Handler – Combat Engineer Kyle Hodges<\/p>\n
Retired K-9 gets full military honors at memorial <\/p>\n
A 21-gun salute rang out in the parking lot of Stillinger Family Funeral Home in Greenfield on Friday, June 10, honoring a retired military K-9 that had crossed over the rainbow bridge. The Greenfield Veterans Honor Guard gathered to honor Sgt. Hoss, a 13-year-old golden Labrador retriever that served two years sniffing out explosives in Iraq.His handler \u2014 retired combat engineer Kyle Hodges, who served five years in the U.S. Army \u2014 cried softly as a member of the honor guard knelt down before him to hand him a neatly folded American flag, commending the dog for his service to his country.\u201c(Sgt. Hoss) is a veteran, and all veterans are the same. He deserves to be honored this way,\u201d said Don Carson, a member of the honor guard who served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1969-72.David Stillinger, who owns the funeral home where the memorial took place, agreed.\u201cThis dog did something special serving in Iraq. He and Kyle were inseparable,\u201d said Stillinger, who is acquainted with Hodges\u2019 fiance, Kaitlyn Magiera. After the 21-gun salute and the playing of Taps in the parking lot, Hodges, Magiera and a small group of friends returned to a visitation room where a large portrait of Sgt. Hoss \u2014 seeming to smile with his big brown eyes accented by his golden yellow coat \u2014 sat next to a draped American flag. In front of that sat a small, furry squeak toy in the form of a hedgehog.\u201cThat was his baby. He loved that thing and would groom it and take care of it,\u201d said Hodges, 26. \u201cIt only felt right that it would be part of the ceremony and be cremated with him.\u201dBefore settling down into the quiet life with Hodges at his home in Castleton, Sgt. Hoss was a hero \u2014 saving countless lives while sniffing out explosives in Iraq from 2016-17, with Hodges by his side.The golden lab \u201cpicked\u201d Hodges to be his partner while they were training at Fort Campbell, at the border of Kentucky and Tennessee.\u201cMuch like with police K-9s, you go to K-9 handling school and a dog will pick his handler by showing who he\u2019s most comfortable with, who he responds to the best,\u201d Hodges said.\u201c(Sgt. Hoss) was very open to anybody, but his body language was different with me. He seemed to stay pretty alert, and whenever I would have to clean his kennel he was kind of more excited to see me than any of the other handlers.\u201dIt was a match made in heaven.After meeting and training in 2015 at Fort Campbell, Hodges and Sgt. Hoss would spend the next two years seeking out explosives in war-torn Iraq.\u201cIt was pretty incredible considering that retired K-9s for the military are not viewed as personnel, but as equipment. If a military K-9 dies overseas, they will receive an honorable service, but once that K-9 is retired they\u2019re given to a civilian or retired veteran or their handler and are considered a family dog at that point, so they don\u2019t receive any form of honors at all.\u201dHodges said he\u2019ll be forever thankful for Stillinger contacting the veterans honor guard to memorialize Sgt. Hoss.The funeral director pulled the ceremony together within hours after the beloved Labrador died unexpectedly Thursday night from an undetected tumor on his spleen that ruptured around his abdomen.While Hodges has four more dogs at home, he says none will ever replace the dog he served with in Iraq.\u201cAfter he was retired, he ended up being certified as my emotional support animal for (post-traumatic stress disorder) and depression,\u201d said the retired soldier. \u201cHe\u2019d go anywhere and everywhere with me.\u201dAt his memorial service, Hodges and his fiance shared their favorite memories of Sgt. Hoss and spoke of the tight bond the lovable lab had with Magiera.\u201cShe\u2019d go to the bathroom and he\u2019d face out and guard her. If she was in the bedroom, he was in the bedroom. If she got up and left, he\u2019d follow her,\u201d Hodges fondly recalled, but it was Hodges that Sgt. Hoss preferred to snuggle up next to at night.Nothing could ever replace the unbreakable bond between the dog and the man who served together in Iraq, where Hodges led Sgt. Hoss around on a 40-foot leash as the highly trained K-9 sniffed out danger time and time again. \u201cHe\u2019d smell it whether it was gunpowder or explosives, often hidden in a building that we couldn\u2019t see or detect without metal detection,\u201d said Hodges.\u201cHis nose replaced countless devices to find (explosives) and ensure safe passage (for soldiers). He no doubt saved many, many lives.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Handler – Combat Engineer Kyle Hodges Retired K-9 gets full military honors at memorial A 21-gun salute rang out in the parking lot of Stillinger Family Funeral Home in Greenfield on Friday, June 10, honoring a retired military K-9 that had crossed over the rainbow bridge. The Greenfield Veterans Honor Guard gathered to honor Sgt. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12426,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[48],"class_list":["post-12424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-k9memorial","tag-mwd"],"yoast_head":"\n