by Air Force Social Media
This 2015 Year in Photos feature Airmen around the globe involved in activities supporting expeditionary operations and defending America. This yearly feature showcases the men and women of the Air Force.
We have selected a few of our favorites from the gallery, which you can view fully at:
Enjoy!
By Tech. Sgt. Peter Miller
440th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
Air Force Reserve Capt. Allyson Dossman played an integral role on a surgical team during a deployment to Afghanistan, but still had a lot on her plate when she returned home to Massachusetts in January 2013.
She married another Air Force Reserve officer and started making plans to move with him to Georgia. Before leaving for the South, Dossman had to complete a few more shifts at her civilian nursing job at Boston Medical Center, which maintains the busiest emergency room in New England. Her job was always challenging, but she thought she had seen the last of shrapnel wounds when she returned to America.
Then came the bombing attacks near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Patriots’ Day on April 15, 2013. Patriots’ Day is the state holiday commemorating the first battles of the Revolutionary War. Dossman was on duty at the Boston Medical Center trauma center when they began to get inundated with injured runners and spectators. Though she cared for some of the less critical patients, she recalled that week being very difficult and a joyless time for hospital staff until an employee brought in a puppy that happened to be a therapy dog in training.
“This random boxer came out of nowhere,” said Dossman. “I was like, ‘What are you doing here, buddy?’ Everybody swarmed this poor dog. The hospital received presents, baskets, thank you cards, especially from local schools. But, for me, it was that dog that made things okay.”
Dossman’s research has shown that petting a dog has been linked to reduced blood pressure, lowered heart rate and an increased sense of well-being. When she was deployed, Dossman looked forward to visits from a military working dog handler who brought his German Shepherd to the hospital after rough days. She said the visits were therapeutic and became one of the highlights of her deployment.
About a month after the attack, Dossman moved to Georgia and joined the 413th Aeromedical Staging Squadron at Robins Air Force Base, Ga., as a traditional Air Force reservist. She also found fulltime employment with an organization that offers psychological health services to reservists. The Psychological Health Advocacy Program is marketed through the Air Force Reserve Yellow Ribbon Program, which promotes the well-being of reservists and their families by connecting them with resources before and after deployments at a series of training weekends around the country. The program began in 2008 following a congressional mandate for the Department of Defense to assist reservists and National Guard members in maintaining resiliency as they transition between their military and civilian roles.
PHOTO: Capt. Allyson Dossman poses with Basco, a military working dog, at Forward Operating Base Lagman, Afghanistan, during her deployment to the Miranda Trauma Center Forward Surgical Team in 2013. (Courtesy photo)
by Tech. Sgt. Jeremy Larlee
436th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
There are some experiences in life that are just miserable. Having to say goodbye to our family dog of 10 years provided me with one of my worst days.
Cheyenne was a rat terrier mix we adopted from a pound when she was about 2-years-old. My wife and I often wondered how she even got to a pound in the first place. She was a well-behaved dog that was always affectionate. We often thought she may have been abused, because she was always jumpy and disliked quick movements and people coming up quietly behind her. She never once bit us or our children. She was equally comfortable running around in the backyard or snoozing in her bed during a family movie marathon. In short, she was the perfect pet.
She had been slowing down recently, but we just thought it was because she was getting old. The end arrived much too quickly. One day I received a frantic text from my wife that there something wrong with our dog. The scene I came home to wasn’t good. Cheyenne was lying on her side and shivering like she was cold. She did not even have the energy to walk. I didn’t even think, I scooped her up and drove her to the veterinarian’s office as quickly as I could.
When I got to the office, they found that her body temperature was 9 degrees cooler than it should be. After warming her up, they took her in for X-rays.
After what seemed like an eternity, the veterinarian technician returned. I could read from her face that she did not have good news. Cheyenne had a huge tumor on her spleen and it was causing her to bleed internally. They could attempt to remove it by surgery, but it would cause our dog a lot of pain and there was no guarantee she would live through the procedure.
The technician proceeded to talk to me about Cheyenne’s quality of life versus quantity of life. I was in shock, but I could read the writing on the wall. It would be unfair and selfish to try to extend my pet’s life a few months because I didn’t want to lose her yet. A slap in the face to the many years of companionship and love she had given us over the years. The logical part of me understood this and made my decision to euthanize her quickly. The emotional part of me was crumbling, and I felt like I was giving up on my friend.
We hastily gathered my family at the veterinarian’s office and said a tearful goodbye to our faithful pet. A trooper to the end, she refused to lie down and received our hugs, kisses and pets standing up with her tail wagging. Doing this must have taxed her greatly. The technician inserted some liquid into the dog’s IV, and in what seemed like seconds, she was gone.
Pet ownership is a weird part of the human experience. At the most you can expect about 15 years with a dog or a cat. Barring you suffering an accident or sudden illness, you are going to outlive your pet. But even with how painful the last few weeks have been for me, the happy times with Cheyenne more than balance out the ledger.
Reflecting back on her life it is hard not to think about how intertwined she became with a good portion of my career.
During her ten years with my family, Cheyenne traveled to four bases. A southern dog her whole life, at 8-years-old she was forced to spend three years in Alaska. I have to admit it was kind of funny watching her try to go to the bathroom in the snow for the first time. The shock of the cold snow caused her to jump into the air out of her squat and glare at the ground like it had just bit her. She quickly adapted, like she did with every challenge. She was probably the happiest member of the family to be leaving Alaska at the end of my assignment there.
While video conferencing with the family during deployments, she could always be seen walking around in the background and would sometimes perk up if she heard my voice from the computer speakers at home. She was always the most hilarious part of a homecoming. She would hop wildly around on her back legs and about take me out at the knees in her excitement.
As military members, we perform a difficult job in a stressful environment. Family and animals provide the anchor that keeps us connected to a more normal style of life. A hug, smile or a wag of the tail is a priceless gift when you come home from an especially bad day.
Cheyenne did her job as an anchor perfectly, and she will be missed.
PHOTO: Cheyenne, a rat terrier mix, brought many happy years to the Larlee Family. (Courtesy photo)
By Airman 1st Class Krystal Tomlin
Air Force Public Affairs Agency
Happy Friday everybody! Here is Week in Photos. Hope you enjoy!
Photo: A military working dog takes down a “perpetrator” during an Operation Deployment demonstration at Incirlik Air Base, Turkey, Aug. 3, 2012. The event gave almost 200 children and spouses of service members the opportunity to learn about the deployment process. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Clayton Lenhardt)
Photo: Rambo, a patrol and explosive detector dog assigned to the 447th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron (ESFS), attacks U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Stephen Hanks, a 447th ESFS military working dog handler, while training on an obstacle course in Baghdad, Iraq, Dec. 9, 2011. For the past six months, Rambo and Hanks have supported Operation New Dawn by providing explosive and psychological deterrence. Hanks is deployed from Patrick Air Force Base (AFB), Fla., and is originally from Amherst, Mass. Rambo is deployed from Kirtland AFB, N.M. (U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Cecilio Ricardo)
