Wounded dog handler heading home with best friend

Wounded dog handler heading home with best friend
I Marine Expeditionary Force
Story by Cpl. Joshua Young
Cpl. Joshua Young April 26, 2013

Jony, an eight-year-old Belgian Malinois and specialized search and explosive detection dog, hides out in the shade at Camp Pendleton, Calif., April 25, 2013. Jony, who went through a surgery the day before, is preparing to be adopted by his handler, Sgt. Brian Riddle, a military working dog handler with Headquarters and Support Company, 1st Law Enforcement Battalion.

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. - The 23-year-old sergeant’s voice breaks as he pauses to collect his thoughts on how to express his feelings for his fallen friends. The names of his comrades are engraved on his “KIA” Bracelets, which now sit on a table adorned with military memorabilia and memories of friends he’s served with.

“Every day you wake up is a blessing in itself,” said Sgt. Brian Riddle, a military working dog handler with Headquarters and Support Company, 1st Law Enforcement Battalion. “Every day I wake up is another day that they’re not going to, so I live my life as they would live theirs.”

Riddle, who served two combat deployments in Afghanistan, is currently recovering from injuries at the Hope and Care Center in Camp Pendleton, Calif. The two-time Purple Heart recipient was injured in both deployments.

He took a bullet to the chest, which deflected off of the protective plates in his flak jacket and ripped across his chin and neck on April 10, 2010. In a terrible, almost anniversary-style fashion, Riddle was hit two years later by a mortar round which severely damaged his right hip and caused shrapnel damage to his face on April 22, 2012.
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