Speaker 1: You're listening to American Shadows, a production of I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaronmankey. Nothing had prepared
Speaker 1: the soldiers for the jungles thick with foliage, deadly snakes,
Speaker 1: and land mines. The enemy planted trip wires and waited
Speaker 1: in tunnels. No amount of technology seemed enough to gain
Speaker 1: an edge, so they relied on something else to find
Speaker 1: and alert them to hidden dangers. Dogs. Between four and
Speaker 1: five thousand US military canines served in the Vietnam War.
Speaker 1: The military accredits the dogs for saving at least ten
Speaker 1: thousand lives. For perspective, picture the Vietnam Memorial Wall, with
Speaker 1: its some fifty eight thousand names etched in nearly five
Speaker 1: feet of marble, standing ten feet high at its peak.
Speaker 1: Now imagine an additional ten thousand names. Dogs did what
Speaker 1: technolog g could not. In addition to sniffing out danger
Speaker 1: and weapon stashes, they doubled as trackers and sentry guards,
Speaker 1: and aided soldiers in taking down armed men. Dogs even
Speaker 1: smelled enemy soldiers breath through reeds as they lay in
Speaker 1: wait beneath river waters. The canines endured the heat and
Speaker 1: enemy fire, but not for fame or money. They worked
Speaker 1: for the love and praise of their handlers. Most of
Speaker 1: the dogs bonded so tightly with the soldiers that they
Speaker 1: often stayed by their fallen bodies, to their own detriment.
Speaker 1: Military canines were so good at their jobs that they
Speaker 1: became targets Enemy forces earned rewards for a handler's service
Speaker 1: patch or a dog's tattooed ear. About three hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty canines and two hundred and sixty handlers were killed
Speaker 1: in action. A countless more were injured. In the morning
Speaker 1: of December four of nineteen sixty six, twenty two year
Speaker 1: old airmen Bob Thronberg smiled at Nemo, his German shepherd.
Speaker 1: You're a good boy, Throneberg told him. At home, families
Speaker 1: prepared for the holidays, unaware that the base Throneberg and
Speaker 1: others were stationed at had been under assault from a
Speaker 1: barrage of mortar fire. Throneberg and Nemo set out on
Speaker 1: patrol among the chaos of medics and soldiers, searching for
Speaker 1: the injured in piles of rubble. The thick heat was
Speaker 1: nearly unbearable for man and beast. Nemo trotted off ahead
Speaker 1: for several yards when he detected an armed man ahead
Speaker 1: of him, a Throneberg shot the enemy soldier. At three am,
Speaker 1: Nemo detected another Vietnamese guerrilla, and Throneberg sent Nemo after him.
Speaker 1: A gunfire erupted, hitting both Nemo and Throneberg. Though hurt,
Speaker 1: Nemo continued to fight while Throneberg called for backup. Thronberg
Speaker 1: managed to shoot the second guerrilla before collapsing, and Nemo
Speaker 1: returned to him. He whined as he lay across him,
Speaker 1: protecting him until backup arrived. Good boy, Thronberg said. When
Speaker 1: help arrived, Nemo cried as medics took Thronberg away. Both
Speaker 1: received medical treatment. Later, the two were reunited at the
Speaker 1: base hospital. It was a brief reunion. The Throneberg was
Speaker 1: airlifted to Japan for further treatment. He never saw Nemo again.
Speaker 1: Throneberg recovered. He received the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star,
Speaker 1: though he credited Nemo as the hero. That day, he
Speaker 1: and Nemo had taken out two enemies soldiers. All told,
Speaker 1: Canine forces took out a dozen guerrillas that night. Nemo
Speaker 1: also recovered from his wounds, though he lost an eye.
Speaker 1: He was five years old when the military retired him.
Speaker 1: He received no medals, no awards. However, Nemo did receive
Speaker 1: something much rarer for canine soldiers. He was returned to
Speaker 1: the Department of Defense Dog Center, where he lived to
Speaker 1: be eleven. Others were not as fortunate. When the US
Speaker 1: left Vietnam, handlers wanted to bring their dogs home, most
Speaker 1: were denied. The military euthanized some dogs and abandoned others.
Speaker 1: Only two hundred of over four thousand canines returned home.
