The United Kingdom has awarded Lucca, a 12-year-old U.S. Marine search dog who lost one of her legs in a bomb blast in Afghanistan, with the animal equivalent of the Britain’s highest military honour in London on Tuesday.
The German Shepherd/Belgian Malinois mix received the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals’ Dickin Medal for Gallantry, considered an equivalent to the storied Victoria Cross, at a ceremony at a London military barracks.
On Lucca’s last tour of duty in Afghanistan on March 23, 2012, Lucca was part of a patrol that found an improvised explosive device (IED) after finding a cache of weapons hidden in an opium poppy field, the PDSA said.
While searching the area, a second IED detonated underneath her, burning her chest and torso.
“The explosion was huge and I immediately feared the worst for Lucca. I ran to her and saw her struggling to get up. I picked her up and ran to the shelter of a nearby tree line; applied a tourniquet to her injured leg and called the medics to collect us,” her handler, Cpl. Juan Rodriguez said in a news release. “I stayed with her constantly throughout her operation and her recovery. She had saved my life on so many occasions – I had to make sure that I was there for her when she needed me.”
But the blast forced veterinarians to amputate her front left leg.
“Thanks to the quick reaction of her handler, she was medically evacuated in a timely manner. Lucca recovered quickly at Camp Pendleton,” her owner wrote on Facebook. “In fact, she was walking 10 days after her injury.”
Lucca spent six years in the U.S. Marine Corps, including two tours of duty in Iraq and one in Afghanistan.
“Thanks to Lucca’s skills there were no human causalities during any of her patrols,” the PDSA said.
The Dickin Medal for Gallantry has been granted to animals involved in armed conflict since 1943. It’s since been granted to 30 dogs, 32 World War Two messenger pigeons, three horses and a cat.
Lucca lives with one of her former U.S. Marine handlers in California.
