Charity Took Back Service Dog

Charity reclaims service dog after veteran Brandon Garrison’s lie
Stars and Stripes
By Travis J. Tritten
Published: January 29, 2016

Army Spc. Brandon Garrison, doing base security patrol while at

Forward Operating Base Jalalabad, Afghanistan, in June 2006.

COURTESY OF BRANDON GARRISON

WASHINGTON – A Kansas City military charity has reclaimed a service dog it donated to a veteran after he lied about trying to save a fellow soldier’s life in Afghanistan.

The group Food Industry Serving Heroes took the Boykin Spaniel from Brandon Garrison earlier this month after threatening legal action. A Stars and Stripes investigation in September detailed how Garrison, a former Army specialist hailed as a hero in Kansas, lied for years to Sgt. Christopher Wilson’s mother about being at her son’s side when he died on the battlefield.

“In light of everything we’ve discovered this dog never should have been given to [Garrison],” said Paul Chapa, a founder of the nonprofit group.

In 2007, Wilson was deployed to the Korengal Valley with the 10th Mountain Division and was manning a firebase when he was struck and killed by recoilless rifle fire in a Taliban attack. Garrison, 29, had not held Wilson as he died, despite the story he told the sergeant’s mother, and was instead in the main sleeping tent at the nearby Korengal Outpost, where he spent his deployment inside the wire as a vehicle parts clerk.
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