Speaker 1: In the year two thousand, President Clinton signed Robbie's Law,
Speaker 1: named after a brave canine that, like other dogs, fought
Speaker 1: in wars that were not theirs. But with this law,
Speaker 1: the military could no longer consider dogs as equipment and
Speaker 1: euthanized them after their life of service. It also allowed
Speaker 1: their handlers to adopt them. Nemo and Robbie were very
Speaker 1: good dogs who saved lives, but they weren't the only ones.
Speaker 1: I'm Lauren Vogelbaum. Welcome to American Shadows. Their lineage dates
Speaker 1: back thousands of years. Part of the Spitz family of dogs,
Speaker 1: the Siberian husky became an integral part of the chip
Speaker 1: Shee people's survival in the harsh Siberian landscape during the
Speaker 1: day the dogs pulled sleds. At night, they slept with
Speaker 1: their families and kept them warm. Innuit people has also
Speaker 1: kept the dogs and took them when they migrated to
Speaker 1: the North americ An Arctic. Able to withstand temperatures most
Speaker 1: animals and other dogs cannot, the Siberian husky made survival possible. Still,
Speaker 1: the breed remained unknown for those in the American West
Speaker 1: until the Alaskan Gold Rush of eight sled dogs became essential,
Speaker 1: especially in remote Gnome, Alaska, just a hundred and sixty
Speaker 1: miles south of the Arctic Circle. Nome winters are cold,
Speaker 1: dark and isolated. In October of that year, the last
Speaker 1: supplies arrived by boat. In November, ice prevented ships from
Speaker 1: approaching the port, leaving residents on their own. Neither horse
Speaker 1: nor mule could make the journey along the Ideental Rod
Speaker 1: Trail during the long winter months, Nome residents needed sled
Speaker 1: dogs to make the trip to larger towns for supplies.
Speaker 1: The dogs also helped pass the time. In the early
Speaker 1: nineteen hundreds, sled dog racing became a popular sport for
Speaker 1: Alaskan colonists. Of The driver, also known as a musher,
Speaker 1: wrote a sled pulled by several dogs. The first All
Speaker 1: Alaska Sweepstakes race took place in nineteen o seven. By
Speaker 1: nineteen o nine, Norwegian born Leonard Seppola had made a
Speaker 1: name for himself in racing and breeding the best sled dogs.
Speaker 1: In nineteen ten, the winners at a course record was
Speaker 1: some of Seppola's smaller scrappy dogs, bred mostly of stock
Speaker 1: from Siberia. Typically, a trip from Nana, Alaska, to Nome
Speaker 1: took thirty days, the fastest records set first sled team
Speaker 1: took nine and though airplanes replaced many sled dog teams
Speaker 1: in other Alaskan towns during the nineteen twenties, in Gnome,
Speaker 1: dogs were still a way of life for Indigenous and
Speaker 1: European people's alike, delivering mail supplies and traveling to shops
Speaker 1: and businesses. When the snow came and I settled, the
Speaker 1: people of Nome were on their own until the spring
Speaker 1: thaw in nineteen twenty four was particularly cold and harsh,
Speaker 1: and gnomes only doctor Curtis Welsh was uneasy. It started
Speaker 1: when a boy came in with labored breathing and the sore.
Speaker 1: Though Welsh did everything possible, the boy died. The next day.
Speaker 1: Within days, other children arrived with the same symptoms. Soon,
Speaker 1: both young and old were coming down with the illness
Speaker 1: Welsh dreaded diphtheria. The Welsh had stockpiled what he thought
Speaker 1: the town might need, but he couldn't plan for everything.
Speaker 1: The disease can be fatal if not treated. In time,
Speaker 1: bacteria settles in the lungs, where it produces toxins. Those
Speaker 1: toxins caused the death of respiratory tissue. As the dead
Speaker 1: tissue accumulates, the airway becomes clogged, making breathing difficult. Other
Speaker 1: complications involving the kidney and heart may also occur. Essentially,
Speaker 1: diphtheria kills by poisoning and asphyxiation. Children were bounced at risk,
Speaker 1: generally killing one in ten affected. Today, we have a
Speaker 1: vaccine that has all but eliminated the illness. However, back
Speaker 1: in the nineteen twenties, the disease reached epidemic proportions. There
Speaker 1: was a cure, though, and anti talks and seram to
Speaker 1: create it. Horses were given increased levels of diphtheria toxins,
Speaker 1: to which they built up anti toxins. Then laboratories made
Speaker 1: seram from the horse's blood. However, Nome didn't have laboratories
Speaker 1: or access to many horses, and though doctor Welch had
Speaker 1: some anti toxin on hand, it had expired with no
Speaker 1: immunity to the disease. Diphtherorius spread through the town like wildfire.
