloyd Pursley; Andy Earl, Cody Aloi, Afghanistan and Eric Carney with Mayhem a Human Remains Detection K-9, will be interviewed. The public is invited to attend; the interviews will be at the K-9 War Dog memorial.