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thedrifter
07-06-08, 06:06 AM
Iraqi-dog-saves-Marine tale continues


SCOTT EYMAN; The Palm Beach Post
Last updated: July 6th, 2008 01:31 AM (PDT)

Two years ago, Lt. Col. Jay Kopelman wrote “From Baghdad with Love,” the story of how he fell in love with a puppy while serving with the Marines in Iraq. The dog had somehow gotten himself trapped in a 55-gallon barrel, but made enough noise to be heard in the middle of a firefight. A Marine named Forrest Baker risked his life to rescue the dog.

After many travails, Kopelman decided that he had to make sure that the dog survived. All this was in direct contravention of General Order 1-A, Prohibited Activities, which forbids soldiers adopting pets or mascots, more or less because pets soften people up and get in the way of the proper business of war, which is killing.

Kopelman got the dog that he named Lava out of Fallujah, then to Baghdad, where, with the collusion of NPR correspondent Anne Garrels and a slew of other people who risked their security clearances and, at times, their security, got the mutt smuggled out of Baghdad and into America.

A little book from a little publisher, “From Baghdad with Love” ended up on The New York Times best-seller list, and, if you haven’t already read it, I commend it to your attention. Why it hasn’t been made into a movie is beyond me – it even has an honest happy ending.

“From Baghdad to America” brings the story up to date, and fills us in on Kopelman’s life with Lava, and his new family in America. Retired from the Marines, newly married and with a stepchild and new baby, Kopelman still seems surprised about the hold Lava has on him. Kopelman didn’t grow up with dogs, never cared all that much about dogs, but here was this “feral mutt with a shepherd-y thing going on … a case of nerves and bravado.”

But he comes to realize that dogs affect a lot of people that way. He prints a batch of the letters he got as a result of the first book, letters from soldiers who served in World War II, Korea and Vietnam, who felt compelled to write Kopelman and tell him the story of the service dogs or mutts they worked with or just fell in love with during their own combat.

As it turns out, Lava’s life of risk isn’t quite over. The new book opens with Kopelman letting the dog off his leash, after which he is promptly clobbered by an SUV. As Kopelman writes in a fit of self-loathing, “What kind of a … saves a dog from Iraq only to let him get killed by a car in San Diego?”

Eight thousand dollars later, the dog’s fine. More or less. Which is just about the situation Kopelman is in as well, for both man and dog have continuing issues.

Kopelman was, and – on the emotional level – still is a Marine, and it’s hard for him to realize that suppressing fear, hurt and anger is not the same thing as controlling it. Iraq continues to affect him in various negative ways, including having trouble controlling his temper.

As for Lava, he goes berserk when strangers come to the door, and he’s overprotective of children (Note to Kopelman: This is fairly typical of shepherds and even shepherd mixes). Like Kopelman, Lava is irritable – loud voices can set him off, and he can be aggressive with other dogs and potentially aggressive with people, especially if he senses fear.

Oddly, this hard case quickly bonds with Kopelman’s cat.

Clearly, both parties could use some therapy, as Kopelman comes to realize. “Hey, Tony Soprano sucked it up. Maybe I can, too.” Both Kopelman and Lava enter treatment, and the dog ends up on a mild anti-depressant, which takes the edge off without rendering him passive or sleepy.

“From Baghdad to America” lacks the same punch as the first book because, by its very nature, it’s about a pair of works in progress. But Kopelman can always rouse himself to contemplate how much more Lava has given him than he has given the dog. “He took my emotion – love, caring, whatever you want to call it – and reflected it back to me, as if I were a good person. As if I deserved to be loved. Without that, I think I would have gone as crazy here as I did in Balad, or al Walid, or anywhere else I was in Iraq. …” FROM BAGHDAD TO AMERICA: Life Lessons from a Dog Named Lava


By Jay Kopelman

Skyhorse, 196 pages, $23.95

Originally published: July 6th, 2008 01:31 AM (PDT)

Ellie