Speaker 1: Without fresh anti toxin, Doctor Welsh estimated a one fatality
Speaker 1: rate based on the cases so far. He called an
Speaker 1: emergency meeting with Mayor George Maynard. The two quickly set
Speaker 1: up a quarantine as a temporary measure to slow down
Speaker 1: the spread of the disease while they put out a
Speaker 1: call for anti toxin. Fortunately, Anchorage had enough serum. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: Anchorage was a thousand miles away. Time was running out
Speaker 1: for the people in Nome. The disease was highly contagious
Speaker 1: and death often occurred just days after infection. Welsh and
Speaker 1: Maynard needed to find a way to get the serum
Speaker 1: and quickly. Glasgow's governor made it possible to transport the
Speaker 1: serum from Anchorage to Nanana by rail. The ice made
Speaker 1: delivering the serum the rest of the way by boat impossible.
Speaker 1: Planes had open cockpits and water cooled engines at the time,
Speaker 1: making the trip by air a suicide mission. The town
Speaker 1: survival came down to the sled dogs, but this time
Speaker 1: they wouldn't have thirty days or even nine to make
Speaker 1: the trip. The call went out asking for help from
Speaker 1: every sled team along the idea rod trail from Nanana
Speaker 1: to Rome that have to set up relay teams between
Speaker 1: the two points to beat the clock. It wouldn't be easy.
Speaker 1: The teams would mostly be running in the dark. Daylight
Speaker 1: during Arctic winters is scarce. In addition, the serum had
Speaker 1: to be kept from freezing, a near impossible feat considering
Speaker 1: it was January, and even if they managed to keep
Speaker 1: the serum stable, it had a shelf life of just
Speaker 1: six days, requiring the dogs to make the trip three
Speaker 1: days faster than the record run. They needed the best
Speaker 1: drivers and the fastest dogs. A ragtag group of natives
Speaker 1: and settlers signed up like their dogs. The men were
Speaker 1: healthy and fit, and all of them were young, except one,
Speaker 1: forty two year old Leonard Seppola. Though he had the experience,
Speaker 1: his age put him past the prime for such a
Speaker 1: grueling undertaking. His lead dog, Togo, was also aging at twelve.
Speaker 1: The journey would likely kill him, but both man and
Speaker 1: dog had a vested steak in the matter. Seppola had
Speaker 1: a young daughter and a solid commitment to the town.
Speaker 1: Togo had an equally strong commitment to Seppola, a devotion
Speaker 1: had had since he was a puppy. Seppola had taken
Speaker 1: a little longer to commit to such a bond. Togo
Speaker 1: had been born the only pup in the litter. His
Speaker 1: dark brown coat and piercing blue eyes might have stolen
Speaker 1: anyone else's heart, but Togo was small and initially unhealthy,
Speaker 1: and as far as Seppla was concerned, looks didn't get
Speaker 1: the job done, and he had little interest in the pup,
Speaker 1: so he gave Togo away, but Togo refused to belong
Speaker 1: to anyone else. He jumped through a window and, remarkably
Speaker 1: for such a young puppy, found his way home. Resigned
Speaker 1: to keeping Togo, Seppola put him in a pen when
Speaker 1: he took the other dogs out to train. Togo had
Speaker 1: other ideas. He dug under or climbed over every pen,
Speaker 1: then raced off to find Seppola and the team, often
Speaker 1: causing havoc when he did. Too young to harness. Sepola
Speaker 1: did his best to keep Togo from escaping, but nothing worked. Finally,
Speaker 1: when Togo was eight months old and had managed to
Speaker 1: escape and find the team again, Sepola harnessed him up
Speaker 1: with the rest of the team. Got first day, Togo
Speaker 1: ran seventy five miles on break. Sepola continued moving Togo
Speaker 1: closer to the front. By the end of the day,
Speaker 1: he had become the lead dog. In a short time,
Speaker 1: Seppola had the best lead dog had ever owned. Togo stamina, intelligence,
Speaker 1: and devotion to Seppola became legendary and known so With
Speaker 1: so many lives in the balance, Seppola had to choose
Speaker 1: twenty of his best dogs for the journey. He had
Speaker 1: a younger dog named Bolto, but felt the dog didn't
Speaker 1: have what it takes to make the treacherous journey had
Speaker 1: been assigned a Seppla lent Bolto to another musher to
Speaker 1: make the best time. Each team was assigned at thirty
Speaker 1: miles stretch, all except Seppola and Togo. The two would
Speaker 1: have to make an incredible ninety one mile run over
Speaker 1: the trail's most hazardous terrain. They made their way to
Speaker 1: a cabin near the rendezvous point and waited as the
Speaker 1: train pulled into Nanana. The weather worsened, A blinding snowstorm formed,
Speaker 1: and temperatures dropped to sixty degrees below zero fahrenheit. While
Speaker 1: every driver knew they needed to be fast, they also
Speaker 1: knew that if they ran their dogs too fast, their
Speaker 1: lungs would frost and the dogs would dive exposure. Winds howled,
Speaker 1: and the snow came down hard. Bill Shannon and his
Speaker 1: team pulled away from the train station. The Great Mercy
Speaker 1: Run had begun. Shannon ended up taking on fifty two
Speaker 1: miles of the run in the worst of the weather.
Speaker 1: He arrived at the transfer point and suffering from hypothermia,
Speaker 1: his face black with frost bite. Four of his dogs died.
Speaker 1: The temperature warmed slightly, though the next driver and team
Speaker 1: still encountered gale force winds and blinding snow, and drivers
Speaker 1: and dogs persisted handing off the seram to the next team.
Speaker 1: The driver who passed the seram to Seppola told him
Speaker 1: cases of diphtheria had risen and warned him that a
Speaker 1: storm was headed his way. Seppola got his team ready
Speaker 1: and set out in temperatures of negative thirty degrees fahrenheit
Speaker 1: with a wind chill of negative eighty five. By the
Speaker 1: time they stopped for rest at a roadhouse, Togo had
Speaker 1: led the team eighty four miles. The dogs were exhausted,
Speaker 1: and they settled in for some rest. The winds kicked
Speaker 1: up outside, reminding Seppola they couldn't rest for long. M
Speaker 1: With just six hours of sleep, they set out again,
Speaker 1: the storm raging around them. Seppela had a choice to make.
Speaker 1: If he took a short cut, he'd save forty two miles,
Speaker 1: but that short cut would take him and the team
Speaker 1: across the sound. In the past, other teams had risked
Speaker 1: the ice and poor weather, only to find themselves stranded
Speaker 1: on the ice floating out to sea, and on a
Speaker 1: previous journey, the unthinkable had happened to them. When Seppola
Speaker 1: and the team had found themselves stranded on the ice,
Speaker 1: he had unharnessed Togo and tossed him onto a larger block,
Speaker 1: Hoping Togo understood what he needed him to do. Pulled Togo, pull,
Speaker 1: and Togo had the ice Seppola and the team were
Speaker 1: stranded on drew close enough to drive the team across. Now,
Speaker 1: Seppola had a decision and take the long way and
Speaker 1: save himself and the team, but risked the Sarah expiring
Speaker 1: or risk their lives. Seppola looked at the team and
Speaker 1: met with Togo's ice blue eyes. They've done it before,
Speaker 1: they'd do it again. Togo and the team took off
Speaker 1: across the ice, sliding and skittering. They were now in
Speaker 1: a race for their lives, though they didn't know it,
Speaker 1: the storm had started to break up the ice on
Speaker 1: the Norton Sound. By the time Seppla heard the ice
Speaker 1: cracking around them, they couldn't turn around. He urged Togo
Speaker 1: to keep running, to keep moving the team forward so
Speaker 1: they wouldn't panic, and Togo instinctively steered them away from
Speaker 1: the danger and led the team to shore. Once they
Speaker 1: were safely away from ice and firmly back on land,
Speaker 1: they found an inuit iglu, where Seppla fed the team
Speaker 1: and slept. The shortcut had saved them an entire day.
Speaker 1: They rested a few hours and set out again. Houses
Speaker 1: and rest stops dotted the snow drifts along the way.
Speaker 1: A telegram had been sent to tell the drivers to
Speaker 1: stop at them frequently to rest and get warm, but
Speaker 1: Seppola never received the messages. He and Togo pushed on
Speaker 1: toward a ridge line across the north summit of what's
Speaker 1: now called Anali Mountain. Seppola and Togo had experience on
Speaker 1: such trails, which was why they had been selected to
Speaker 1: cross the mountain, but they'd never done it in weather
Speaker 1: like this. There were no trees to block the wind,
Speaker 1: the way up and down was steep, and the ridge
Speaker 1: was narrow. If they lost their footing, they'd perish. There
Speaker 1: were touch and go moments on their descent when the
Speaker 1: team slid down the mountain. Seppola relied on Togo to
Speaker 1: keep the team from danger or going too fast. By
Speaker 1: the time they made it to the rendezvous point, the
Speaker 1: team was exhausted and twelve year old Togo had given
Speaker 1: it everything he had left. Seppola handed off the serum
Speaker 1: to the next driver, Charlie Olson. On February one, after
Speaker 1: his run, Olsen handed off the serum to gunner Casson,
Speaker 1: who had put Bolto on his team. Casson and Balto
Speaker 1: faced near whiteout conditions. Balto helped keep the team on
Speaker 1: course until an eighty mile an hour wind toppled the sled,
Speaker 1: throwing Cassin, the dogs and the serum into the snow.
Speaker 1: Casson removed his gloves and frantically searched for the fur
Speaker 1: wrapped package with his bare hands. He found him right
Speaker 1: at the sled and pushed on to the next meeting point,
Speaker 1: where the last team would take the serum into town.
Speaker 1: Except they weren't there. There's controversy at this point in
Speaker 1: the history. Some say Casson wanted to be the one
Speaker 1: to bring the serum into Gnome. Others say that with
Speaker 1: the clock ticking and the storm raging, he couldn't afford
Speaker 1: to wait. Either way, Casson pushed on, making it to
Speaker 1: Gnome on February second. A hero's welcome greeted him and
Speaker 1: the team. Casson, exhausted and relieved, handed the serum to
Speaker 1: doctor Welch. He staggered to the front of the team,
Speaker 1: hugged Bolto, and collapsed. Welsh administered the serum to the sick.
Speaker 1: No more cases were reported, and the town was saved.
Speaker 1: Welsh had enough to treat everyone who needed help, with
Speaker 1: just two doses to spare. The drivers and their teams
Speaker 1: returned home again to rest and recover. The Great Mercy
Speaker 1: Run was over. They had beaten the odds. A hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty sled dogs made the run. They traveled six
Speaker 1: hundred and seventy four miles in five and a half days,
Speaker 1: shattering the old record of nine A few of the
Speaker 1: dogs died giving their lives to save human life, and
Speaker 1: Togo was not one of them. After a much deserved rest,
Speaker 1: he and Seppla returned home. The Great Mercy Run had
Speaker 1: captivated the country during those five and a half days.
Speaker 1: People everywhere anxiously awaited reports on the dog's journey, and
Speaker 1: newspapers splashed updates on the front page. Radio stations gave
Speaker 1: them by the hour. Americans were on the edge of
Speaker 1: their seats when the New York Times reported that a
Speaker 1: major blizzard struck as the dogs approached Nome, and celebrations
Speaker 1: erupted when the seram made it and the town was saved.
Speaker 1: President Calvin Coolidge presented every musher with the letter of recognition,
Speaker 1: and even the Senate took notice, and stopping their work
Speaker 1: long enough to honor the men and their dogs who
Speaker 1: had braved horrender its conditions to save the lives of
Speaker 1: thousands of people. People couldn't get enough of the story,
Speaker 1: and though twenty men and a hundred and fifty dogs
Speaker 1: had participated, one stood out above all others. Balto, Gunnar
Speaker 1: Casson and Balto had been the ones to arrive in
Speaker 1: Nome with the serum. A. Seppeler knew the team that
Speaker 1: made the trip into town would be the most celebrated.
Speaker 1: He didn't care so much for himself, but he did
Speaker 1: for Togo. A Balto was a great dog. All the
Speaker 1: dogs were, but it had been twelve year old Togo
Speaker 1: who had taken on the roughest, most dangerous terrain. A
Speaker 1: six year old Bolto ran an incredible fifty three miles
Speaker 1: at twice his age. Togo had traveled two hundred and
Speaker 1: sixty one miles, over a third of the six hundred
Speaker 1: and seventy four our mile run. It had been Togo
Speaker 1: that traveled the ridgeline and across the ice, and Seppola's
Speaker 1: decision to go across the sound saved an entire day.
Speaker 1: Had he chosen the initial path, that Sarah would have expired. Books, movies, magazines,
Speaker 1: and papers wanted to hear Balto's story, though Balto symbolized
Speaker 1: the race he and Casson towards the States. Balto was
Speaker 1: president at the unveiling of his statue in New York
Speaker 1: Central Park, but after a while Casson grew homesick, Balto
Speaker 1: and the other dogs weren't with him when he finally
Speaker 1: returned to Alaska. It's unclear why the poor Balto and
Speaker 1: the team were shipped across the country as part of
Speaker 1: the vaudeville circuit, until George Kimball, who was organizing a
Speaker 1: children's campaign, came across the heroic canine at a side show.
Speaker 1: Balto and the other dogs had been chained living in
Speaker 1: deplorable conditions, and Kimball rescued the dogs and found them
Speaker 1: a permanent home at the Cleveland Zoo. Balto lived the
Speaker 1: rest of his life there until he died in nineteen
Speaker 1: thirty three, and Togo and Seppola toured for a while
Speaker 1: as well. They even went back to sled racing in
Speaker 1: Maine and easily bested the local dogs, but Togo was
Speaker 1: growing older and Seppola retired him, Agreeing to a breeding
Speaker 1: program in Maine. Togo sired many litters, Seppola reached his
Speaker 1: dream of the perfect sled dog separate from Siberian huskies.
Speaker 1: Togo's line became a separate breed, the Seppola Siberian. Seppela
Speaker 1: returned to Alaska, but continued to visit his beloved dog.
Speaker 1: Togo passed away a few years later, at the age
Speaker 1: of sixteen. He died having lived his retirement and comfort
Speaker 1: well cared for and deeply loved. Leonard Seppela died in
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty seven at the age of eighty nine. Zeppola
Speaker 1: said he had never had a dog with more intelligence, courage, stamina,
Speaker 1: or loyalty than Togo, but his story and heroism faded
Speaker 1: from history. Decades later, historians uncovered the story and helped
Speaker 1: shine a light on Togo as the true hero. In
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, a Sepalss Siberian named Diesel portrayed Togo in
Speaker 1: Disney's adaptation of The Seram Run. As it turns out,
Speaker 1: Diesel was an easy choice for the studio. He not
Speaker 1: only resembled Togo, but he was also his great grandson
Speaker 1: fourteen generations back. There's more to this story. Stick around
Speaker 1: after this brief sponsor break to hear all about it.
Speaker 1: Working dogs are a relatively common sight, either trained as
Speaker 1: police dogs or to aid people with disabilities or illnesses.
Speaker 1: Dogs truly have become human kind's best friend, and in
Speaker 1: September of two thousand one, America became familiar with two
Speaker 1: other types of working dogs, search and rescue and SIR
Speaker 1: and recovery. After the attack on the Twin Towers on
Speaker 1: September eleven, three hundred dogs and their handlers converged on
Speaker 1: Ground zero. Search and rescue dogs have been used for decades,
Speaker 1: from locating people lost in snowstorms and the wilderness, to
Speaker 1: national disasters like Hurricane Katrina and incidents like the Oklahoma
Speaker 1: City bombing. Still few Americans knew the scope of what
Speaker 1: it meant to be a dog or handler for search
Speaker 1: and rescue. But at Ground Zero, people glued to their
Speaker 1: televisions had never seen anything like it. After the horror
Speaker 1: of watching the building's collapse, people falling from buildings and
Speaker 1: runnings so covered through the streets, others ran toward the buildings,
Speaker 1: and in the aftermath, rescue workers continued to shift through
Speaker 1: the rubble in the hopes of finding human life. Dogs
Speaker 1: climbed over concrete, glass and unstable debris to detect life below.
Speaker 1: Twenty seven hours after the buildings had collapsed, a rescue
Speaker 1: dog found the last survivor days lay there. The search
Speaker 1: and rescue teams made way for dogs trained in search
Speaker 1: and recovery The search proved difficult for the cadaver dogs,
Speaker 1: as it turns out, finding body after body is psychologically
Speaker 1: taxing for them too. To combat the dog's depression, handlers
Speaker 1: created mock fines so the dogs found some living people.
Speaker 1: Denise Corliss was one of those handlers. Corliss, volunteer firefighter
Speaker 1: with the Sci Faire Fire Department in Texas, arrived with
Speaker 1: two year old Brittany, a Golden Retriever. Corliss had been
Speaker 1: training with Brittany since the pup was just eight months old.
Speaker 1: The pair had completed female Certification. Nine eleven was Brittany's
Speaker 1: first assignment. While Brittany took her job seriously sniffing through
Speaker 1: and climbing over rubble for twelve hours a day for
Speaker 1: nearly two solid weeks, she had a softer side too.
Speaker 1: Of finding so many bodies took its toll on the
Speaker 1: rescue workers, and Brittany also discouraged sought out firefighters who
Speaker 1: just needed a hug and a wet nose. Soon, rescue
Speaker 1: workers sought out Brittany for one of her famous golden
Speaker 1: smiles and a quick hug. The firefighters began to share
Speaker 1: stories with Corless in the debris were missing. Friends and
Speaker 1: co workers of Brittany not only served as a recovery dog,
Speaker 1: but she had also become a therapy dog. After not eleven,
Speaker 1: Corless and Brittany went on to other assignments. Hurricanes Rita,
Speaker 1: Ivan and Katrina of Brittany did precisely what she had
Speaker 1: been trained to do, despite the dangers. Once Brittany found
Speaker 1: herself standing precariously on a dangling staircase, injury and death
Speaker 1: are real possibilities for the dogs. A Corless admitted to
Speaker 1: a reporter that she held her breadth on many occasions
Speaker 1: while Brittany worked. Life as a search and rescue or
Speaker 1: search and recovery dog is hard and demanded. Brittany retired
Speaker 1: at age nine, though she remained active. She visited the
Speaker 1: scy Fair Firehouse regularly, where she continued to bring her
Speaker 1: golden smile and warm to the firefighters. She made television appearances,
Speaker 1: and she enjoyed going to elementary schools, where she listened
Speaker 1: patiently and without judgment as children practiced their reading skills
Speaker 1: with her. But, as anyone with the dog knows all
Speaker 1: too well, their lives are too short. And when Brittany's
Speaker 1: kidneys failed and nothing more could be done. Corlis honored
Speaker 1: her beloved dog with dignity, choosing to be with her
Speaker 1: when the veterinarian euthanized her. Oh. When word got out
Speaker 1: about nine eleven's last surviving search and recovery dog, firefighters
Speaker 1: and first responders lined up outside the clinic, They stood
Speaker 1: at attention and saluted Brittany as Corlis led her inside.
Speaker 1: Tired and in pain, Brittany managed to wag her tail.
Speaker 1: Then they waited. When Corliss reappeared with Brittany's body draped
Speaker 1: with an American flag, they saluted her one final time.
Speaker 1: Heroic dogs are indeed special, but dog love is also
Speaker 1: know that nineteenth century humorist Josh Billings had it right
Speaker 1: when he said, a dog is the only thing on
Speaker 1: earth that loves you more than he loves himself. American
Speaker 1: Shadows is hosted by Lauren Vogelbaum. This episode was written
Speaker 1: by Michelle Muto, researched by Ali Steed, and produced by
Speaker 1: Miranda Hawkins and Trevor Young, with executive producers Aaron Mankey,
Speaker 1: Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. To learn more about the show,
Speaker 1: visit Grim and Mild dot com. From more podcasts from
Speaker 1: iHeart Radio. Visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts.